Plant Phenolics and Phenolic-Enriched Extracts as Antimicrobial Agents against Food-Contaminating Microorganisms.

Phenolic compounds and extracts with bioactive properties can be obtained from many kinds of plant materials. These natural substances have gained attention in the food research as possible growth inhibitors of foodborne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria. Many phenolic-enriched plant extracts and individual phenolics have promising anti-quorum sensing potential as well and can suppress the biofilm formation and toxin production of food-related pathogens. Various studies have shown that plant phenolics can substitute or support the activity of synthetic food preservatives and disinfectants, which, by the way, can provoke serious concerns in consumers. In this review, we will provide a brief insight into the bioactive properties, i.e., the antimicrobial, anti-quorum sensing, anti-biofilm and anti-enterotoxin activities, of plant phenolic extracts and compounds, with special attention to pathogen microorganisms that have food relation. Carbohydrase aided applications to improve the antimicrobial properties of phenolic extracts are also discussed.

Host metabolite producing endophytic fungi isolated from Hypericum perforatum.

In the present study, endophytic fungi have been isolated from various parts of the medicinal herb Hypericum perforatum (St. John's Wort), which is known as a source of medically important metabolites. The isolated strains were cultured in liquid media and their ability to synthesize hypericin, the secondary metabolite of the host and its suspected precursor, emodin was tested analyzing the extracts of the fermentation broth and the mycelia. The HPLC-UV analysis of the chloroform/methanol extracts of the mycelia revealed that three isolates were able to produce emodin (SZMC 23771, 19.9 ng/mg; SZMC 23772, 20.8 ng/mg; SZMC 23769, 427.9 ng/mg) and one of them also could synthesize hypericin (SZMC 23769, 320.4 ng/mg). These results were also confirmed via UHPLC-HRMS technique both in full scan and MS/MS mode. The strains producing only emodin belong to the section Alternata of the genus Alternaria, while the isolate producing both metabolites was identified as Epicoccum nigrum. The mycelial extracts of E. nigrum and the Alternaria sp. SZMC 23772 showed higher inhibitory activities in the antimicrobial tests against the six selected bacteria compared to the hypericin and emodin standards in the applied concentration (100 µg/mL), while in case of the Alternaria sp. SZMC 23771 lower inhibition activities were observed on Staphylococcus aureus and Streptomyces albus than the pure compounds.

Gene fusions for the directed modification of the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in Mucor circinelloides.

Several fungal species, particularly some included in the Mucorales, have been used to develop fermentation processes for the production of ß-carotene. Oxygenated derivatives of ß-carotene are more valuable products, and the preference by the market of carotenoids from biological sources has increased the research in different carotenoid-producing organisms. We currently use Mucor circinelloides as a model organism to develop strains able to produce new, more valuable, and with an increased content of carotenoids. In this chapter we describe part of our efforts to construct active gene fusions which could advance in the diversification of carotenoid production by this fungus. The main carotenoid accumulated by M. circinelloides is ß-carotene, although it has some hydroxylase activity and produces low amounts of zeaxanthin. Two enzymatic activities are required for the production of astaxanthin from ß-carotene: a hydroxylase and a ketolase. We used the ctrW gene of Paracoccus sp. N81106, encoding a bacterial ß-carotene ketolase, to construct gene fusions with two fungal genes essential for the modification of the pathway in M. circinelloides. First we fused it to the carRP gene of M. circinelloides, which is responsible for the phytoene synthase and lycopene cyclase activities in this fungus. The expected activity of this fusion gene would be the accumulation by M. circinelloides of canthaxanthin and probably some astaxanthin. A second construction was the fusion of the crtW gene of Paracoccus sp. to the crtS gene of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, responsible for the synthesis of astaxanthin from ß-carotene in this fungus, but which was shown to have only hydroxylase activity in M. circinelloides. The expected result in M. circinelloides transformants was the accumulation of astaxanthin. Here we describe a detailed and empirically tested protocol for the construction of these gene fusions.