Chemical constituents of the new endophytic fungus Mycosphaerella sp. nov. and their anti-parasitic activity

Chemical investigation of a new endophytic fungus, Mycosphaerella sp. nov. strain F2140, associated with the foliage of the plant Psychotria horizontalis (Rubiaceae) in Panama, resulted in the isolation of cercosporin (1) and a new cercosporin analog (3) as the major components. The structures of minor compounds in the extract were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis as 2-(2-butyl)-6-ethyl-3-hydroxy-6-methylcyclohex-2-ene-1,5-dione (4), 3-(2-butyl)-6-ethyl-5-hydroxy-2-methoxy-6-methyl-cyclohex-2-enone (5), and an isomer of 5 (6). To study the influence of the hydroxy groups on the anti-parasitic activity of cercosporin, compound 1 was acetylated to obtain derivative 2. The isolated compounds 1- 6 were tested in vitro to determine their anti-parasitic activity against the causal agents of malaria (Plasmodium falciparum), leishmaniasis (Leishmania donovani), and Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi). Cytotoxicity and potential anticancer activity of these compounds were evaluated using mammalian Vero cells and MCF7 cancer cell lines, respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 displayed high potency against L. donovani (IC50 0.46 and 0.64 microM), T. cruzi (IC50 1.08 and 0.78 microM), P. falciparum (IC50 1.03 and 2.99 microM), and MCF7 cancer cell lines (IC50 4.68 and 3.56 microM). Compounds 3-6 were not active in these assays at a concentration of 10 microg/mL.     

Isolation of swinholide A and related glycosylated derivatives from two field collections of marine cyanobacteria

[structure: see text] Chemical investigation of two field collections of marine cyanobacteria has led to the discovery of two new cytotoxic natural products, ankaraholides A (2) and B (3), along with the known compound swinholide A (1). Since swinholide-type compounds were previously localized to the heterotrophic bacteria of sponges, these findings raise intriguing questions about their true metabolic source.     

Complex dynamic behavior of fluctuating smectic- A films as studied by scattering with coherent X-rays

Coherent dynamic x-ray scattering has been used to study the thermally excited layer fluctuations in freely suspended smectic films of the compound 4O.8. Using 8-keV x rays and films with a thickness around 0.3 &mgr;m we resolve relaxation times down to a few &mgr;s. A combination of damped and oscillatory behavior is observed for the layer undulations, which can be attributed to inertial effects. These are due to the surface contribution to the free energy which cannot be disregarded for thin films.     

The chemical ecology of cyanobacteria

This review covers the literature on the chemically mediated ecology of cyanobacteria, including ultraviolet radiation protection, feeding-deterrence, allelopathy, resource competition, and signalling. To highlight the chemical and biological diversity of this group of organisms, evolutionary and chemotaxonomical studies are presented. Several technologically relevant aspects of cyanobacterial chemical ecology are also discussed.     

The genomisotopic approach: a systematic method to isolate products of orphan biosynthetic gene clusters

With the increasing number of genomes sequenced and available in the public domain, a large number of orphan gene clusters, for which the encoded natural product is unknown, have been identified. These orphan gene clusters represent a tremendous source of novel and possibly bioactive compounds. Here, we describe a "genomisotopic approach," which employs a combination of genomic sequence analysis and isotope-guided fractionation to identify unknown compounds synthesized from orphan gene clusters containing nonribosomal peptide synthetases. Analysis of the Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 genome led to the identification of an orphan gene cluster predicted to code for the biosynthesis of a lipopeptide natural product. Application of the genomisotopic approach to isolate the product of this gene cluster resulted in the discovery of orfamide A, founder of a group of bioactive cyclic lipopeptides.     

Towards singularity- and ghost-free theories of gravity

We present the most general covariant ghost-free gravitational action in a Minkowski vacuum. Apart from the much studied f(R) models, this includes a large class of nonlocal actions with improved UV behavior, which nevertheless recover Einstein's general relativity in the IR.     

Antifungal Depsidone Metabolites from Cordyceps dipterigena, an Endophytic Fungus Antagonistic to the Phytopathogen Gibberella fujikuroi

Among thirty four endophytic fungal strains screened for in vitro antagonism, the endophytic fungus Cordyceps dipterigena was found to strongly inhibit mycelial growth of the plant pathogenic fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. Two new depsidone metabolites, cordycepsidone A (1) and cordycepsidone B (2), were isolated from the PDA culture extract of C. dipterigena and identified as being responsible for the antifungal activity. Elucidation of their chemical structures was carried out using 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy in combination with IR and MS spectroscopic data. Cordycepsidone A displayed strong and dose-dependent antifungal activity against the plant pathogenic fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. The isolates were inactive in bioassays for malaria (Plasmodium falciparum), leishmaniasis (Leishmania donovani), Chagas's disease (Trypanosoma cruzi), and cytotoxicity at 10 μg/mL. The compounds were also found to be inactive against several bacterial strains at 50 μg/mL.     

Asymptotically safe gravitons in electroweak precision physics

Asymptotic safety offers a field theory based UV completion to gravity. For low Planck scales, gravitational effects on low-energy precision observables cannot be neglected. We compute the contribution to the ρ parameter from asymptotically safe gravitons and find that in contrast to effective theory, constraints on models with more than three extra dimensions are significantly weakened. The relative size of the trans-Planckian contribution increases proportional to the number of extra dimensions.