Metabolomics and image interpolation reveal secondary metabolite regulation in co-cultures of endophytic Penicillium cataractarum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

Co-culturing Penicillium cataractarum 5IP2F4 with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in triplicate selectively increases dipeptides and fumisoquin A derivatives while decreasing fungisporin A.

• Why it matters: Microbial competition can activate cryptic secondary metabolism, but the specific chemical shifts and their spatial organization during fungal-fungal interactions with a phytopathogen remain unclear.
• What they did: LC-DAD-MS/MS of 67 metabolomic features from monocultures and co-cultures was analyzed with PCA and GNPS molecular networking; annotated ion intensities were interpolated onto processed culture images.
• The result: PCA separated control from co-culture samples, and co-culture increased oxo-prolyl-proline (2), N,N-dimethyl[N'-(1-methylethyl)glycyl]-prolinamide (3), asparaginyl-fumisoquin A (4), fumisoquin A (6), prolyl-hydroxyproline (7), oxo-prolyl-leucine (8), and acetyl asparaginyl-fumisoquin A (9), while fungisporin A (10) decreased.

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