Progress in bioorganic chemistry on allosamidin and aflastatin, microbial metabolites that control metabolism

Abstract

Allosamidin and aflastatin A are metabolites of Streptomyces. Allosamidin was isolated as the first chitinase inhibitor and used as a biological probe to investigate chitinase roles in not only chitin-containing organisms but also chitin-non-containing organisms. Allosamidin showed anti- asthmatic activity toward mammals. Furthermore, it showed promoting activity for chitinase production of Streptomyces, which suggested that allosamidin was a signal molecule controlling chitin metabolism and bacterial flora in soils. Aflastatin A was isolated by the first screening search for aflatoxin production inhibitors produced by microbes. Absolute structures of aflastatin A and its colleague, blasticidin A, were determined and their modes of action for inhibiting aflatoxin production were shown to inhibit protein synthesis by inhibiting a protein phosphatase. Based on studies on aflastatin A, many aflatoxin production inhibitors were found from other sources such as microbial metabolites and plant constituents.