Abstract
Specific inhibitors for mycotoxin production are useful not only to prevent mycotoxin contamination in foods and feeds without incurring rapid spread of resistant strains, but also to know the regulatory mechanism of mycotoxin production by fungi at the molecular level. We have been studying some aflatoxin production inhibitors, aflastatins A and B, and blasticidin A, this past decade. All these compounds are metabolites of Streptomyces and have similar unique structures. In this proceedings, we describe our recent work on the stereochemistry of these compounds and a fluorescence probe of blasticidin A to investigate its localization in the fungal hypha. Furthermore, we present detailed biological activity of dioctatin A as a strong inhibitor of aflatoxin production by Aspergillus parasiticus. Our results indicate that dioctatin A has pleiotropic effects on regulatory mechanisms of fungal secondary metabolite production and differentiation, which lead to inhibition of aflatoxin production.
