New bioactive secondary metabolites from fungi: 2024
- Author: mycolabadmin
- 7/11/2025
- View Source
Summary
Scientists discovered 907 new compounds from fungi in 2024, with most being terpenoids and polyketides that show promise as medicines. These fungal compounds demonstrate strong activity against bacteria, fungi, and inflammation, with some showing potential against cancer and diabetes. The research uses advanced techniques like genome mining and metabolomics to find these compounds more efficiently. This accelerating discovery rate suggests fungi could be a major source for developing new drugs to treat various diseases.
Background
Fungi have been recognized as prolific sources of structurally unique secondary metabolites with promising pharmacological properties. This review catalogs 907 novel fungal-derived compounds identified in 2024, representing a 64.01% increase from 553 compounds reported in 2023.
Objective
To comprehensively summarize the chemical architectures, bioactivities, and research strategies for new fungal-derived natural products published in 2024. The review systematically analyzes structures, bioactivities, fungal strain sources, and research strategies across multiple dimensions.
Results
Terpenoids showed 153.10% growth from 2023, becoming the most abundant class at 40%. Polyketides comprised 31%, with compounds like penidaleodiolides and gymnoasins showing potent bioactivities. Bioactivity studies predominantly focused on antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities with both cellular and animal models.
Conclusion
The review demonstrates accelerating discovery of fungal-derived secondary metabolites with cutting-edge methodologies including metabolomics-guided discovery and biosynthetic pathway engineering. Fungal natural products show transformative potential in drug discovery, providing strategic guidance for future chemical diversity exploration.
- Published in:Mycology,
- Study Type:Review,
- Source: 40937136