Polyketides from fungi

Abstract

Fungal secondary metabolites present a huge scaffold of chemical entities. Many of these substances have played important roles not only in nature, but also in human life, as lead compounds of immunosuppressants, antibiotics, anticancer drugs, and cholesterol-lowering medicines, along with other industrial uses. Among fungal natural products, polyketides represent a large group of metabolites defined by their biosynthetic origin, highly programmed by iterative multifunctional proteins. This chapter brings some novelties, especially from 2020 onward, focusing on the main classes of polyketides, new isolated compounds, innovative strategies for synthetic and biosynthetic production. Furthermore, we discuss the current and future biological applications of fungal polyketides in different fields.