Bioactive Compounds Produced by Antarctic Filamentous Fungi

Abstract

Antarctica is one of the most unexplored environments on the Earth. This continent is permanently subjected to very low temperatures and other extreme conditions. However, despite these harsh environmental conditions, many species of filamentous fungi inhabit Antarctica. These fungi would have developed different strategies to survive in this polar region, including specific genetic and metabolic mechanisms to produce new secondary metabolites, which would be a potential source of new pharmaceutical molecules. To date, several studies have showed that chemical extracts obtained from fungi isolated in Antarctica have promising biological activities, including antimicrobial, antiviral, and antiparasitic activities, among others. In addition, several chemical compounds obtained from Antarctic fungi show new and unusual structural features. In this chapter, we summarize the studies about biological activities of extracts obtained from filamentous fungi isolated in different Antarctic environments. In addition, we have performed an inventory of all the new chemical compounds obtained so far from filamentous fungi isolated in Antarctica. Altogether, these studies highlight the importance of natural products from Antarctic filamentous fungi as source of novel bioactive compounds.