Re-awakening 'silent' metabolic pathways in fungi has revealed a new range of natural products to US scientists. Fungi produce a wide variety of natural products, including toxins - for example, the amanitins, primarily responsible for the toxicity of the death cap fungus - and life-saving drugs such as penicillin. As a result, the genetics of fungi have generated much interest in recent years. Now, Robert Cichewicz and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, have shown that metabolic pathways that are normally 'silent' can be re-activated to make new compounds.rnMany fungi have a wealth of genes encoding for far more natural products than they actually produce, says Cichewicz.
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