Cyclohumulanoid Sesquiterpenes Induced by the Noncompetitive Coculture of Phellinus orientoasiaticus and Xylodon flaviporus .

Microbial cocultivation has been applied as a strategy to induce the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites. However, most previous studies have focused on competitive interactions between test strains. During our LC-MS-based chemical screening of randomized cocultures of Basidiomycetous fungi, we discovered that the coculture of Phellinus orientoasiaticus (Hymenochaetaceae) and Xylodon flaviporus (Schizoporaceae) induces multiple metabolites, although they did not show any competitive morphology. Targeted isolation yielded three new sesquiterpenes ( 1 - 3 ) along with five known analogues ( 4 - 8 ). The structures of the isolates were determined by MS and NMR experiments as well as electronic circular dichroism analysis. LC-MS analysis suggested that cyclohumulanoids of illudane-, sterpurane-, and tremulane-type scaffolds ( 1 - 7 ) were produced by P. orientoasiaticus , whereas a drimane-type sesquiterpene ( 8 ) was produced by X. flaviporus . None of the isolates exhibited antifungal activity or cytotoxicity, and compounds 1 - 7 exhibited NO production of LPS-treated RAW276.4 cells in a range of 15.9% to 38.0% at 100 μM.