Yeast-secreted compounds with antifungal activity-screening, genetic parts, biosynthetic pathways, and regulation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Valero, Alicia Macia
Lu, Min
Billerbeck, Sonja
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Awareness is rising that antifungal resistance poses a threat to agriculture, food safety, biodiversity, and human health. There is a limited number of antifungals available and resistance to all of them has been reported. The development of novel antifungals is complex, as eukaryotic organisms have very few selective drug targets that distinguish them from the infected plant, human, or animal host. Yeasts produce different compounds with antifungal activity, ranging from small molecules such as iron chelators, biosurfactants, and volatile organic compounds, to proteins like myocins and hydrolytic enzymes. Those could be further developed into new antifungals; however, there is a scarcity of fundamental knowledge on their chemical structure, their mode of action, their biosynthesis, and its regulation. Given the opportunities that yeasts display as industrial hosts and the synthetic biology tools available, a deeper understanding of these molecular aspects could enable a wider range of yet underexplored applications for the producer yeast and their molecules, from biocontrol to food preservation and human health. To facilitate this exploration, we here consolidate current molecular knowledge on these compounds, suggest readily available methodologies to screen for different molecule classes in natural yeast isolates and discuss how they could be further studied and engineered towards their eventual application.
Editor(s)
Celińska, Ewelina
Date Issued
2025-11-19
Date Acceptance
2025-11-16
Citation
FEMS Yeast Research, 2025, 25
ISSN
1567-1356
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal / Book Title
FEMS Yeast Research
Volume
25
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41258858
PII: 8327605
Subjects
activity screening
biocontrol
BIOCONTROL ABILITY
biosurfactants
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
BOTRYTIS-CINEREA
CELL-WALL SYNTHESIS
HM-1 KILLER TOXIN
hydrolytic enzymes
IN-VITRO ACTIVITY
iron siderophores
KLUYVEROMYCES-LACTIS
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
METSCHNIKOWIA-PULCHERRIMA
microbial antagonism
Microbiology
mycocins
Mycology
RHODOTORULIC ACID
SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE
Science & Technology
volatile organic compounds
VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
foaf068
Date Publish Online
2025-11-19