Not only animals and plants compete for habitats: Microorganisms also occupy the same habitats and fight for food. This is also the case for the bacterium Streptomyces rapamycinicus and the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. If they have contact, the bacterium stimulates the fungus to produce fumigermin. This newly discovered natural substance inhibits the germination of the bacterium's spores. In this way, the fungus gets rid of its unwelcome food competitor. ILRS doctoral researcher Marie Stroe and her colleagues from the Leibniz-HKI and the CRC ChemBioSys recently discovered this new active compound.

You can access the press release (in German) here.

Original publication:

Stroe MC, Netzker T, Scherlach K, Krüger T, Hertweck C, Valiante V, Brakhage AA (2020) Targeted induction of a silent fungal gene cluster encoding the bacteria-specific germination inhibitor fumigermin. eLife 9, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.52541.