Bioactive Metabolites Produced by Fungi Present in Antarctic, Arctic, and Alpine Ecosystems

Hostile and harsh environments to most organisms represent more than 80% of the earth’s surface. These extreme environments shelter interesting microbial communities that can live in habitats that combine polyextremophile conditions, including cold, hot, dry, oligotrophic conditions, and high solar radiation over the year. Microorganisms inhabiting extreme ecosystems can have specialized metabolism to adapt to physicochemical conditions different from those that most organisms can withstand. These microbes are called extremophiles. For this reason, extreme regions represent a natural laboratory to study different aspects of its resident extremophile microorganisms, including fungi able to produce bioactive compounds. In this context, extremophile fungi present in environments such as Antarctica, the Artic, and alpine regions such as the Alps may have unusual biochemical metabolic pathways that produce secondary metabolites that can be used as possible prototypes for pharmaceuticals in medicine and pesticides for use in agriculture, as well as for industrial uses. Recent studies with these fungal extremophiles have searched for new compounds with biological functions such as cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, lipid-lowering ability, antioxidant, nematocidal, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, antitumor, herbicidal, and antifouling activities. This review summarizes recent literature on extremophile fungi that are sources of metabolites for use in medicine, agriculture, and industry.