Enhancing Chemical Diversity of Fungal Secondary Metabolite by OSMAC Strategy

Fungal secondary metabolites (SMs) with therapeutic potential have played and continue to play an important role in new drug discovery. These substances are biosynthetically formed through a series of sequential reactions catalyzed by SM biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC)-encoded enzymes. However, most of these BGCs are silent or expressed in low level under conventional cultivation and fermentation conditions. It frequently results in the rediscovery of the same metabolites from various strains, and the speed of discovery of novel fungal SM is slowing down. In order to alleviate this challenge, one strain many compounds (OSMAC) strategy has become the most effective and simple approach to awaken these cryptic BGCs. A great number of successful examples using this strategy to enhance chemical diversity of fungal SM are comprehensively summarized in this chapter.