Biochemical Studies

Fungicidal Activity of Cellobiose Lipids from Culture Broth of Yeast Cryptococcus humicola and Pseudozyma fusiformata

E. V. Kulakovskaya1#, T. V. Kulakovskaya1, V. I. Golubev1, A. S. Shashkov2, A. A. Grachev2 and N. E. Nifantiev2

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1Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Nauki 5, Pushchino, 142290, Russia;
2Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Leninskii pr. 47, Moscow, 119992, Russia

Received: August 10, 2006; in final form: August 12, 2006

Abstract. Cellobiose lipids of yeast fungi Cryptococcus huminola and Pseudozyma fusiformata have similar fungicidal activities against different yeast, including pathogenic Cryptococcus and Candida species. Basidiomycetic yeast reveals maximum sensitivity to these preparations; e.g., cells of cryptococcus Filobasidiella neoformans almost completely die after 30-min incubation in a glycolipid solution at a concentration of 0.02 mg/ml. The same effect toward ascomycetous yeast, including pathogenic Candida species, is achieved only at five to eight times higher concentrations of glycolipids. The cellobiose lipid from P. fusiformata, which, unlike glycolipid from Cr. humicola, has hydroxycaproic acid residue as O-subtituent of cellobiose and additional 15-hydroxy group in aglycone, inhibits the growth of the studied mycelial fungi more efficiently than the cellobiose lipid from Cr. humicola.

Key words: candidiasiscellobiose lipids, cryptococcosis, Cryptococcus humicola, fungi, fungicides, Pseudozyma fusiformata, yeast

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry 2007, 33 (1): 156-160