Assessing the effects of adsorptive polymeric resin additions on fungal secondary metabolite chemical diversity

Adsorptive polymeric resins have been occasionally described to enhance the production of specific secondary metabolites (SMs) of interest. Methods that induce the expression of new chemical entities in fungal fermentations may lead to the discovery of new bioactive molecules and should be addressed as possible tools for the creation of new microbial chemical libraries for drug lead discovery. Herein, we apply both biological activity and chemical evaluations to assess the use of adsorptive resins as tools for the differential expression of SMs in fungal strain sets. Data automation approaches were applied to ultra high performance liquid chromatography analysis of extracts to evaluate the general influence in generating new chemical entities or in changing the production of specific SMs by fungi grown in the presence of resins and different base media.