Novel fungal metabolites may fight germs

In 2021, chemist Itzel Rubí Yeverino hiked up to the El Caracol waterfall deep in the Sierra Madre Oriental, the mountain system that runs through eastern Mexico. In a small pond near the waterfall, she found a fungus growing on a submerged piece of wood. New findings reveal that molecules produced by this fungus showed antimicrobial activity against Acinetobacter baumannii , an antibiotic-resistant pathogen responsible for some hospital-acquired infections. These findings, described in a paper recently published in ACS Omega (DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c10990 ), are part of the efforts of a research group led by Mario Figueroa , a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He and his colleagues are focusing on the bioprospecting of microorganisms found in Mexico’s ecosystems for the development of new medicines or agrochemicals. “Bioprospecting is the search for products from nature that can be used primarily for medical