Fungi produce a vast variety of bio-active secondary metabolites. One group of the metabolites consists of cyclic peptides and depsipeptides, which are often elaborated as families of closely related molecules. The biological activities of these molecules is as varied as their structures, though for convenience, we refer to them as mycotoxins. Because members of a family vary by minor structural modifications, they are ideal subjects for the study of the effect of side chain modification on peptide backbone conformation and, potentially, for the assignment of structure/function relationships. X-ray crystallography will be used in a systematic analysis of the structures and conformations of known peptide and depsipeptide mycotoxins, and as a primary analytical tool for the determination of the structures, absolute stereochemistry, and conformations of novel mycotoxins.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
20
Fiscal Year
1991
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
San Juan
State
PR
Country
United States
Zip Code
00931
Ramírez-Camejo, Luis A; Maldonado-Morales, Génesis; Bayman, Paul (2017) Differential Microbial Diversity in Drosophila melanogaster: Are Fruit Flies Potential Vectors of Opportunistic Pathogens? Int J Microbiol 2017:8526385
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Huang, Qing; Quiñones, Edwin (2016) A spectroscopic method to determine the activity of the restriction endonuclease EcoRV that involves a single reaction. Anal Biochem 497:103-5
Mège, Pascal; Schizas, Nikolaos V; Reyes, Joselyd García et al. (2015) Genetic seascape of the threatened Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, on the Puerto Rico Shelf. Mar Ecol (Berl) 36:195-209
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Galindo-Cardona, Alberto; Acevedo-Gonzalez, Jenny P; Rivera-Marchand, Bert et al. (2013) Genetic structure of the gentle Africanized honey bee population (gAHB) in Puerto Rico. BMC Genet 14:65
Santiago-Rodriguez, Tasha M; Rivera, Jessica I; Coradin, Mariel et al. (2013) Antibiotic-resistance and virulence genes in Enterococcus isolated from tropical recreational waters. J Water Health 11:387-96
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