The kingdom of fungi comprises a large and highly diverse group of organisms that thrive in diverse natural environments. One factor to successfully confront challenges in their natural habitats is the capability to synthesize defensive secondary metabolites. The genetic potential for the production of secondary metabolites in fungi is high and numerous potential secondary metabolite gene clusters have been identified in sequenced fungal genomes. Their production may well be regulated by specific ecological conditions, such as the presence of microbial competitors, symbionts or predators. Here we exemplarily summarize our current knowledge on identified secondary metabolites of the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and their defensive function against (microbial) predators.

中文翻译：

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天然产物在丝状真菌病原体烟曲霉的捕食防御中的作用

真菌王国由一个庞大且高度多样化的生物体组成，它们在不同的自然环境中繁衍生息。成功应对自然栖息地挑战的因素之一是合成防御性次生代谢产物的能力。真菌中产生次生代谢物的遗传潜力很高，并且已在测序的真菌基因组中鉴定出许多潜在的次生代谢物基因簇。它们的生产很可能受到特定生态条件的调节，例如微生物竞争者、共生体或捕食者的存在。在这里，我们示例性地总结了我们目前对病原真菌烟曲霉次生代谢物及其针对（微生物）捕食者的防御功能的了解。