Curvularia lunata
Curvularia lunata (Wakker) Boedijn, Bull. Jard. bot. Buitenz, 3 Sér. 13(1): 127 (1933).
≡ Acrothecium lunatum Wakker, in Wakker & Went, De Ziektan van het Suikerriet op Java: 196 (1898).
Index Fungorum number: IF 269889; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00508, Fig. 1
Description: see Seifert et al. (2011); Manamgoda et al. (2012).
Material examined: see Seifert et al. (2011); Manamgoda et al. (2012).
Fig 1. Curvularia lunata (MFLU 10-0555). a Appearance of fungus on host substrate. b–g Conidiophores with conidia. Scale bars: b–g = 10 μm.
Importance and distribution
Species of Curvularia are mainly fungal plant pathogens, for example, Curvularia lunata is the causal agent of the leaf blight disease in sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) (Srivastava et al. 2020).
Industrial relevance and applications
Curvularia can be exploited for pharmaceutical applications. Cur l 3 is a major allergen of Curvularia lunata that has promising immunotherapeutic properties (Sharma et al. 2011). O-demethylated-zeaenol and zeaenol reported from Curvularia are promising biocontrol agent in agricultural industry (Yin et al. 2018). Curvularia sp. also produce metabolites that act as motility inhibitors against Phytophthora capsici zoospores (Mondol et al. 2017).
Quarantine significance
Curvularia are both saprobic and pathogenic. For example, C. oryzae infects rice grains and causes fruit rot in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) (de Luna et al. 2002). Lopes and Jobim (1998) also reported dermatomycosis of the toe web caused by C. lunata. C. lunata was also reported to cause subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis in a renal transplant patient (Vásquez-del-Mercado et al. 2013).
Biochemical importance of the genus, chemical diversity or applications
Curvularia produces wide range of compounds. Xue et al. (2013) reported two pentanorlanostane metabolites from C. borreriae in soil. Meepagala et al. (2016) reported Curvularin and Dehydrocurvularin as phytotoxic constituents from C. intermedia infecting Pandanus amaryllifolius. César et al. (2016) reported Brefeldin-A, an antiproliferative metabolite from C. trifolii in Mexico. Nischitha et al. (2020) reported the antibacterial activity of ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of endophytic C. tsudae in Cynodon dactylon. Polli et al. (2021) reported secondary metabolites from Curvularia sp. (G6-32) against Aedes aegypti larvae. O-demethylated-zeaenol, zeaenol, adenosine and ergosta-5,7,22-trien-3b-ol were isolated from C. crepinii (Yin et al. 2018). Tawfike et al. (2018) found dipeptide N-acetylphenylalanyl-L-phenylalanine, N-acetylphenylalanine and tripeptide N-acetylphenylalanyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-leucine from Curvularia sp. O-demethylated-zeaenol has good phytotoxic activity against Echinochloa crusgalli and antifungal activity against Valsa mali. Kaaniche et al. (2019) reported three bioactive compounds namely 2'-deoxyribolactone, hexylitaconic acid and ergosterol.
There are 208 Curvularia epithets in Index Fungorum (2022), but numerous species have been transferred to Bipolaris, Brachysporium, Cochliobolus, Dendryphion, Drechslera, Endophragmiella, Exserohilum and Nakataea. Curvularia has an extremely wide host range. Curvularia has cosmopolitan distribution.
References
de Luna LZ, Watson AK, Paulitz TC. 2002– Reaction of rice (Oryza sativa) cultivars to penetration and infection by Curvularia tuberculata and C. oryzae. Plant Disease 86, 470–476.
Espinoza C, Couttolenc A, Fernández J, Norte M et al. 2016 – Brefeldin-A: an Antiproliferative Metabolite of the Fungus Curvularia trifolii Collected from the Veracruz Coral Reef System, Mexico. Journal of the Mexican Chemical Society 60, 79–82.
Kaaniche F, Hamed A, Abdel-Razek AS, Wibberg D et al. 2019 – Bioactive secondary metabolites from new endophytic fungus Curvularia. sp isolated from Rauwolfia macrophylla. PloS one 14, e0217627.
Lopes J, Jobim N. 1998 – Dermatomycosis of the toe web caused by Curvularia lunata. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo 40, 327–328.
Manamgoda DS, Cai L, McKenzie EHC, Crous PW et al. 2012 – A phylogenetic and taxonomic re-evaluation of the Bipolaris - Cochliobolus - Curvularia Complex. Fungal Diversity 56, 131–144.
Meepagala KM, Johnson RD, Duke SO. 2016 – Curvularin and Dehydrocurvularin as Phytotoxic Constituents from Curvularia intermedia Infecting Pandanus amaryllifolius. Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment 5, 12–22.
Mondol M, Farthouse J, Islam T, Schueffler A, Laatsch H. 2017 – Metabolites from the Endophytic Fungus Curvularia sp. M12 Act as Motility Inhibitors against Phytophthora capsici Zoospores. Journal of Natural Products 80, 347–355.
Nischitha R, Vasanthkumari MM, Kumaraswamy BE, Shivanna MB. 2020 – Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and chemical profiling of Curvularia tsudae endophytic in Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. 3 Biotechnology 10, 300.
Polli AD, Ribeiro MADS, Garcia A, Polonio JC et al. 2021– Secondary metabolites of Curvularia sp. G6-32, an endophyte of Sapindus saponaria, with antioxidant and anticholinesterasic properties. Natural Product Research 35, 4148–4153. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2020.1739681.
Sharma V, Singh BP, Arora N. 2011 – Cur l 3, a major allergen of Curvularia lunata-derived short synthetic peptides, shows promise for successful immunotherapy. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology 45, 1178–84.
Srivastava AK, Singh Kapkoti D, Gupta M, Rout PK, Singh Bhakuni R, Samad A. 2021 – Enhanced production of phytotoxic polyketides isolated from Curvularia lunata by applying chemical stresses. Industrial Crops and Products 160, 113156.
Tawfike AF, Abbott G, Young L, Edrada-Ebel R. 2018 – Metabolomic-Guided Isolation of Bioactive Natural Products from Curvularia sp., an Endophytic Fungus of Terminalia laxiflora. Planta medica 84, 182–190.
Vásquez-Del-Mercado E, Lammoglia L, Arenas R. 2012 – Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis due to Curvularia lunata in a renal transplant patient. Revista iberoamericana de micologia 30, 116–118.
Xue CY, Li JS, Qi H, Xi FY, Xiang WS, Wang JD, Wang XJ. 2013 – Two new pentanorlanostane metabolites from a soil fungus Curvularia borreriae strain HS-FG-237. The Journal of Antibiotics 66, 735–737.
Yin C, Jin L, Sun F, Xu X, Shao M, Zhang Y. 2018 – Phytotoxic and Antifungal Metabolites from Curvularia crepinii QTYC-1 Isolated from the Gut of Pantala flavescens. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) 23 (4), 951.
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