Strain identification and metabolites isolation of Aspergillus capensis CanS-34A from Brassica napus

An isolate (CanS-34A) of Aspergillus from a healthy plant of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) was identified based on morphological characterization and multi-locus phylogeny using the sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-5.8S rDNA region, BenA (for β-tubulin), CaM (for calmodulin) and RPB2 (for RNA polymerase II). The results showed that CanS-34A belongs to Aspergillus capensis Hirooka et al. The antifungal metabolites produced by CanS-34A in potato dextrose broth (PDB) were extracted with chloroform. Three antifungal metabolites were isolated and purified from the chloroform extract of the PDB cultural filtrates of CanS-34A, and chemically identified as methyl dichloroasterrate, penicillither and rosellichalasin. They all showed antifungal activity against the plant pathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea, Monilinia fructicola, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Sclerotinia trifoliorum with the EC₅₀ values ranging from 2.46 to 65.00 μg/mL. To our knowledge, this is the first report about production of penicillither by Aspergillus and about the antifungal activity of methyl dichloroasterrate, penicillither and rosellichalasin against the four plant pathogenic fungi.