A polyphasic approach (metabolomics, morphological and molecular analyses) in the systematics of Cladobotryum species in Greece

The secondary metabolism of mycophilic fungi is a source of bioactive natural products. In continuation of our research on the investigation of fungi, Cladobotryum species from Greece were studied. Due to the taxonomic complexity of the genus, a polyphasic approach for species identification and characterization was employed. The genus presents complex and diverse metabolic profile. Therefore, an experimental design was developed combining conventional methods of morphological and molecular analyses together with NMR based metabolomics. The multivariate analysis of the complex spectroscopic data resulted in unique metabolic profiles of Cladobotryum strains that could be used for discriminating the species within Cladobotryum. The combination of all data has shown that these strains could be placed well within the known species of the genus. It also showed a diversity which could offer the potential of isolating different and specific metabolites of medicinal or biotechnological interest. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful attempt to use NMR based metabolomics in combination with morphological and molecular characteristics for the study of mycophilic fungi.