Antibiotic activity of a Paraphaeosphaeria sporulosa-produced diketopiperazine against Salmonella enterica

A diketopiperazine has been purified from a culture filtrate of the endophytic fungus Paraphaeosphaeria sporulosa, isolated from healthy tissues of strawberry plants in a survey of microbes as sources of anti-bacterial metabolites. Its structure has been determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) analyses and was found to be identical to cyclo(L-Pro-L-Phe) purified from species of other fungal genera. This secondary metabolite has been selected following bioguided-assay fractionation against two strains of Salmonella enterica, the causal agent of bovine gastroenteritis. The diketopiperazine cyclo(L-Pro-L-Phe), isolated for the first time from Paraphaeosphaeria species, showed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 71.3 and 78.6 μg/mL against the two S. enterica strains. This finding may be significant in limiting the use of synthetic antibiotics in animal husbandry and reducing the emergence of bacterial multidrug resistance. Further in vivo experiments of P. sporulosa diketopiperazines are important for the future application of these metabolites.