Investigation of the secondary metabolome of fungi from Svalbard Islands biology adaptations of psychrophilic fungi / Nur Fatin Suhada Kamarul Zaman

Psychrophilic fungi which are known as loving cold microorganisms are believed to produce potential secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are indirectly involved in organism developments compared to primary metabolites which directly involved in maintenance of life. However, secondary metabolites play a vital role in protection of plants against herbivory and other defenses of interspecies. Besides, human use secondary metabolites as medicines and flavorings. The aim of this project is to obtain the metabolic profiles of psychrophilic fungi using HPLC. In this project, the fungi were cultured in a 96-well microtiter plate. The cultures were extracted using liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Out of eight fungi, only two of them show significant peaks whereas the rest show no significant peaks on chromatogram. Further investigation has to be done in order to determine type of compounds produced by these psychrophilic fungi.