Amino acid-directed strategy becomes an efficient way to explore the alkaloids' biosynthetic potential of marine fungi. The metabolites of marine fungus Monascus albidus BB3 were regulated obviously when cultured in GPY medium supplemented with L-tryptophan, L-phenylalanine, D,L-methionine, L-threonine, L-lysine, L-serine and L-valine. Four new γ-lactams, monascuslactams A-D (1-4), together with two known compounds pulchellalactam (5) and O-acetylperlolyrine (6) were obtained. Their structures were determined by comprehensive analysis on the 1 D and 2 D NMR, HRESIMS, UV and IR data, and their absolute configurations were assigned by the experimental and calculated ECD data analysis. Compounds 3, 4 and 6 showed moderate cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines SUNE1, HepG2, QGY7701, GLC82, HCT116 and MDA-MB-231.
Keywords: Marine fungus; Monascus albidus; amino acid-directed strategy; monascuslactam; γ-lactam.