Natural products display a large structural variation and different uses within a broad spectrum of industries. In this study, we investigate the influence of carbohydrates and nitrogen sources on the production and selectivity of production of four different polyketides produced by Fusarium solani, fusarubin, javanicin, bostrycoidin and anhydrofusarubin. We introduce four different carbohydrates and two types of nitrogen sources. Hereafter, a full factorial design was applied using combinations of three levels of sucrose and three levels of the two types of nitrogen. Each combination displayed different selectivity and production yields for all the compounds of interest. Response surface design was utilized to investigate possible maximum yields for the surrounding combinations of media. It was also shown that the maximum yields were not always the ones illustrating high selectivity, which is an important factor for making purification steps easier. We visualized the production over time for one of the media types, illustrating high yields and selectivity.
Keywords: Fusarium; PKS3; fusarubins; mycotoxins; natural products; pigments; polyketides; quinones; secondary metabolites.