A review on beauvericin production from Fusarium, its biosynthesis, mode of action and bioactivities

This review provides comprehensive information on beauvercin, a cyclic hexadepsipeptide, produced by selected fungi like Beauveria, Paecilomyces, Polyporus, Isaria and Fusarium. The biosynthetic pathway of beauvericin production is elaborated. Numerous bioactivities like anticancer, antiviral, cytotoxic, antiplatelet aggregation, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, insecticidal properties are reviewed. The potential of beauvericin to diminish the growth of gram-positive or gram-negative pathogenic bacteria and inhibition of melanin production are well documented. It has been noted that beauvericin possesses ionophoric property which renders it these bioactivities. Being genotoxic, beauvericin has been proved to cause apoptosis by DNA fragmentation, chromosomal aberrations and micronucleus formation. In this review, the production yield reported from the different strains of Fusarium spp. is also compiled. This documentation will be of great help to the researchers working on optimization and productivity enhancement studies of beauvericin. Beauvericin needs to be studied in detail as there are many gaps which need to be fulfilled.