Ubiquinone mimics known as quinone outside inhibitors (QoIs) are one of the most prominent fungicides used to protect crops in the agricultural industry. Due to chemotype similarities with known QoIs, peniciaculin A, a triaryl natural product, was proposed to exhibit similar broad spectrum antifungal activity against phytopathogens. Instability of the tertiary alcohol and phenol motif, however, prompted exploration of the antifungal properties of simplified analogues to probe possible overlap in mechanism of action between the natural product and QoIs. Peniciaculin A inspired analogues mimicking known QoI scaffolds displayed broad spectrum antifungal activity while those containing scaffolds dissimilar to QoIs possessed negligible bioactivity. These activity profiles suggest peniciaculin A is likely acting as a QoI.

中文翻译：

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利用天然产物抗真菌药物研究青霉素 A 的作用机制


被称为醌外部抑制剂 (QoIs) 的泛醌模拟物是用于保护农业中作物的最重要的杀菌剂之一。由于化学型与已知的 QoIs 相似，青霉素 A（一种三芳基天然产物）被认为对植物病原体表现出类似的广谱抗真菌活性。然而，叔醇和苯酚基序的不稳定性促使人们探索简化类似物的抗真菌特性，以探讨天然产物和 QoI 之间作用机制可能存在的重叠。模拟已知 QoI 支架的青霉素 A 类似物显示出广谱抗真菌活性，而含有与 QoI 不同的支架的类似物则具有可忽略不计的生物活性。这些活性特征表明青霉素 A 可能起到 QoI 的作用。