Highlights

An endophytic fungus, Colletotrichum sp. JS-0361 was isolated from Morus alba.

Colletotrichalactones A-Ca with a 5/6/10-fused ring were isolated from the strain.

The structures were completely established by spectral and chemical methods.

They had unstable aldehydes which are easily converted into acetals in solvents.

Compounds 1 and 3a displayed cytotoxic activities against MCF7 cells.

Abstract

Three unusual polyketides with a 5/6/10-fused ring system, named colletotrichalactones A-Ca (1-3a), were isolated from cultures of the endophytic fungus, Colletotrichum sp. JS-0361, which was isolated from a leaf of Morus alba. Their structures, including their absolute stereochemistries, were completely established using extensive spectroscopic methods together with a chemical reaction utilizing competing enantioselective acylation coupled with LC/MS. Compounds possessing this ring skeleton were previously reported in three studies. Our rigorous chemical investigation revealed the complete configuration of this skeleton, which agreed with the results for glabramycin B with this ring skeleton established by computational chemistry and enantioselective synthesis in previous reports. 1 and 2 had unstable aldehyde groups that were easily converted to acetal groups in the presence of solvents. Meanwhile, compound 3a, with terminal acetal functionality, was deduced to be an artefact originating from compound 3 with a terminal aldehyde group. Compounds 1 and 3a displayed moderate-to-potent cytotoxic activities against MCF7 cells with IC₅₀s of 35.06 and 25.20 µM, respectively.