Automated Detection of Natural Halogenated Compounds from LC-MS Profiles–Application to the Isolation of Bioactive Chlorinated Compounds from Marine-Derived Fungi

A collection of culture extracts obtained from several marine-derived fungal strains collected on the French Atlantic coast was investigated by high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS) in order to prospect for halogenated compounds and to identify potentially new ones. To achieve a fast, automated, and efficient data analysis, a bioinformatics tool named MeHaloCoA (Marine Halogenated Compound Analysis) was developed and included into R. After extraction of all the peaks from the metabolic fingerprints and their associated mass spectra, a mathematical filter based on mass isotopic profiles allowed the selective detection of halogenated (Cl and Br) molecules. Integrating MeHaloCoA into a dereplication approach allowed the identification of known and new halogenated compounds in a competitive amount of time. Subsequent targeted purification led to the isolation of several chlorinated metabolites, including two new natural products with bioactive potential, griseophenone I and chlorogriseofulvin, from a marine-derived Penicillium canescens strain.