Fungi are a highly diverse group of heterotrophic organisms that play an important role in diverse ecological interactions, many of which are chemically mediated. Fungi have a very versatile metabolism, which allows them to synthesize a large number of still little-known chemical compounds, such as soluble compounds that are secreted into the medium and volatile compounds that are chemical mediators over short and long distances. Mass spectrometry (MS) is currently playing a dominant role in mycological studies, mainly due to its inherent sensitivity and rapid identification capabilities of different metabolites. Furthermore, MS has also been used as a reliable and accurate tool for fungi identification (i.e., biotyping). Here, we introduce the readers about fungal specialized metabolites, their role in ecological interactions and provide an overview on the MS-based techniques used in fu...

The Rimac river is the main source of water for Lima, Peru's capital megacity. The river is constantly affected by different types of contamination including mine tailings in the Andes and urban sewage in the metropolitan area. In this work, we aim to produce the first characterization of aquatic bacterial communities in the Rimac river using a 16S rRNA metabarcoding approach which would be useful to identify bacterial diversity and potential understudied pathogens. We report a lower diversity in bacterial communities from the Lower Rimac (Metropolitan zone) in comparison to other sub-basins. Samples were generally grouped according to their geographical location. Bacterial classes Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia, Campylobacteria, Fusobacteriia, and Gammaproteobacteria were the most frequent along the river. Arcobacter cryaerophilus (Campylobacteria) was the most frequent species in the...