Remarkable influence of the aromatic substructure in 9-methoxystrobilurin derivatives on their antifungal activity

9-Methoxystrobilurin-type β-methoxyacrylate antibiotics (MOSBs) having various aromatic substructures were synthesized. The antifungal activity of the synthesized MOSBs against pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi was examined, and the obtained results revealed that the antifungal activity of MOSBs was highly dependent on the aromatic substructures. However, no significant correlation was observed between cytotoxicity against human fibroblasts-like cell line and their structural properties. In addition, our results suggested that the strong growth-inhibitory activity of 9-methoxystrobilurin K against human-derived cell lines should be related to its hindered ether-type substructure.