It is widely recognized that fungi capable of producing valuable compounds harbor numerous dormant biosynthetic gene clusters for secondary metabolites, which are not expressed under standard culture conditions. In this study, our research team focused on Mycobacterium smegmatis, an acid-fast bacterium containing mycolic acids, as a microbial activator of these dormant genes. We conducted a co-culture with the marine-derived fungus Paecilomyces formosus, a species with few prior reports on secondary metabolite production. This approach led to the successful identification of secondary metabolites induced by the co-culture, along with new insights into their biosynthetic mechanisms. This award recognizes the significance of these research findings.