Editorial [Hot Topic: Bioorganic Chemistry (Guest Editor: I. G. Collado)]

This latest issue of Current Organic Chemistry focusing on Bioorganic Chemistry is divided into six chapters written by experts in the fields of biotechnology and the bioorganic functions of fungi and their use in biotransformation and bio-catalytic processes. The first review by S.F. Arantes and J.R. Hanson presents an illustrative and authoritative account of the microbiological hydroxylation of some bridged polycyclic sesquiterpenoids by Mucor plumbeus in the context of defining the three dimensional topology of microbial hydroxylase. A three-dimensional model was constructed to rationalize the results and its use in a predictive sense is discussed. In the second review C. Hunter describes the current chemical utility of fungi in novel side chain formation, modification and degradation. This review focuses on three aspects of the application of marine and terrestrial filamentous fungi to sidechain chemistry from 2000 to early 2006: Generation of novel biologically active side-chains containing metabolites, the use of these fungi, both whole cell and lipases of fungal origin, in the chemical modification of side-chains and the degradation of side-chains by fungi. A. Garcia-Granados et al., provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review on the biotransformation studies of natural manoyl oxides and hemi-synthetic enantio-derivatives, carried out by means of biomimetic cyclization of ent-8-hydroxylabda- 13(16),14-dienes, with filamentous fungi. Along the same lines, Aleu et al. in the fourth contribution describe the use of isolated enzymes and microorganisms, especially fungi, as catalysts for the preparation of pheromones and their precursors. The role of endophytic fungi in plant-pathogen and plant-insect interactions is receiving increasing attention because of their potential use in pest control, however little is known about their physiology and the regulation processes of the plantendophyte interaction. An interesting perspective on endophytic fungi and their role in plant protection is reviewed by A. Gonzalez-Coloma et al. in the fifth chapter. In the sixth contribution, Barrero et al., provide a comprehensive review of the chemical structures of the secondary metabolites identified in Gibberella fujikuroi, with special attention to terpenoids, and particularly to gibberellins, and summarizes what is known about the biosynthesis of gibberellins, their regulation, and their relation to those of other metabolites. I am very pleased to have been involved as a Guest editor with this bioorganic issue of Current organic Chemistry and I would like to thank all of the authors who have contributed to this issue for their valuable and interesting contributions.