Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 11, Issue 8, 2007

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 sesquit Read More

The regiospecificity of the microbiological hydroxylation of sesquiterpenoids by the fungus, Mucor plumbeus is reviewed. It is shown to fit a pattern which can be rationalized in terms of a model.

This review focuses on three aspects of the application of marine and terrestrial filamentous fungi to side-chain chemistry from 2000 to early 2006. The first section covers the generation of novel biologically active side-chain containing metabolites. This includes a range of antibiotic, cytotoxic and novel bioactive compounds. The second section discusses the use of these fungi both whole cell and lipases of fungal origin in the c Read More

Microbial transformations of manoyl oxides by filamentous fungi have been used to introduce hydroxyl groups, regio- and stereoselectively, into substrates at positions difficult to achieve by chemical means. The principal objective of most papers published in this field has been to produce new, highly oxygenated, bioactive manoyl-oxide compounds that present a large diversity of biological properties. The manoyl oxides m Read More

The application of biologically derived catalysts to the synthesis of agrochemicals has become increasingly popular in recent years. In most cases, the aim of using a biotransformation is either to introduce chirality into the molecule, to achieve a regioselective functionalization, or to selectively convert a functional group among other groups with similar reactivity. Pheromones, which have recently been commercialized as agroc Read More

Endophytes (fungal and bacterial organisms) have attracted great interest over the past few years because their presence benefits the host plant (development and defence) and they are a source of secondary metabolites of potential interest and thus play an important role in the regulation of plant communities and their herbivores. There are an increasing number of reports on their identification and on the production of se Read More

The rich metabolism of the fungal strains, now classified as Fusarium fujikuroi and related species covers the production of many secondary products, including different terpenoids and polyketides. Research has concentrated on the gibberellins, growth-promoting plant hormones with multiple applications in agriculture and brewing. The long list of secondary metabolites includes pigments such as carotenoids and bikav Read More