Relationships between the Stereochemistry and Biological Activity of Fungal Phytotoxins

Toxins produced by phytopathogenic fungi assume great importance because of their involvement in several plant diseases. Although such pathogens are known to have seriously damaged crops, forest, and environmental resources, they represent a very important tool to develop new environmentally friendly herbicides and fungicides. This review deals with the relationships between the biological activity of some phytotoxins produced by pathogenic fungi for major forest plants and for damaging weeds and their stereochemistry. In particular, the methods used to determine their relative and/or absolute configuration will be illustrated. These include the application of Mosher's and Murata's methods, X-ray diffractometric analysis, circular dichroism, and the use of computational methods to determine the theoretical optical rotatory power as well as the CD spectrum. The importance of determining the absolute configuration to achieve the total synthesis of some phytotoxins, interesting for their potential practical application, is also discussed. Chirality 23: 674-693, 2011. (C) 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.