The Chemistry of Fungi
Fungi occupy an important place in the natural world, as non-photosynthetic organisms, they obtain their nutrients from the degradation of organic material. They use many of their secondary metabolites to secure a place in a competitive natural environment and to protect themselves from predation. The diverse structures, biosyntheses and biological activities of fungal metabolites have attracted chemists for many years. Fungi are ubiquitous and their activities affect many aspects of our...
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From the reviews: ''... a fascinating book to read... There is not to my knowledge any other book that collects this content in one place...'' (Ray C.F. Jones, Chemistry World, March, 2009).This book is an introduction to the chemistry of fungal metabolites. The aim is to illustrate within the context of fungal metabolites, the historical progression from chemical to spectroscopic methods of structure elucidation, the development in biosynthetic studies from establishing sequences and mechanisms to chemical enzymology and genetics and the increasing understanding of the biological roles of natural products. The book begins with a historical introduction followed by a description of the general chemical features which contribute to the growth of fungi. There are many thousands of fungal metabolites whose structures are known and the book does not aim to list them all as there are databases to fulfill this role. The book's aim is to describe some of the more important metabolites classified according to their biosynthetic origin. Biosynthesis provides a unifying feature underlying the diverse structures of fungal metabolites and the chapters covering this area begin with a general outline of the relevant biosynthetic pathway before presenting a detailed description of particular metabolites. Investigations into these biosyntheses have utilized many subtle isotopic labelling experiments and compounds that are fungal pigments and those which are distinctive metabolites of the more conspicuous Basidiomycetes are treated separately. Many fungal metabolites are involved in the interactions of fungi with plants and others are toxic to man and some of these are described in further chapters. Fungi have the ability to transform chemicals in ways which can complement conventional reactions and the use of fungi as reagents forms the subject of the final chapter.
Ch. 1 Fungi and the Development of Microbiological Chemistry 1Ch. 2 The Chemistry of Growing Fungi 18Ch. 3 Fungal Metabolites Derived from Amino Acids 32Ch. 4 Polyketides from Fungi 47Ch. 5 Terpenoid Fungal Metabolites 73Ch. 6 Fungal Metabolites Derived from the Citric Acid Cycle 120Ch. 7 Pigments and Odours of Fungi 127Ch. 8 The Chemistry of Some Fungal Diseases of Plants 147Ch. 9 Mycotoxins 165Ch. 10 Fungi as Reagents 177Epilogue 188Further Reading and Bibliography 190Glossary 204Subject Index 209
