Phytoalexins of the Pyrinae: Biphenyls and dibenzofurans

• Cornelia Chizzali and
• Ludger Beerhues

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 613–620, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.68

• pathways. Elicitor-treated cell cultures of Sorbus aucuparia served as a model system for studying phytoalexin metabolism. The key enzyme that forms the carbon skeleton is biphenyl synthase. The starter substrate for this type-III polyketide synthase is benzoyl-CoA. In apples, biphenyl synthase is encoded

• by a gene family, members of which are differentially regulated. Metabolism of the phytoalexins may provide new tools for designing disease control strategies for fruit trees of the Pyrinae subtribe. Keywords: biphenyls; dibenzofurans; phytoalexins; Pyrinae; Sorbus aucuparia; Review Diversity of

• 34 species of the Pyrinae, only Sorbus aucuparia formed a phytoalexin, namely aucuparin (3) [20]. Another abiotic elicitor, mercury, caused accumulation of 4'-methoxyaucuparin (10) in Rhaphiolepis umbellata at concentrations higher than after fungal infection [14][19]. So far, no glycosides of