Botryodiplodia theobromae

Diplodia. This disease has been reported from many areas of cacao production as caused by Botryodiplodia theobromae. It is associated with dieback of young branches and rotting of overripe pods. It is considered of little importance. 

In 1978 Givaudan patented a transformation of a-ionone [127] a fermentation of Botryodiplodia theobromae IFO 6469 with a-ionone (152) yielded a mixture of compounds (155 -157) with honeysuckle aroma, Fig. (31). The same fungi which efficiently biotransformed / -ionone also transformed a-ionone [128]. As observed for /1-ionone, a-ionone (152) transformations with Lasiodiplodia theobromae ATCC 28570 also suggested an oxygenase-type enzyme system to be responsible for the degradation of the molecule by loss of one C2-unit. 

Gupta RS, Chandran RR, Divekar PV (1966) Bolryodiplodin - a New Antibiotic from Botryodiplodia theobromae. Part I. Production, Isolation and Biological Properties. Ind J Exp Biol 4 152... 

Botryodiplodia theobromae Fungi Cited 100% inh. 600 Shukla and Tripathi (1987)... 

The expensive grapefruit aromatic, nootkatone (2) used by cosmetic and fiber manufacturers was obtained in high yield by biotransformation of (+)-valencene (1), which can be cheaply obtained from Valencia orange, by Chlorella species, fungi such as Mucor species, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and Botryodiplodia theobromae. This is a very inexpensive and clean oxidation reaction, which does not use any heavy metals, and thus this method is expected to find applications in the industrial production of nootkatone. 

The hydrolysis of 2-nitrophenyl j8-D-glucopyranoside by jS-D-glucosidase from Botryodiplodia theobromae has been studied in the presence of dioxan. At donor saturation, the maximum hydrolysis rate in the presence of up to 50% dioxan was at pH 4.3—4.5. The hydrol)rtic reaction was found to proceed with retention of configuration at the anomeric site. The kinetics of the enzyme catalysis in the presence of added acceptors indicated that water was necessary for the maintenance of the active enzyme conformation apart from its acceptor function. 

Mirsch, O., J. Schmidt, G. Sembdner K. Schreiber. 1989. Jasmonic acid-like substances from the culture filtrate of Botryodiplodia theobromae. Phytochemistry 28 1303-1305. 

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