Detoxification of thujaplicins in living western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn.) trees by microorganisms

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Jin, Lehong
Copyright Year	1987
Abstract	Thujaplicins are the major components in the steamv o l a t i l e fraction of western redcedar {Thuja pi i cat a Donn.) (WRC) heartwood extractives. They are consided to be highly toxic to fungi and are c h i e f l y responsible for WRC heartwood decay resistance. This study proves that this t r a d i t i o n a l concept of t o x i c i t y i s not completely correct. Thujaplicins are toxic to common decay fungi isolated from decayed WRC wood in l i v i n g trees or wood in service, such as Poria al bipel I uci da Baxter. On the other hand, when a fungus such as Sporothrix sp. invades sound heartwood of l i v i n g WRC, thu j a p l i c i n s do not provide resistance but instead are altered by that fungus, so that their t o x i c i t y to decay fungi i s destroyed. Evidence obtained in th i s study indicates that the mechanism of t h u j a p l i c i n t o x i c i t y to common decay fungi involves the reactive keto-enolic group. As example, t h u j a p l i c i n t o x i c i t y disappears i f thi s reactive group i s blocked by laboratory methylation. In l i v i n g trees d e t o x i f i c a t i o n by Sporot hri x sp. i s demonstrated to involve a process of oxidative dimerization and isomerization of the thu j a p l i c i n s to a new lactone compound. This compound i s
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.14288/1.0097441
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/download/pdf/831/1.0228304/2
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0097441
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article