Studies on Host-selective Toxins Produced by a Pathotype of Alternaria citri Causing Brown Spot Disease of Mandarins

Two host-selective pathotoxins, ACTG-toxins A and B, and four related but less active toxins, C, D, E, and F, were isolated from the culture broth of Alternaria citri, a fungus that produces brown spot disease of Dancy tangerine (Citrus reticulata) and other mandarin cultivars. The basic common structural features of these toxins were the presence of a six-membered group bonded, via a methylene group, to a five-membered ring having an alkenyl substituent (Fig. 1). For Toxins A, B, C and F, the six-membered ring had an enolizable β-diketo group. For Toxin C, the five-membered ring was a tetrahydrofuran group. For Toxins D and E, an additional dihydropyran ring was formed by dehydration between a tertiary hydroxyl on the cyclopentene ring and an enolic hydroxyl group on the cyclohexane ring, and also the presence of a terminal hydroxymethyl group on the alkenyl substituent, instead of the methyl groups in Toxins A, B and C. In Toxin F, the terminal group was a formyl.