Webinar Information

Toxins Webinar

Microbial and Plant Phytotoxins

Phytotoxins are generally considered secondary metabolites produced by phytopathogenic microorganisms that play an important role in the disease induction on host plant. They are frequently produced as a mixture of low molecular weight metabolites belonging to several classes of natural compounds. The toxins are produced either in vivo as in vitro and frequently, the latter induce similar symptoms to those observed in vivo. Microbial phytotoxins are able to cause serious diseases to agrarian, ornamental, and forest plants with consequently heavy economic losses in food quality, production, and environmental heritage. Pasture and greenhouses are also affected by this problem. Rarely, the phytotoxins are host-specific but frequently they possess different biological activities with potential application in different fields such as agriculture and medicine. When microbial phytotoxins are produced by microbes that are pathogenic for weeds, including parasitic plants, they represent an important tool to develop biohebicides. This strategy represents a green-friendly alternative to the massive use of chemicals, which are one of the main causes of environmental pollution and risk for human and animal health. Allelopathic plants also produce phytotoxic metabolites that can be used in different fields. In particular, in agriculture, they could be used to find new potential bioherbicides to combat weeds, including parasitic plants, through seed inhibition or stimulation and suppression of radical growth.

In this webinar, we will present some examples of fungal phytotoxins which could be used as potential bioherbicides and of phytotoxins produced by pathogenic fungi of agrarian plants. Furthermore, the importance of the absolute configuration assignment and the main methodology used for its determination will be presented as well as some examples of their total synthesis.

Chair: Dr. Marco Masi

Date: 26th November 2020

Time: 1.00pm CET

Webinar ID: 984 7644 1392

Webinar Secretariat: toxins.webinar@mdpi.com

The following experts will present and speak:

Dr. Marco Masi

Dr. Marco Masi is a fixed term researcher (RtdA) of Organic Chemistry at University of Naples Federico II (UNINA). In 2013 he received a PhD in Agrobiology and Agrochemistry at the same University and he performed 6 months of his research activity at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA. Successively, he was awarded a one-year post-doctoral position at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA and one-year at UNINA. Then, he worked for three years as researcher at Biotechnology and Biological Control Agency, BBCA, Rome, Italy. In 2018 he was awarded a post-doctoral position as principal investigator of a project STAR at UNINA. He has acquired over 12 years of experience mainly in organic chemistry, spectroscopy and hemisynthesis of bioactive metabolites (phytotoxins, plant growth regulators, antibiotics, mycotoxins, fungicides, herbicides, proteins and polysaccharides) produced by fungi, bacteria and plants. Dr. Masi has established national and international collaboration with Research Centres and Universities and has participated to several scientific international and national research projects admitted at financing based on competitive calls that provide peer review. He has been supervisor of MSc and PhD students in Chemistry and Biology. Dr. Marco Masi is co-author of more than 124 papers published in International Journals indexed in the Scopus and ISI WEB databases; the H-index is 20 and has over 1095 citations on Scopus and /or ISI-WEB of Science. He is co-author of several communications at national and international congresses. He is member of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) and European Weed Research Society.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente

Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente became researcher in organic chemistry in 1980 at University of Naples Federico II (UNINA) and then associate professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy. In 1989 he returned at UNINA and in 2000 he became full professor of organic chemistry. Prof. Evidente has over 45 years’ experience in organic chemistry of natural substances. In particular, he carried out researches on the biosynthesis, biochemistry, chemistry, spectroscopy and synthesis of bioactive metabolites (phytotoxins, plant growth regulators, antibiotics, mycotoxins, fungicides, phytoalexins, elicitors, herbicides, insecticides, proteins and polysaccharides) produced by phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria, toxigenic and non-toxigenic fungi and plants. Furthermore, he has performed studies on the stereostructural determination, structure-activity relationships and their action mode, using advanced spectroscopic and chemical methods. Prof. Evidente also carried out studies on the isolation and structural determination of lipo- and exopolysaccharides from phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria. Recently he also carried out researches on the use of natural microbial and plants metabolites for their potential anticancer activity. Some of them are already applied for test in vivo on mouse. Prof. Evidente is leader of several national and international research projects. He is author of more than 460 scientific publication on ISI journal (H-index 43 and 10169 citations) and more than 400 communications at national and international congresses and several book chapters. Prof. Evidente coordinates national and international research projects (Regional and EU project) and actively participate to several EU COST Actions. He coordinates bilateral project with University of Naples Federico II and some Universties in USA, Australia and Russia. He was invited for a talk to four congresses of the American Chemical Society since 2006 to 2014. He is member of the Editorial board of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Chirality, Biomolecules and Phytopathologia Mediterranea. Award “Medaglia Quilico” 2014, assigned for its researches in the field of chemistry of bioactive metabolites from plants and fungi, from the Organic Chemistry Division of Italian Chemical Society, research field in which he is considered a ‘world authority’.

Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi

Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi is Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Science Department of the University of Basilicata (Italy). He received his PhD from University of Pisa under the supervision of Prof. Dario Pini and spent one year as Visiting Scholar at the University of Waterloo (Canada) under the supervision of Prof. Victor Snieckus. Afterwards, he got a grant from the pharmaceutical company Menarini SpA to work on the development of angiotensin II inhibitors. Then he moved to University of Basilicata first as Assistant and then as Associate Professor. Dr. Superchi has been team leader of several national and international research projects. He is co-author of more than 90 publications on ISI-indexed international journals (H-index 28 and 2200 citations), more than 100 communications at national and international conferences and some book chapters. He is member of the Editorial Board of the journal Chirality (Wiley) and of the Italian Chemical Society. His scientific interests, mainly in the field of organic stereochemistry, focus on the conformational analysis and assignment of absolute configuration to chiral synthetic and natural products by chiroptical spectroscopy; on the synthesis, stereochemical characterization and application in asymmetric synthesis of new chiral catalysts and auxiliaries; on the total enantioselective synthesis of chiral bioactive natural products and drugs.

Program

The webinar will start at 1:00 pm (CET) and will last 2 hours.

Speakers/Presentations	Time CET
Dr. Marco Masi Fungal phytotoxins as potential bioherbicides	1.00pm
Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente Phytotoxins produced by pathogenic fungi of agrarian plants	1.30pm
Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi Chiral phytotoxins: absolute configuration and enantioselective synthesis	2.00pm
Q&A	2.30pm

Webinar Content

On Thursday, 26th November 2020, MDPI and Toxins organized the first webinar on Toxins, entitled: “Microbial and Plant Phytotoxins”.

Dr. Marco Masi was the chair of the webinar and the first presenter. Dr. Marco Masi is s a fixed term researcher (RtdA) of Organic Chemistry at University of Naples Federico II (UNINA) and he held the first speech entitled "Fungal phytotoxins as potential bioherbicides".

Prof. Antonio Evidente, Università di Napoli Federico II, was the second speaker and his presentation was entitled "Phytotoxins produced by pathogenic fungi of agrarian plants".

The third presentation with the title "Chiral phytotoxins: absolute configuration and enantioselective synthesis" was presented by Prof. Stefano Superchi. Prof. Stefano Superchi is Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Science Department of the University of Basilicata (Italy).

Their presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the chair. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Toxins, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Relevant Special Issues

Microbial and Plant Phytotoxins
Guest Editor: Dr. Marco Masi, Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2021

New Insight into Ricin Toxicity
Guest Editor: Prof. Marek Tchórzewski, Dr. Nicholas Mantis
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2021

Toxicity of Plant Derived Substances
Guest Editor: Prof. Kateřina Macáková
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021

Basic Research for the Potential Use of Plant Toxins
Guest Editor: Dr. Souichi Nakashima
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2021

Toxins Webinar | Microbial and Plant Phytotoxins

26 Nov 2020, 00:00