The present review deals with some essential aspects regarding to the microbial gibberellin biosynthesis during the last 10 to 15 years.
After a brief historical outline some gibberellins resp. gibberellin‐like substances producing microorganisms (e. g. fungi, bacteria) are presented of which the ability to produce these compounds recently was published. In addition techniques to obtain mutants from the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi by means of physical and chemical methods are described. A further topic of the survey is dedicated to the biosynthetic pathway of gibberellins in the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi as well as the regulation of this biosynthetic route. In this connection especially the dependence of the biosynthesis on environmental factors (e. g. role of various carbon and nitrogen sources in the medium and their relation to each other) are demonstrated.
Also a possible role of the gibberellins for the producing fungus itself is discussed.
Finally, new fields of application for gibberellic acid and the gibberellins GA4 and GA7 (e. g. animal production, pharmaceutical industry) are presented.