Biosynthesis articles within Nature Chemistry

Featured

  • News & Views |

    Fluorine imparts many drugs with beneficial properties, however, the synthesis of fluorinated complex natural products is challenging. Biosynthetic strategies and recent experimental precedents have paved the way for bioengineered fluorinated polyketides.

    • Peter A. Jordan
    •  & Bradley S. Moore

  • News & Views |

    The biosynthesis of peptidoglycan is an important step in bacterial cell division and cell-wall maturation. Now it has been shown that fluorescent D-amino acids can be used to label the peptidoglycan cell wall of living bacteria, providing a new tool to study this important process.

    • Timothy D. H. Bugg

  • News & Views |

    The tunicamycins, secondary metabolites of various Streptomyces species, are invaluable tools in glycobiology. It has now been shown that their biosynthesis involves an unusual exo-glycal intermediate produced by previously unknown short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase activity.

    • Ethan D. Goddard-Borger
    •  & Stephen G. Withers

  • Article |

    Construction of the remarkable 11-carbon frame of the antibiotic tunicamycin is shown to use cyclic enol ethers (exo-glycals) — the first time such intermediates have been seen in biology. Exo-glycal synthase TunA uses an elegantly subtle mechanism to control regioselectivity and with exo-glycal epimerase TunF sets a logical chemical stage for downstream radical C–C coupling.

    • Filip J. Wyszynski
    • , Seung Seo Lee
    •  & Benjamin G. Davis

  • Article |

    Enzymes are capable of modifying complex organic structures with exquisite selectivity. Understanding these processes could help in the development and production of new bioactive compounds. Here, a complete reconstitution of tailoring steps in tirandamycin biosynthesis shows that two enzymes repeatedly exchange substrates to achieve several different oxidations en route to this family of antibiotic compounds.

    • Jacob C. Carlson
    • , Shengying Li
    •  & David H. Sherman

  • News & Views |

    Enzymes that selectively oxidize unactivated C–H bonds are capable of constructing complex molecules with high efficiency. A new member of this enzyme family is RedG, a Reiske-type oxygenase that catalyses chemically challenging cyclizations in the biosynthesis of prodiginine natural products.

    • Steven D. Bruner

  • Article |

    Enzyme-mediated oxidative cyclizations in nature are a powerful demonstration of the utility of selective C–H activation. Here, Rieske oxygenase-like enzymes RedG and McpG are shown to mediate regio- and stereodivergent carbocyclization of undecylprodigiosin to streptorubin B and metacycloprodigiosin, respectively. Understanding these remarkably selective C–H activations could inspire the design of biomimetic catalysts with similar capabilities.

    • Paulina K. Sydor
    • , Sarah M. Barry
    •  & Gregory L. Challis

  • Article |

    Marine bacteria and algae engage in intermittent symbioses mediated by unknown molecular signals. Here, it is shown that a chemical signal, p-coumaric acid, produced by the breakdown of algal lignin, causes the usually symbiotic bacterium Phaeobacter gallaeciensis to produce new metabolites (the roseobacticides) with potent but selective algaecidal activity.

    • Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost
    • , Rebecca J. Case
    •  & Jon Clardy

  • News & Views |

    Identifying the genes responsible for each step of a natural product biosynthesis has allowed the synthesis to be 'hijacked' to make bioactive compounds, and reveals that some suspected transporter enzymes could have other important roles in fungal defence systems.

    • Jason M. Crawford
    •  & Jon Clardy

  • Article |

    The formation of simple prebiotic organic compounds on early Earth is thought to be an important step in the origin of life. Molecular dynamics simulations of the conditions within cometary ice during planetary impact suggest a possible mechanism for the formation of glycine, an amino acid.

    • Nir Goldman
    • , Evan J. Reed
    •  & Amitesh Maiti

  • Article |

    The structural diversity of natural products offers great potential for the identification of new drugs. Here, the gene cluster responsible for the production of a meroterpenoid, pyripyropene, has been identified, and reconstitution of the biosynthetic sequence involved allows the production of analogous synthetic structures with potentially new bioactivity.

    • Takayuki Itoh
    • , Kinya Tokunaga
    •  & Tetsuo Kushiro

Browse broader subjects

Browse Biosynthesis across other nature.com journals