Dirigent Proteins Guide Asymmetric Heterocoupling for the Synthesis of Complex Natural Product Analogues.

ABSTRACT: Phenylpropanoids are a class of abundant building blocks found in plants and derived from phenylalanine and tyrosine. Phenylpropanoid polymerization leads to the second most abundant biopolymer lignin while stereo- and site-selective coupling generates an array of lignan natural products with potent biological activity, including the topoisomerase inhibitor and chemotherapeutic etoposide. A key step in etoposide biosynthesis involves a plant dirigent protein that promotes selective dimerization of coniferyl alcohol, a common phenylpropanoid, to form (+)-pinoresinol, a critical C₂ symmetric pathway intermediate. Despite the power of this coupling reaction for the elegant and rapid assembly of the etoposide scaffold, dirigent proteins have not been utilized to generate other compl

SUBMITTER: Kim SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8450019 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature