Understanding the role of active site residues in CotB2 catalysis using a cluster model

• Keren Raz,
• Ronja Driller,
• Thomas Brück,
• Bernhard Loll and
• Dan T. Major

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 50–59, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.7

• relevant, i.e., that have a ligand bound in a reactive configuration and have a fully closed active site. Recently, a crystal structure of the CotB2 enzyme that met these criteria was published [42]. In the current work, we describe the crucial role of the amino acids in the active site on the reaction

• energetics using QM calculations in an active site cluster model. The active site cluster theozyme model [43][44] was constructed from the crystal structure coordinates of active site amino acids, which were presumed to stabilize the carbocations during the reaction cascade. Each reaction step's relevant

• and co-workers [39]. The amino acid cage was constructed from six amino acids, which were located around the substrate and constituted part of the catalytic pocket of the enzyme (PDB-ID 6GGI) [42]. The chosen amino acids were the ones that we presumed stabilized the carbocations the most during the

Light-controllable dithienylethene-modified cyclic peptides: photoswitching the in vivo toxicity in zebrafish embryos

• Sergii Afonin,
• Oleg Babii,
• Aline Reuter,
• Volker Middel,
• Masanari Takamiya,
• Uwe Strähle,
• Igor V. Komarov and
• Anne S. Ulrich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 39–49, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.6

• plasma stability in vivo, limited understanding of their mechanisms of action, and high in vivo toxicity. The former two drawbacks are being adequately resolved [9] (e.g., by modifying the peptide backbone [10], macrocyclization [11], or by use of unnatural amino acids [12]), and mechanistic

Extension of the 5-alkynyluridine side chain via C–C-bond formation in modified organometallic nucleosides using the Nicholas reaction

• Renata Kaczmarek,
• Dariusz Korczyński,
• James R. Green and
• Roman Dembinski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1–8, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.1

• intramolecular versions of the reaction are also highly successful [50][51]. Although the Nicholas reaction has been employed to functionalize biomolecules, including amino acids [52][53], β-lactams [54], steroids [55], and carbohydrates [56][57][58][59][60][61][62], we are unaware of any examples of nucleoside

Why do thioureas and squaramides slow down the Ireland–Claisen rearrangement?

• Dominika Krištofíková,
• Juraj Filo,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2948–2957, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.290

• diastereoselectivities, and ees up to 86% [26]. Rearrangement of allyl esters of glycine derivatives gave under similar conditions amino acids with a quaternary stereocenter on the β-carbon with high yields and excellent diastereo- as well as enantioselectivity [5]. A reductive rearrangement of allyl esters of acrylic

Chemical synthesis of tripeptide thioesters for the biotechnological incorporation into the myxobacterial secondary metabolite argyrin via mutasynthesis

• David C. B. Siebert,
• Roman Sommer,
• Domen Pogorevc,
• Michael Hoffmann,
• Silke C. Wenzel,
• Rolf Müller and
• Alexander Titz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2922–2929, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.286

• , i.e., the target for the mutasynthons of this work, is color coded as product of the Arg2 synthetase and in the resulting final argyrin molecule. Designed mutasynthons 9–14 for argyrin biosynthesis. Peptides are based on three amino acids and additionally bear the thioester moiety mimicking the native

Bacterial terpene biosynthesis: challenges and opportunities for pathway engineering

• Eric J. N. Helfrich,
• Geng-Min Lin,
• Christopher A. Voigt and
• Jon Clardy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2889–2906, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.283

• rearrangements, creating the basic hydrocarbon skeleton of a terpene [10][11]. This basic hydrocarbon skeleton is then modified to generate a large number of terpenoid structures, which can be further modified by addition of other building blocks, like sugars, amino acids, or fatty acids [12]. Terpenes are named

Emission and biosynthesis of volatile terpenoids from the plasmodial slime mold Physarum polycephalum

• Xinlu Chen,
• Tobias G. Köllner,
• Wangdan Xiong,
• Guo Wei and
• Feng Chen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2872–2880, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.281

• genes were identified from the transcriptomes. They were designated as PpolyTPS1, PpolyTPS2, PpolyTPS3, and PpolyTPS4. The length of the proteins encoded by PpolyTPS1, PpolyTPS2, PpolyTPS3, and PpolyTPS4s is 334, 347, 353, and 337 amino acids, respectively. Among the four proteins, the highest sequence

Palladium-catalyzed synthesis and nucleotide pyrophosphatase inhibition of benzo[4,5]furo[3,2-b]indoles

• Hoang Huy Do,
• Saif Ullah,
• Alexander Villinger,
• Joanna Lecka,
• Jean Sévigny,
• Peter Ehlers,
• Jamshed Iqbal and
• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2830–2839, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.276

• bonding was found between the oxygen of the benzofuran ring and the hydrogens of Lys291. When compound 6a was docked inside the active pocket of the homology model, it represented π–π stacked and π–alkyl attachment of the indole rings on both sides of the molecule with amino acids His380 and Lys295

• . Suramin was used as a positive control. The 3D illustrations of these docked compounds are shown in Figure 5. The binding was observed in a large area of the modelled ENPP3 protein, inside and over the border of the active pocket, due to the bulky structure of suramin. The amino acids Asn290, Ser292

• 52% in case of ENPP3, amino acids sequence similarity with template, mouse ENPP1. The RMSD for ENPP1 was 0.613 Å and 1.349 Å for ENPP3, over 816 and 811 residues in comparison to the template, respectively. The Ramachandran plot represented promising stereochemical properties as above 98% amino acids

Combining the Ugi-azide multicomponent reaction and rhodium(III)-catalyzed annulation for the synthesis of tetrazole-isoquinolone/pyridone hybrids

• Gerardo M. Ojeda,
• Prabhat Ranjan,
• Pavel Fedoseev,
• Lisandra Amable,
• Upendra K. Sharma,
• Daniel G. Rivera and
• Erik V. Van der Eycken

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2447–2457, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.237

• in the literature supporting the chelation of metal centers by a tetrazole ring during the C–H activation processes, in which the tetrazole may also act as directing group [55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. The closely related triazole ring has also been used for the C–H modification of amino acids and

Sugar-derived oxazolone pseudotetrapeptide as γ-turn inducer and anion-selective transporter

• Sachin S. Burade,
• Sushil V. Pawar,
• Tanmoy Saha,
• Navanath Kumbhar,
• Amol S. Kotmale,
• Manzoor Ahmad,
• Pinaki Talukdar and
• Dilip D. Dhavale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2419–2427, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.234

• peptides from C-3 fluorinated ᴅ-glucofuranoid amino acids and demonstrated their selective anion transport activity [17][18]. In continuation of our interest in sugar-derived cyclic peptides [19], we aimed to synthesize cyclic peptides I and II from the corresponding linear di- and tetrapeptides, however

Current understanding and biotechnological application of the bacterial diterpene synthase CotB2

• Ronja Driller,
• Daniel Garbe,
• Norbert Mehlmer,
• Monika Fuchs,
• Keren Raz,
• Dan Thomas Major,
• Thomas Brück and
• Bernhard Loll

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2355–2368, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.228

• sequences of other bacterial TPSs for the presence of the RY pair, also called “basic pair” [61][62] and their flanking regions, led to the identification of a conserved tryptophan six amino acids upstream of the RY pair (Figure 6) [37]. In CotB2, residues of the motif are located at the end of the C

• binding of GGDP and the cyclization reaction. Based on 2H- as well as 13C-isotope labeling experiments a surprising reaction mechanism has been derived (Scheme 2) [35]. Strong support for the proposed reaction mechanism has been predominantly provided by site-directed mutagenesis of amino acids with an

• . Cyclization is initiated by cleavage of the GGDP diphosphate moiety. After two consecutive cyclization reactions, a dolabellatrienyl cation (A) is generated, stabilized by π-cation interactions with W186 (Scheme 2 and Figure 7). Whereas mutation of this residue to amino acids with aromatic character mainly

Isolation of fungi using the diffusion chamber device FIND technology

• Benjamin Libor,
• Henrik Harms,
• Stefan Kehraus,
• Ekaterina Egereva,
• Max Crüsemann and
• Gabriele M. König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2191–2203, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.216

• (experiment 1: amino acids/peptone, antibiotics; experiments 2–4: ditto, but in sea water) to yield the desired concentration of roughly 320 000 fungal parts/L. Then, the central plate of FIND (Scheme 1) was lowered into these preparations to fill each chamber with an agar solution, containing in average one

Isolation and characterisation of irinans, androstane-type withanolides from Physalis peruviana L.

• Annika Stein,
• Dave Compera,
• Bianka Karge,
• Mark Brönstrup and
• Jakob Franke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2003–2012, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.196

• Salt Solution (Gibco) without Ca and Mg, trypsinized and re-suspended in Dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium that contained 5% fetal bovine serum (FBS; L929, KB-3-1, A549) or Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium that contained 5% FBS, 0.5% Minimum Essential Medium Non-Essential Amino Acids, Gibco (MEM

Complexation of chiral amines by resorcin[4]arene sulfonic acids in polar media – circular dichroism and diffusion studies of chirality transfer and solvent dependence

• Bartosz Setner and
• Agnieszka Szumna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1913–1924, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.187

• protein crystallizations. Due to the interest in interactions with proteins we have selected basic amino acids as chiral bidentate amines to interact with RSAs. We have also studied interactions of RSAs with chiral tetradentate ligands (tetraaminocavitands) in order to evaluate the influence of a chelate

• complexation between 1 and (R or S)-2) or 1:5 stoichiometric ratio (for complexation between 1 and amino acids methyl esters). In all cases except monodentate amines (PheOMe, ValOMe) we observed precipitation of the complexes. Samples [1(PheOMe)2] and [1(ValOMe)2] were obtained by mixing of 1 with PheOMe∙HCl

• with methyl esters of amino acids The complexes of 1 with LysOMe, ArgOMe, and HisOMe precipitate from water solutions at pH 7 (sodium acetate buffer). The complexes are soluble in methanol and DMSO. The composition of the precipitated complexes was determined by integration of signals in 1H NMR spectra

N-(1-Phenylethyl)aziridine-2-carboxylate esters in the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds

• Iwona E. Głowacka,
• Aleksandra Trocha,
• Andrzej E. Wróblewski and
• Dorota G. Piotrowska

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1722–1757, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.168

• medications as well as of natural products mostly alkaloids but also sphingoids and ceramides and their 1- and 3-deoxy analogues and several hydroxy amino acids and their precursors. Designed strategies provided new procedures to several drugs and alternative approaches to natural products and proved

• efficiency of a 2-substituted N-(1-phenylethyl)aziridine framework as chiron bearing a chiral auxiliary. Keywords: alkaloids; amino acids; asymmetric synthesis; ceramides; chiral catalysis; chiral pool; N-(1-phenylethyl)aziridine chiron; sphingoids; Introduction The synthesis of enantiomerically pure

• for structural enlargement and at least one stereogenic center which is usually transferred into the final product. To assure the highest possible enantiomeric purity chirons are obtained in most instances from natural products like carbohydrates, amino acids, hydroxy acids or terpenes. The

Recent advances on the transition-metal-catalyzed synthesis of imidazopyridines: an updated coverage

• Gagandeep Kour Reen,
• Ashok Kumar and
• Pratibha Sharma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1612–1704, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.165

Synthesis and conformational preferences of short analogues of antifreeze glycopeptides (AFGP)

• Małgorzata Urbańczyk,
• Michał Jewgiński,
• Joanna Krzciuk-Gula,
• Jerzy Góra,
• Rafał Latajka and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1581–1591, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.162

• synthesis, the best yields were achieved for incorporation of natural amino acids into the peptide chain, where 1.2 equiv of glycosylated threonine were applied. NMR measurements were performed in order to elucidate the stereochemical influence of the amino acid configuration on the three-dimensional

• and Cβ carbons of the glycosylated Thr residue. The all-ᴅ-configured pentapeptide 4 turned out to adopt a much more rigid structure in comparison to the corresponding peptide 3 containing only ʟ-amino acids. Moreover, pentapeptide 4 showed the ability to “lock” the orientation of the carbohydrate ring

• ]. General methods All air- and moisture-sensitive reactions were carried out in a dry argon atmosphere in flame-dried glass flasks. Dichloromethane (DCM) was freshly distilled from CaH2 and toluene from Na. N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) was distilled from ninhydrine. All amino acids, coupling reagents and the

Molecular basis for the plasticity of aromatic prenyltransferases in hapalindole biosynthesis

• Takayoshi Awakawa and
• Ikuro Abe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1545–1551, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.157

• ]. The prenyl acceptors, HU and HA, were both surrounded by hydrophobic amino acids, including A44, A102, W117, L119, L259, V284, F288, and M291 [14], and the position of HU was additionally stabilized by hydrogen bonding between the N-1 of HU and E207 (Figure 5A). Remarkably, the terpenoid moieties of

• reverse prenylation on HU and normal prenylation on HA. This is the first X-ray structural model of a PTase that catalyzes both normal and reverse prenylations. The hydrophobic nature of the substrate-binding pocket and the flexibility of the amino acids shielding a cation lead to the plasticity to accept

• prenyl donor [12]. This plasticity is due to the hydrophobic nature of the prenyl acceptor binding site and the fluctuations of the amino acids forming the cation shield, similarly to AmbP3. Comparison of the AmbP1 and AmbP3 amino acid sequences with other ABBA PTases The AmbP1 and AmbP3 amino acid

An azobenzene container showing a definite folding – synthesis and structural investigation

• Abdulselam Adam,
• Saber Mehrparvar and
• Gebhard Haberhauer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1534–1544, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.156

• ][22]. Beside the usage of the side chains of the amino acids and the azole rings for molecular recognition, the functional groups of the scaffolds of these cyclopeptides have also been applied as receptors for Y-shaped anions [23] and as ligands for copper(II) complexes [24][25]. Of special interest

Efficiency Eff_syn of complex syntheses as multicomponent reactions, its algorithm and calculations based on concrete criteria

• Heiner Eckert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1425–1433, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.142

• demonstrate the enormous influence of branching on the overall yield yoa and synthesis efficiency Effsyn. Fragment strategy: fragment linking in peptides synthesis In synthetic peptide chemistry, amino acids are sequentially built up to form long oligo/polypeptides. For reasons of transparency, we have

• assumed the same yield of 80% in each step during the synthesis of a decapeptide in order to clearly indicate the effect of the branching (Scheme 4). Three cases are discussed here: sequential linking of the 10 amino acids (Scheme 4a); sequential synthesis of two pentapeptides and the subsequent linking

Host–guest interactions between p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene and p-sulfonatothiacalix[4]arene and group IA, IIA and f-block metal cations: a DFT/SMD study

• Valya K. Nikolova,
• Cristina V. Kirkova,
• Silvia E. Angelova and
• Todor M. Dudev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1321–1330, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.131

• molecules [27], including some amino acids [28] and proteins [29]. They are also biocompatible: compared to other types of macrocyclic molecules such as cyclodextrins and cucurbiturils (which are also water soluble), p-sulfonatocalix[n]arenes do not exhibit any toxicity, which makes them applicable in

Steroid diversification by multicomponent reactions

• Leslie Reguera,
• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Daniel G. Rivera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1236–1256, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.121

• as the conjugation of steroids to amino acids, peptides and carbohydrates. We demonstrate that steroids are available with almost all types of MCR reactive functionalities, e.g., carbonyl, carboxylic acid, alkyne, amine, isocyanide, boronic acid, etc., and that steroids are suitable starting

• -4CR, which is indeed one of the MCRs of major incidence in the field of steroid chemistry. Rivera and co-workers were the first to employ this 4CR for the conjugation of amino acids to steroids [19] as part of a general program for the synthesis of peptidomimetic–steroid hybrids [20][21]. As shown in

• Scheme 4, the authors developed methods for the functionalization of spirostanic steroids and their further conjugation to amino acids by means of the Ugi-4CR. Thus, seco-steroidal amine 10 – derived from the steroidal sapogenin hecogenin (9) – was ligated to Boc-protected serine in presence of

Phylogenomic analyses and distribution of terpene synthases among Streptomyces

• Lara Martín-Sánchez,
• Kumar Saurabh Singh,
• Mariana Avalos,
• Gilles P. van Wezel,
• Jeroen S. Dickschat and
• Paolina Garbeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1181–1193, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.115

• proteins from the 93 Streptomyces species described above were collected. After removing sequences shorter than 50 amino acids, a total of 171,033 sequences were used to construct orthologous gene families using OrthoFinder – v 2.2.6 [53] applying the default setting (BLASTp e-value cut-off = 1e−5; MCL

Synthesis of (macro)heterocycles by consecutive/repetitive isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions

• Angélica de Fátima S. Barreto and
• Carlos Kleber Z. Andrade

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 906–930, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.88

• ester group present in these compounds allows the obtention of carboxylic acids that can be further used in consecutive IMCRs. Furthermore, optically active isocyanoacetates can be easily obtained from natural amino acids. Recently, Dömling et al. [19] used this efficient approach in the synthesis of

• yield amino acids 11 bearing a 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole. The practicality of the Ugi tetrazole reaction (also called Ugi-azide or azido-Ugi reaction) has been recently reviewed [20][21]. These compounds were then used in an intramolecular three-component four-center Ugi reaction using equimolar

• -aminomethyltetrazoles 18 in up to 99% yield. Another recent study carried out the synthesis of tetrazole peptidomimetics by the direct use of unprotected amino acids in two consecutive Ugi-type reactions [24]. Acid-tetrazole compounds 19 were obtained using C,N-unprotected amino acids in an Ugi-tetrazole reaction with

Synthesis of a novel category of pseudo-peptides using an Ugi three-component reaction of levulinic acid as bifunctional substrate, amines, and amino acid-based isocyanides

• Maryam Khalesi,
• Azim Ziyaei Halimehjani and
• Jürgen Martens

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 852–857, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.82

• acid, aromatic and aliphatic amines and amino acid-based isocyanides. First of all, racemic α-amino acids such as DL-tryptophan, DL-phenylalanine and DL-leucine were used as amine source for the synthesis of isocyanide esters 3 through three sequential reactions [30][31]. The first reaction is

• -tryptophane, DL-leucine and DL-phenylalanine worked very well in this reaction to provide the corresponding pseudo-peptides 4 containing γ-lactam, amide and ester functional groups in a single structure. By starting from DL-amino acids, the corresponding racemic isocyanides were obtained. By using the racemic

• amino acid-based isocyanides starting from α-amino acids. Synthesis of pseudo-peptides using levulinic acid, isocyanide esters and amines. Proposed mechanism for Ugi-4C-3CR. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 344: Experimental procedures, characterization data and copies of 1H and 13C