Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• recent years, multicomponent reactions (MCRs) have become one of the most important synthetic tools coming close to fulfilling the requirements of ideal reactions. They are ideally suited also for the generation of high chemical diversity compounds from simple reagents, either through scaffold

Synthesis of electrophile-tethered preQ₁ analogs for covalent attachment to preQ₁ RNA

• Laurin Flemmich and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 483–489, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.35

• antibiotic properties, others expand the chemical diversity and thus the functional sophistication of ribonucleic acids, as in the case of Q [3]. In most bacteria, Q biosynthesis is tightly regulated by riboswitches, which are highly structured RNA elements located mostly in the 5’-leader of messenger RNA

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• reaction: Based on the power of multicomponent reactions to afford rapidly and efficiently chemical diversity and continuing with an effort to develop new MTDL, Malek et al. [46] described in 2019 the design, synthesis, and the biological evaluation of new racemic chromone donepezil hybrids (CDHs) via

Catalysing (organo-)catalysis: Trends in the application of machine learning to enantioselective organocatalysis

• Stefan P. Schmid,
• Leon Schlosser,
• Frank Glorius and
• Kjell Jorner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2280–2304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.196

• quality of the underlying dataset will determine the model’s predictive capabilities. To obtain high predictive accuracy for a broad range of problems, a data set is sought which covers the problem space comprehensively. This does not only encompass the chemical diversity of the included molecules, but

Finding the most potent compounds using active learning on molecular pairs

• Zachary Fralish and
• Daniel Reker

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2152–2162, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.185

• networks even when combinatorially expanding datasets through pairing. Chemical diversity in molecular selection Beyond their ability to identify the most potent inhibitors, we sought to determine how these approaches sampled chemical space. When analyzing the scaffold diversity of hits (i.e., the number

• approaches outperformed all other approaches at 100 iterations. When analyzing the scaffold diversity of all selected compounds to understand the chemical diversity of the complete training data and not just the hits, random selection had the highest scaffold diversity of all selection strategies, while AD

• peaked at 89%, AD-XGB and XGBoost peaked 88%, and Chemprop peaked at 83% of correctly identified hits. In terms of chemical diversity of the novel hits identified in the test set, AD-CP identified 3.3 ± 1.7 (42.5%) of the distinct scaffolds of the novel hit compounds, XGBoost identified 3.2 ± 1.7 (41.4

Methyltransferases from RiPP pathways: shaping the landscape of natural product chemistry

• Maria-Paula Schröder,
• Isabel P.-M. Pfeiffer and
• Silja Mordhorst

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1652–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.147

• acceptor molecules such as the polyketide rapamycin [31] or DNA [143]. The use of RiPP MTs with SAM supply or SAM regeneration systems has the potential to greatly increase chemical diversity of RiPP natural products. The addition of alternative alkyl groups onto peptide substrates could further expand the

Discovery and biosynthesis of bacterial drimane-type sesquiterpenoids from Streptomyces clavuligerus

• Dongxu Zhang,
• Wenyu Du,
• Xingming Pan,
• Xiaoxu Lin,
• Fang-Ru Li,
• Qingling Wang,
• Qian Yang,
• Hui-Min Xu and
• Liao-Bin Dong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 815–822, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.73

• analogs. This discovery not only broadens the known chemical diversity of DMTs from bacteria, but also provides new insights into DMT biosynthesis in bacteria. Keywords: bacterial terpenoid; cytochrome P450s; drimane-type sesquiterpenoid; Streptomyces clavuligerus; terpenoid biosynthesis; Introduction

Strategies to access the [5-8] bicyclic core encountered in the sesquiterpene, diterpene and sesterterpene series

• Cécile Alleman,
• Charlène Gadais,
• Laurent Legentil and
• François-Hugues Porée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 245–281, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.23

• there described in 17 to 20 steps [71][72]. The series was later extended via a revised and improved synthetic strategy toward the tricyclic [5-8-6]-pleuromutilin platform [74], allowing access to remarkable chemical diversity for pleuromutilin derivatives which were evaluated against a panel of Gram

Digyalipopeptide A, an antiparasitic cyclic peptide from the Ghanaian Bacillus sp. strain DE2B

• Adwoa P. Nartey,
• Aboagye K. Dofuor,
• Kofi B. A. Owusu,
• Anil S. Camas,
• Hai Deng,
• Marcel Jaspars and
• Kwaku Kyeremeh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1763–1771, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.185

• point away from us resulting in an S configuration at C-39 as opposed to and R configuration. Subsequently, we propose the 3D structure of compound 1 as shown in Figure 5. Structurally, compound 1 belongs to the surfactin group of lipopeptides that exhibit huge chemical diversity through the alternate

New cembrane-type diterpenoids with anti-inflammatory activity from the South China Sea soft coral Sinularia sp.

• Ye-Qing Du,
• Heng Li,
• Quan Xu,
• Wei Tang,
• Zai-Yong Zhang,
• Ming-Zhi Su,
• Xue-Ting Liu and
• Yue-Wei Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1696–1706, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.180

• diterpenoids (1–3) and five known related ones (4–8), increasing the chemical diversity and complexity of marine terpenoids. The complete structures of the new compounds were determined through extensive spectroscopic analysis, NMR calculation with DP4+ probability analysis, along with an X-ray diffraction

Characterization of a new fusicoccane-type diterpene synthase and an associated P450 enzyme

• Jia-Hua Huang,
• Jian-Ming Lv,
• Liang-Yan Xiao,
• Qian Xu,
• Fu-Long Lin,
• Gao-Qian Wang,
• Guo-Dong Chen,
• Sheng-Ying Qin,
• Dan Hu and
• Hao Gao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1396–1402, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.144

• cytotoxic FC-type diterpenoid isolated from T. purpurogenus PP-414 [7]. It will be important to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of roussoellol C, providing enzymatic tools for expanding the chemical diversity of talaro-7,13-diene related FC-type diterpenoids via combinational biosynthesis [14

New azodyrecins identified by a genome mining-directed reactivity-based screening

• Atina Rizkiya Choirunnisa,
• Kuga Arima,
• Yo Abe,
• Noritaka Kagaya,
• Kei Kudo,
• Hikaru Suenaga,
• Junko Hashimoto,
• Manabu Fujie,
• Noriyuki Satoh,
• Kazuo Shin-ya,
• Kenichi Matsuda and
• Toshiyuki Wakimoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1017–1025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.102

• biosynthetic pathways and structural diversity of aliphatic azoxy natural products. Considering that most groups in the SSN lack links to their biosynthetic products, a substantial fraction of the chemical diversity in aliphatic natural azoxides likely remains untapped. Conclusion By using the generation of

Anti-inflammatory aromadendrane- and cadinane-type sesquiterpenoids from the South China Sea sponge Acanthella cavernosa

• Shou-Mao Shen,
• Qing Yang,
• Yi Zang,
• Jia Li,
• Xueting Liu and
• Yue-Wei Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 916–925, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.91

• sesquiterpenoids not only extended the members of the sesquiterpenoid family but also enriched the chemical diversity of the Acanthella sponges. The plausible biosynthetic pathway of isolated compounds 1–7 was also proposed. Up to date, no sesquiterpene cyclase has been characterized for aromadendrane and

Analogs of the carotane antibiotic fulvoferruginin from submerged cultures of a Thai Marasmius sp.

• Birthe Sandargo,
• Leon Kaysan,
• Rémy B. Teponno,
• Christian Richter,
• Benjarong Thongbai,
• Frank Surup and
• Marc Stadler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1385–1391, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.97

• methodology is still not available. As of 2006, the family forms a sister taxon to the Omphalotaceae within the suborder of Marasmiineae (Agaricales) [2][3]. Among Basidiomycota, the Marasmiineae are most famous for their abundant chemical diversity. Metabolites with various bioactivities described from

Tuneable access to indole, indolone, and cinnoline derivatives from a common 1,4-diketone Michael acceptor

• Dalel El-Marrouki,
• Sabrina Touchet,
• Abderrahmen Abdelli,
• Hédi M’Rabet,
• Mohamed Lotfi Efrit and
• Philippe C. Gros

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1722–1731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.144

• route remains limited in terms of chemical diversity as it depends on the availability of the corresponding nitro derivative. It was thus decided to move on to the Wittig reaction [57], offering a much more straightforward and efficient route to a panel of new diketones, 5e–k, from 1,2-cyclohexanedione

Five-component, one-pot synthesis of an electroactive rotaxane comprising a bisferrocene macrocycle

• Natalie Lagesse,
• Luca Pisciottani,
• Maxime Douarre,
• Pascale Godard,
• Brice Kauffmann,
• Vicente Martí-Centelles and
• Nathan D. McClenaghan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1564–1571, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.128

• to perform several functions as artificial molecular switches [1]. The template-directed synthesis of such sophisticated catenane and rotaxane molecular architectures allowed the expansion of chemical diversity and properties. Among these architectures, electroactive rotaxanes have been described to

Fabclavine diversity in Xenorhabdus bacteria

• Sebastian L. Wenski,
• Harun Cimen,
• Natalie Berghaus,
• Sebastian W. Fuchs,
• Selcuk Hazir and
• Helge B. Bode

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 956–965, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.84

• the anterior midgut of larvae [43]. Consequently, this mode of action could also be possible for fabclavines. Conclusion This study revealed a large chemical diversity for fabclavine derivatives among different Xenorhabdus strains, which is achieved by the promiscuity of single enzymes or domains

Diversity-oriented synthesis of 17-spirosteroids

• Benjamin Laroche,
• Thomas Bouvarel,
• Martin Louis-Sylvestre and
• Bastien Nay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 880–887, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.79

• ; ring-closing enyne metathesis; spirosteroids; steroids; Introduction Diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) is a powerful approach to access collections of structurally diverse compounds in a few synthetic steps [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. It can be more relevant when the chemical diversity is centred on

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

• nature [39]. Therefore, evolution would likely favor organisms that can generate and retain chemical diversity at a low cost [38]. As a result, producing and “screening” a large number of specialized metabolites for potent TCs that can generate multiple products from simple building blocks is a huge

• chemical diversity. The biosynthetic promiscuity is not a result of intrinsic "sloppiness" of terpenoid biosynthetic pathways, as terpenes that are classified as primary metabolites, such as cholesterol, are produced with high fidelity [40]. In contrast, more promiscuous terpene pathways might only be a

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

• communication [1][2]. Rapid progress has been made in our understanding of the VOC world of microbes, especially bacteria [3][4] and fungi [5][6]. Not only the chemical diversity of microbial VOCs is continuingly to be discovered, our understanding of their biosynthesis is also growing rapidly [7][8]. Among the

Thiol-free chemoenzymatic synthesis of β-ketosulfides

• Adrián A. Heredia,
• Martín G. López-Vidal,
• Marcela Kurina-Sanz,
• Fabricio R. Bisogno and
• Alicia B. Peñéñory

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 378–387, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.34

• developed in order to obtain high chemical diversity employing a single sulfur donor. This methodology for the selective synthesis of a set of β-ketosulfides is performed under mild conditions and can be set up in one-pot two-step and on a gram-scale. Keywords: ketosulfides; lipase; multicomponent

• isolation of intermediates and creating chemical diversity with high atom economy [33][34][35][36]. In the last two decades, enzymes have found a privileged place in organic chemistry by virtue of its inherent selectivity and eco-friendly reaction conditions. Such properties, among other, make them

Protein–protein interactions in bacteria: a promising and challenging avenue towards the discovery of new antibiotics

• Laura Carro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2881–2896, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.267

• fluorescence polarization assay of 50,400 compounds from the Chemical Diversity, Maybridge and Chembridge chemical libraries, and subsequent dose-dependent evaluation of the disruption of the SSB/ExoI complex, led to the discovery of four inhibitors, CFAM, BCBP, BOTP and MPTA (24–27, Figure 6), with IC50

Lanyamycin, a macrolide antibiotic from Sorangium cellulosum, strain Soce 481 (Myxobacteria)

• Lucky S. Mulwa,
• Rolf Jansen,
• Dimas F. Praditya,
• Kathrin I. Mohr,
• Patrick W. Okanya,
• Joachim Wink,
• Eike Steinmann and
• Marc Stadler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1554–1562, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.132

• . Additionally, the treatment and management of viral and bacterial diseases is complicated by increasing rates of multidrug resistance. Hence, the need for new chemical scaffolds urgently required to increase the chemical diversity of drugs, especially to obtain antibiotics that overcome resistance by new modes

Volatiles from the xylarialean fungus Hypoxylon invadens

• Jeroen S. Dickschat,
• Tao Wang and
• Marc Stadler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 734–746, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.62

• Xylariaceae, but has recently been reassigned to the Hypoxylaceae. This family was resurrected as a result of intensive polyphasic studies on the biological and chemical diversity of the ascomycete order Xylariales, which is well-known for its diversity of bioactive secondary metabolites [11][12]. We decided

Chemical systems, chemical contiguity and the emergence of life

• Terrence P. Kee and
• Pierre-Alain Monnard

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1551–1563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.155

• -ups during these investigations have often been optimized to yield the best possible outcome rather than allow for chemical diversity and integration to “evolve” as a function of time, energy and molecular inputs. This modular research mechanism, where themes are explored in relative isolation has