Beyond symmetric self-assembly and effective molarity: unlocking functional enzyme mimics with robust organic cages

• Keith G. Andrews

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 421–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.30

• ”, or “proton wire” [103][104][105][106] or equivalent to balance the electron redistribution, which may explain the low activity of Cram’s model serine protease in Figure 3A [107]. Polarization was addressed by the creative “molecular clefts” of Rebek [108][109]. Although not a cavity per se, clefts

• active site (binding a substrate in an orientation that directs internally catalyzed reactivity) [347][348]. The examples of cavities with functionality discussed above, from Cram’s “full serine protease model” [87], to MOCs with flexible peripheral groups [349], to frameworks with internal proline

• reactivity. (B) Macrocycles with functional sites that react with bound substrates directly. (A) Cram’s serine protease model system [87][88]. The macrocycle showed strong substrate binding (organization), but the model did not show strong acceleration for a hydrolysis reaction. The “organized” catalytic

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• enantioselectivity is the introduction of serine-derived bisoxazoline ligands L8 (sBOX). Upon coordination with a copper catalyst, these ligands present second-sphere ester groups, which facilitate the additional stabilization of noncovalent interactions at the penta-coordinated Cu(III) intermediate 82 in the

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• ], requires the presence of a nucleophile at the β-position of the amino acid and occurs exclusively on select amino acids. Specifically, cyclodehydration of a serine or threonine (followed by oxidation or reduction) generates an oxazole, oxazoline, or oxazolidine moiety in the NRP backbone, and the analogous

Applications of microscopy and small angle scattering techniques for the characterisation of supramolecular gels

• Connor R. M. MacDonald and
• Emily R. Draper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2608–2634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.220

• ]. The work by Alakpa et al. highlights how important it is to consider how one assesses the impact of co-assembly on a molecular system [20]. AFM suggested that the addition of the surfactant-like Fmoc-serine (Fmoc-S) to the fibrous Fmoc-diphenylalanine (Fmoc-FF) did not impact the structure of the Fmoc

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• and cross-coupling of different kinds of amines for approaching symmetric and unsymmetric imines [76]. This method achieved the bioconjugation of several amino acids with benzylamine, the use of phenylalanine (Phe), serine (Ser), and isoleucine (Ile) as substrates led to 85%, 59%, and 29% yield

Computational toolbox for the analysis of protein–glycan interactions

• Ferran Nieto-Fabregat,
• Maria Pia Lenza,
• Angela Marseglia,
• Cristina Di Carluccio,
• Antonio Molinaro,
• Alba Silipo and
• Roberta Marchetti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2084–2107, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.180

• glycosylation: i) N-glycosylation, where a N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is linked to the nitrogen atom of an asparagine side chain [28]; ii) O-glycosylation, where a GlcNAc or N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) is linked to the hydroxy group of a serine or threonine residue [29]; iii) C-glycosylation, where a

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162

• work described below, KTGS was applied to multicomponent reactions in limited cases [25]. Van der Veken et al. selected as template the protein urokinase plasminogen activator, a serine protease targeted in oncology and inhibited by imidazopyridines [26]. The main challenges of this project were the

Discovery of antimicrobial peptides clostrisin and cellulosin from Clostridium: insights into their structures, co-localized biosynthetic gene clusters, and antibiotic activity

• Moisés Alejandro Alejo Hernandez,
• Katia Pamela Villavicencio Sánchez,
• Rosendo Sánchez Morales,
• Karla Georgina Hernández-Magro Gil,
• David Silverio Moreno-Gutiérrez,
• Eddie Guillermo Sanchez-Rueda,
• Yanet Teresa-Cruz,
• Brian Choi,
• Armando Hernández Garcia,
• Alba Romero-Rodríguez,
• Oscar Juárez,
• Siseth Martínez-Caballero,
• Mario Figueroa and
• Corina-Diana Ceapă

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1800–1816, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.159

• resulting peptides exhibit unique structural features due to thioether bridges between dehydrated serine or threonine (Dha/Dhb) and cysteine (Cys). These thioether bridges lead to cyclic peptides with the modified amino acid lanthionine (Dha-Cys) or methyllanthionine (Dhb-Cys). The strong antimicrobial

• physicochemical characteristics, number of predicted cycles (one cycle or more was required), the presence of serine (Ser) and threonine (Thr) residues, and the characteristic cleavage site of the C39 peptidases domain (GG or GA) (Table S2 in Supporting Information File 1) obtained in RiPPMiner [5]. The nine

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

• -serine, which provides the methyl group in this case. Another methyl donor that provides a C1 building block for ʟ-methionine and subsequent SAM synthesis is betaine. Betaine-homocysteine MT remethylates ʟ-homocysteine to ʟ-methionine. Non-SAM-dependent MTs catalyse B12-dependent methylations using the

• with N-terminal alanine, serine, threonine, glycine, and methionine residues, as well as the antibiotics nisin and haloduracin with good efficiency. Nisin was methylated on its N-terminal isoleucine and on the side chain of Lys12, where two methylations occurred. It is important to note that N

Polymer degrading marine Microbulbifer bacteria: an un(der)utilized source of chemical and biocatalytic novelty

• Weimao Zhong and
• Vinayak Agarwal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1635–1651, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.146

• substituted saccharides. The vast diversity among CEs is organized into 16 different families [123]. Members of the CE6 family are typical serine-type esterases. A cold-adapted CE6 enzyme, CEST, was cloned and expressed in E. coli from Microbulbifer thermotolerans DAU221 with a temperature optimum of 15 °C

Synthesis of substituted triazole–pyrazole hybrids using triazenylpyrazole precursors

• Simone Gräßle,
• Laura Holzhauer,
• Nicolai Wippert,
• Olaf Fuhr,
• Martin Nieger,
• Nicole Jung and
• Stefan Bräse

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1396–1404, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.121

• strategies to explore access to triazole–pyrazole hybrids. Triazole–pyrazole hybrids, particularly non-fused heterocycles of this class, have not been investigated systematically. Selected known derivatives (Figure 1, 1–4) inhibit the serine-threonine kinase ERK3 [12] or the cholera-causing bacterium Vibrio

New variochelins from soil-isolated Variovorax sp. H002

• Jabal Rahmat Haedar,
• Aya Yoshimura and
• Toshiyuki Wakimoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 692–700, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.63

• serine (Ser), a β-hydroxyaspartic acid (Hya), and a unique γ-amino acid biosynthetically originating from an arginine and a methyl malonate (4-amino-7-guanidino-3-hydroxy-2-methylheptanoic acid), with the amino group acylated by a saturated fatty acid. Subsequent HMBC and MS/MS analyses indicated that

• , Ser: serine, Pro: proline, Orn: ornithine). (b) Validation of var biosynthetic gene cluster. The plasmid constructed for the generation of the varG null-mutant strain (varG::cmR) using the cmR gene cassette (left), and HPLC-profile comparison of the Variovorax sp. H002 wild type strain and the varG

Decarboxylative 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of amino acids for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds

• Xiaofeng Zhang,
• Xiaoming Ma and
• Wei Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1677–1693, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.123

• , serine, and norvaline to give products 11a–f in 53–88% yields with greater than 8.5 dr (Scheme 7). The reactions with leucine and phenylglycine (R2 = iPr and Ph) as amino acids gave mainly mono-cycloaddition products and very little double cycloaddition products 11g and 11h due to the steric hindrance of

Synthesis of ether lipids: natural compounds and analogues

• Marco Antônio G. B. Gomes,
• Alicia Bauduin,
• Chloé Le Roux,
• Romain Fouinneteau,
• Wilfried Berthe,
• Mathieu Berchel,
• Hélène Couthon and
• Paul-Alain Jaffrès

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1299–1369, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.96

• -enyl) lipid chain (Figure 9) [88]. The synthesis starts from serine 9.1 and produce (R)-solketal (9.2) following a three-step protocol [89] that was recently revisited [90] (diazotation, esterification, acetalization). Then, the incorporation of the oleyl chain (C18H35) was achieved by the

• amine with acetic anhydride. It is worth noticing that acetamido-PAF 17.13 was previously reported following a different synthesis scheme starting from serine as chiral precursor [96][105]. Recently, is was reported that the acetamido-PAF 17.13 is an activator of the TRPV2 channel leading to

Photoredox catalysis harvesting multiple photon or electrochemical energies

• Mattia Lepori,
• Simon Schmid and
• Joshua P. Barham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1055–1145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.81

A new oxidatively stable ligand for the chiral functionalization of amino acids in Ni(II)–Schiff base complexes

• Alena V. Dmitrieva,
• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 566–574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.41

• )-1-benzylpyrrolidine-2-carboxamide) and its Ni(II)–Schiff base complexes formed of glycine, serine, and dehydroalanine are reported. A bulky tert-butyl substituent in the phenylene fragment precludes unwanted oxidative dimerization of the Schiff base complex, making it suitable for targeted

• structurally advantageous (S)-N-benzylproline-derived ligand containing the bulky tert-butyl substituent in the phenylene fragment (L7) is reported. Three Ni(II)–Schiff base derivatives of the new ligand (containing glycine, serine, and dehydroalanine) were obtained. Complexes of this type are most often used

• . Results and Discussion Synthesis The synthetic approach to the chiral ligand L7 as well as to its Ni–Schiff base derivatives containing glycine, serine, dehydroalanine, and cysteine is given in Scheme 2. Commercially available (S)-proline was used as the starting material. To obtain the starting t-Bu

Dipeptide analogues of fluorinated aminophosphonic acid sodium salts as moderate competitive inhibitors of cathepsin C

• Karolina Wątroba,
• Małgorzata Pawełczak and
• Marcin Kaźmierczak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 434–439, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.33

• in chemotherapies to support traditional anticancer drugs. Moreover, there is a growing interest in the topic of cathepsin C inhibition, which directly affects serine protease activity [5][6]. Inhibitors of cathepsin C can be cystatins that show activity against a large group of cysteine proteases [7

Solid-phase total synthesis and structural confirmation of antimicrobial longicatenamide A

• Takumi Matsumoto,
• Takefumi Kuranaga,
• Yuto Taniguchi,
• Weicheng Wang and
• Hideaki Kakeya

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1560–1566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.166

• )-protected ᴅ-serine 12 (Scheme 2). Treatment of the olefin 15 with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) cleaved the Boc protecting group and the acetonide to deliver unsaturated amino alcohol 16. The amino group in 16 was protected by the fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc) protecting group for solid-phase peptide

• synthesis, and then hydrogenation of the double bond in 17 provided intermediate 18. Oxidation of the alcohol 18 to acid 10 was realized with the combination of Dess–Martin oxidation [17][18] and Pinnick oxidation [19]. Another unusual amino acid 7 was also synthesized from ᴅ-serine (20, Scheme 3). The

Preparation of an advanced intermediate for the synthesis of leustroducsins and phoslactomycins by heterocycloaddition

• Anaïs Rousseau,
• Guillaume Vincent and
• Cyrille Kouklovsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1385–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.143

• . Common structural motifs include a polyunsaturated acyclic chain with an unsaturated lactone ring and an amine-containing side chain (Figure 1). These natural products have attracted much attention due to their original structure and to their activity as inhibitors of the serine/threonine phosphatase

Computational model predicts protein binding sites of a luminescent ligand equipped with guanidiniocarbonyl-pyrrole groups

• Neda Rafieiolhosseini,
• Matthias Killa,
• Thorben Neumann,
• Niklas Tötsch,
• Jean-Noël Grad,
• Alexander Höing,
• Thies Dirksmeyer,
• Jochen Niemeyer,
• Christian Ottmann,
• Shirley K. Knauer,
• Michael Giese,
• Jens Voskuhl and
• Daniel Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1322–1331, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.137

• groups locate in the two minimum energy positions of the GCP affinity map as well. In both minimum energy conformations of the ligand, at least one GCP or Lys group is found near one of the phosphorylated serine (pSer) residues of the C-Raf peptides (Figure 6d). This is consistent with a strong

• ) and GCP (green beads) groups are found near the aspartic (ASP) and glutamic acid (GLU) residues of 14-3-3ζ. In the presence of the peptides, at least one Lys or GCP group is found near the phosphorylated serine (SER) group (magnified image in (d)) of the C-Raf peptides. In this figure, all the

Vicinal ketoesters – key intermediates in the total synthesis of natural products

• Marc Paul Beller and
• Ulrich Koert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1236–1248, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.129

• the cytotoxic metabolite (−)-aplaminal (96), which was isolated from the sea hare Aplysia kurodai [32]. The natural product is characterized by a triazabicyclo[3.2.1]octane, where each bridge possesses a nitrogen atom. The synthesis commenced with N-Boc-serine (93) which was converted to secondary

Reductive opening of a cyclopropane ring in the Ni(II) coordination environment: a route to functionalized dehydroalanine and cysteine derivatives

• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Olga I. Aglamazova,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1166–1176, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.121

• , alanine, serine and cysteine derivatives are formed as an antibonding combination of the Ni dx²-y² orbital with the group orbitals of the ligands; the π* orbital of the imine and the π orbital of the phenylene fragments are also partially involved. Reduction occurs at similar potential values and is

Synthesis of tryptophan-dehydrobutyrine diketopiperazine and biological activity of hangtaimycin and its co-metabolites

• Houchao Xu,
• Anne Wochele,
• Minghe Luo,
• Gregor Schnakenburg,
• Yuhui Sun,
• Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1159–1165, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.120

• DBU is a common strategy for the dehydration of serine and threonine units in peptides [16], but unfortunately the acetylation of 10 failed. Interestingly, the direct treatment of 10 with LiClO4 and DBU under prolonged reaction times (3 days) resulted in the elimination of water. This reaction

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

• , their enzymatic basis has remained elusive except for the exo-olefin formation in valanimycin biosynthesis, which is mediated by the phosphorylation of a serine moiety by VlmJ and the subsequent dehydration by VlmK [33]. To obtain insights into the late-stage diversification mechanisms, we focused on

Synthesis and bioactivity of pyrrole-conjugated phosphopeptides

• Qiuxin Zhang,
• Weiyi Tan and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 159–166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.17

• the designed peptides combines solution synthesis of the enzyme trigger or the fluorophore with the solid-phase synthesis of the pyrrole-peptide conjugates. We used phosphorus pentoxide and phosphoric acid to react with ᴅ-tyrosine, ʟ-tyrosine, ʟ-serine, or ᴅ-serine to produce ᴅ-phosphotyrosine, ʟ