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

• synthases (TPSs) are pivotal enzymes for the production of diverse terpenes, including monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpenes. In our recent studies, dictyostelid social amoebae, also known as cellular slime molds, were found to contain TPS genes for making volatile terpenes. For comparison, here we

• (TPSs) catalyze the conversion of prenyl diphosphates to diverse terpenes [13]. Because all living organisms produce prenyl diphosphates, whether an organism has the ability to produce terpenes depends on whether it contains TPS genes. Recently we could show that dictyostelid social amoebae contain TPS

• underpinning biosynthetic genes in the two lineages of amoeba. Results Plasmodia of P. polycephalum release a mixture of volatile terpenoids To determine whether P. polycephalum releases volatile terpenoids like dictyostelid social amoebae, plasmodia of P. polycephalum were cultured on agar plates with oak

Versatile synthesis of the signaling peptide glorin

• Robert Barnett,
• Daniel Raszkowski,
• Thomas Winckler and
• Pierre Stallforth

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 247–250, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.27

• as well as in the design of chemical probes to dissect glorin-mediated signaling pathways. Keywords: Dictyostelium; glorin; multicellularity; Polysphondylium; signaling molecules; social amoebae; Introduction The emergence of multicellularity from unicellular ancestors is considered a major

• evolutionary transition [1]. This transition has occurred not only once, in fact more than 25 independent instances of this event are known. The resulting increase in biological complexity requires fine-tuned differentiation and cell–cell communication mechanisms. The social amoebae are exquisite organisms to

• initiated by pulses of chemoattractive, low-molecular weight signaling molecules – so-called acrasins [5]. Additionally, it has been shown that natural products are also involved in interspecies interactions of social amoebae and bacteria [6][7][8][9][10]. A detailed investigation of both inter- and

A detailed view on 1,8-cineol biosynthesis by Streptomyces clavuligerus

• Jan Rinkel,
• Patrick Rabe,
• Laura zur Horst and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 2317–2324, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.225

• complexity is reached within the largest, the terpenoids. An estimated number of 75,000 different compounds are known from all kinds of organisms including plants [1], bacteria [2][3][4][5], fungi [6] and, as recently shown, even social amoebae [7]. These molecules are all made from only a handful of linear