Optimizations of lipid II synthesis: an essential glycolipid precursor in bacterial cell wall synthesis and a validated antibiotic target

• Milandip Karak,
• Cian R. Cloonan,
• Brad R. Baker,
• Rachel V. K. Cochrane and
• Stephen A. Cochrane

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 220–227, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.22

• analogues through the incorporation of alternative building blocks at different stages of synthesis. Keywords: chemical glycosylation; lipid II; peptidoglycan; polyprenyls; total synthesis; Introduction Lipid II (Figure 1) is an essential bacterial glycolipid involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis [1]. It

• a more viable strategy in contrast to other methodologies, as it offers the potential to generate ample quantities of lipid II analogues suitable for high-throughput screening endeavors. In recent years, a major focus of the Cochrane lab has been the chemical synthesis of bacterial polyprenyls to

• study the mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides that kill bacteria through binding to these polyprenyls [21][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Lipid II has been of particular interest, and during our synthesis of multiple different lipid II analogues, we have developed several optimizations, which we

Opportunities and challenges for the sustainable production of structurally complex diterpenoids in recombinant microbial systems

• Katarina Kemper,
• Max Hirte,
• Markus Reinbold,
• Monika Fuchs and
• Thomas Brück

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 845–854, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.85

• prevent accumulation of the desired lead structures [33]. Isoprenyl diphosphate formation Downstream of precursor formation condensation of IPP and DMAPP to longer-chain polyprenyls precedes subsequent metabolization to linear or mono- and polycyclic products, respectively, by the terpene synthases [24