Polyketide stereocontrol: a study in chemical biology

• Kira J. Weissman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 348–371, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.39

• biosynthesis of reduced polyketides in bacteria by modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) proceeds with exquisite stereocontrol. As the stereochemistry is intimately linked to the strong bioactivity of these molecules, the origins of stereochemical control are of significant interest in attempts to create

• this approach to provide answers to fundamental biological questions. Keywords: chemical biology; polyketide synthases; reduced polyketides; stereocontrol; Introduction Reduced polyketides and their derivatives form the basis for a number of medicines in current clinical usage, notably anti

• synthesis [4]), which incorporate both high functional group density and rich stereochemistry. These features, coupled with the fact that the majority of reduced polyketides are macrocyclic, result in significant in-built conformational constraints. As a consequence, these molecules present their diverse

Biosynthesis of oxygen and nitrogen-containing heterocycles in polyketides

• Franziska Hemmerling and
• Frank Hahn

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1512–1550, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.148

• ]. Polyketides Polyketide natural products are biosynthesised by polyketide synthases (PKSs) of the types I–III. Type I PKS are multimodular megaenzyme complexes that produce linear, reduced polyketides in an assembly line process that uses acyl carrier proteins (ACP), ketosynthase (KS) and acyl transferase (AT