Isotope tracer investigations of natural products biosynthesis: the discovery of novel metabolic pathways

✍ Scribed by Taifo Mahmud

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 289 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-2135
• DOI: 10.1002/jlcr.1391

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Feeding experiments using isotopically labeled precursors remain crucial elements in the study of natural product biosynthesis. Through careful isotope tracer studies, a number of previously unrecognized biosynthetic pathways have now become obvious. One of the remarkable examples is the discovery of the non‐mevalonate pathway in plants, bacteria, algae, and plasmodium, whereas others include the discovery of a new shunt pathway that connects the mevalonate pathway and branched‐chain fatty acids in myxobacteria and the involvement of an unusual HMG‐CoA synthase‐like mechanism in polyketide biosynthesis. Significant progress has also been made in the biosynthetic studies of aminocyclitol‐derived natural products and other bioactive secondary metabolites. This review highlights some of the more recent discoveries of novel mechanisms and metabolic pathways involved in natural product biosynthesis based on isotope tracer experiments. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.