色氨酸, 天然产物生物合成中的重要结构单元

氨基酸作为生物体内组成生命物质的小分子化合物, 在天然产物生物合成中扮演了非常重要的作用。色氨酸含有一个独特的吲哚环, 相对复杂的吲哚环平面结构使得色氨酸相比其他氨基酸具有更多的修饰空间。在微生物天然产物生物合成研究中, 色氨酸及其衍生物经常作为组成模块参与到天然产物的生物合成中, 本文概述了色氨酸几种不同的生物修饰方式, 包括烷基化修饰、卤化修饰、羟基化修饰、以及吲哚环的开环重排反应等。分析并总结色氨酸在天然产物生物合成中的作用可以增加我们对天然产物结构多样性的认识和推动天然产物生物合成机制的研究。

Tryptophan, an important starting material in biosynthesis of microbial natural products

Amino acids, natural small molecules that are important materials for constituting living organisms, play important roles in natural products biosynthesis. Tryptophan has a unique indole ring structure which possesses more modification sites than other amino acids. In studies on microbial natural products biosynthesis, tryptophan and its derivatives often serve as structural moieties that are incorporated into the natural products structures. Here, we summarize different modification patterns of tryptophan, including alkylation, halogenation, hydroxylation, indole ring-open and rearrangement reactions. Analyzing and summarizing the enzymatic modifications of tryptophan could help us understand the structure diversities of natural products and lay the foundation for our study of the mechanism of the novel natural product biosynthesis.