Highly Diastereoselective Silyl-Modified Sakurai Multicomponent Reaction

Combining total synthesis and genetic engineering to probe dihydropyran formation in ambruticin biosynthesis

The ambruticins are a family of potent antifungal polyketide derived natural products isolated from the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum. Their unusual structures include a trisubstituted cyclopropyl group and two oxygen heterocycles, a tetrahydropyran (THP) and dihydropyran (DHP). Herein we report a flexible modular approach for the total synthesis of ambruticins which is used to prepare ambruticins F and S as well as in the first total synthesis of 20,21-dihydroambruticin F. The flexible strategy unites 3 fragments via Julia-Kocienski olefinations and provides important standards for investigation of dihydropyran formation in ambruticin biosynthesis. Cultures of wild-type S. cellulosum So ce10 produce mainly ambruticin S and the VS series of metabolites. An efficient electroporation method enabled gene knockout experiments which revealed that the ΔambP-S mutant of S. cellulosum accumulated the bisTHP polyketide 20,21-dihydroambruticin F. In contrast, the ΔambN-S mutant gave ambruticin F with the 20,21-alkene as the major metabolite confirming that AmbP and AmbO (a Rieske enzyme and flavin-dependent monooxygenase respectively) are implicated in 20,21-alkene formation. The results of feeding studies to a Sorangium strain containing only ambP and ambO are in accord with formation of the 20,21-alkene occurring prior to generation of the C3 to C7 dihydroxylated tetrahydropyran in ambruticin biosynthesis.

Triazenyl Alkynes as Versatile Building Blocks in Multicomponent Reactions: Diastereoselective Synthesis of β-Amino Amides

Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) are powerful tool for the construction of polyfunctional molecules in an operationally simple and atom-economic manner, and the discovery of novel MCRs requests various building blocks. Herein, triazenyl alkynes were disclosed as versatile building blocks in a multicomponent reaction with carboxylic acids, aldehydes and anilines to furnish β-amino amides with the achievement of high diastereoselectivity and structural diversity. In this process, triazenyl alkynes were bifunctional so that the alkyne moiety acts as C2 fragment and triazene serves as directing group to modulate the transition state thus achieving high diastereoselectivity, in consistence with DFT calculations. Furthermore, the triazenyl group also enables diverse late-stage transformation. This protocol opens a new vision for the discovery of building block and rational design of MCRs.

Integrating biocatalysis and multicomponent reactions

While often multicomponent reactions (MCR) are used for the diversity-oriented synthesis of racemic (or achiral) molecular entities, this short review describes two alternative approaches for accessing enantiopure products exploiting the power of biocatalysis. Enzymes or microorganisms may be used for preparing enantiopure MCR inputs or for resolving racemic (or achiral) MCR adducts.

Exploring chemical space: recent advances in chemistry

Recent advances and concepts for exploring chemical space are highlighted in this chapter and show how the synthetic chemical world meets the demand of making large and relevant collection of new molecules for analyzing the biological world more closely.

The domino multicomponent allylation reaction for the stereoselective synthesis of homoallylic alcohols

Stereoselective allylations of carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes and ketones are useful but challenging reactions in organic chemistry. The resulting chiral secondary and tertiary homoallylic alcohols or ethers are valuable building blocks in the synthesis of biologically active natural compounds and pharmaceuticals. Although researchers have developed several methods for the facially selective allylation of aldehydes, the stereoselective allylation of ketones still poses a severe problem. We have developed a highly diastereoselective domino multicomponent allylation reaction of a ketone and allyltrimethyl silane using the trimethylsilyl ether of a norpseudoephedrine or mandelic acid derivative as an auxiliary with a diastereoselectivity of up to 98:2. The reaction is performed at -78 degrees C in the presence of a catalytic amount of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid and leads to the corresponding tertiary ethers. The procedure can also be used for the allylation of aliphatic aldehydes with a diastereomeric ratio >99:1. Ketones give the 4,1'-syn product while the aldehydes give the reversed selectivity to yield a 4,1'-anti product. In addition, the reaction of gamma-substituted allyl silanes with ketones yields a product with two stereogenic centers and an anti diastereoselectivity of >99:1. The homoallylic ethers formed in the domino multicomponent process can be used in further synthetic transformations: the auxiliary can serve as a protecting group or can be cleaved reductively to give the corresponding homoallylic alcohols. Based on a number of both experimental and theoretical studies of the reaction mechanism, we conclude that an intermediate oxocarbenium ion is formed in the reaction of ketones. The oxocarbenium ion is attacked by the allyl silane during the stereogenic step. Using density functional theory methods, we could trace the observed stereoselectivity phenomena back to open transition states (TSs) where there is no interaction between the silane's trimethylsilyl group and the former carbonyl oxygen. On the contrary, the reaction with aldehydes forms an intermediate oxazolidinium salt, which explains the opposite selectivity. We have used the new allylation procedure in several total syntheses of natural products such as vitamin E, (+)-hydroxymyoporone, 5,6-dihydrocineromycin B, and polyoxygenated cembrenes.