Coupled Biosynthesis of Volatiles and Salinosporamide A in Salinispora tropica

Terrestrial bacteria, especially actinomycetes, are known to be prolific producers of volatile compounds. We show here that bacteria from ocean sediments can also release complex bouquets of volatiles. The actinomycete Salinispora tropica produces cyclohexenyl compounds not previously known in nature, such as methyl cyclohex-2-ene-1-carboxylate (9), methyl 2-(cyclohex-2-en-1-yl)acetate (10), methyl (E/Z)-2-(cyclohex-2-en-1-ylidene)acetate (11/12), and related alcohols 8 and 13. These compounds were identified by GC/MS and confirmed by synthesis. In addition, rare spiroacetals, aromatic compounds, short-chain acids and esters, alcohols, and various cyclic compounds were produced by the bacteria. The biosynthesis of the cyclohexenyl compounds is closely coupled to that of cyclohexenylalanine (4), a building block of salinosporamide A, a proteasome inhibitor produced by S. tropica. Analysis of S. tropica strains that harbor knockouts of the salinosporamide biosynthetic genes salX and salD, coupled with feeding experiments, revealed that 3-(cyclohex-2-en-1-yl)-2-oxopropanoic acid (60) and 3-(cyclohex-2-en-1-ylidene)-2-oxopropanoic acid (isomers 61 and 62) are important intermediates in the biosynthesis of salinosporamide A, 4, and 8-13.

Total Synthesis and Configurational Assignment of Ascospiroketal A

The total synthesis of the marine fungus-derived natural product ascospiroketal is described. This concise synthesis relies on a unique Ag(I) -promoted tandem cascade cyclization that provides direct access to the correctly configured tricyclic core of the natural product from a linear precursor. The synthesis of candidate stereostructures of ascospiroketal A allowed for the confident assignment of both the relative and absolute stereochemistry of this unusual octaketide.

Site-specific modification of the anticancer and antituberculosis polyether salinomycin by biosynthetic engineering

The complex bis-spiroacetal polyether ionophore salinomycin has been identified as a uniquely selective agent against cancer stem cells and is also strikingly effective in an animal model of latent tuberculosis. The basis for these important activities is unknown. We show here that deletion of the salE gene abolishes salinomycin production and yields two new analogues, in both of which the C18C19 cis double bond is replaced by a hydroxy group stereospecifically located at C19, but which differ from each other in the configuration of the bis-spiroacetal. These results identify SalE as a novel dehydratase and demonstrate that biosynthetic engineering can be used to redirect the reaction cascade of oxidative cyclization to yield new salinomycin analogues for use in mechanism-of-action studies.

Total synthesis and structure revision of didemnaketal B

Didemnaketal B, a structurally complex spiroacetal that exhibits potent HIV-1 protease inhibitory activity, was originally discovered by Faulkner and his colleagues from the ascidian Didemnum sp. collected at Palau. Its absolute configuration was proposed on the basis of degradation/derivatization experiments of the authentic sample. However, our total synthesis of the proposed structure of didemnaketal B questioned the stereochemical assignment made by Faulkner et al. Here we describe in detail our first total synthesis of the proposed structure 2 of didemnaketal B, which features 1) a convergent synthesis of the C7-C21 spiroacetal domain by means of a strategy exploiting Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, 2) an Evans syn-aldol reaction and a vinylogous Mukaiyama aldol reaction for the assembly of the C1-C7 acyclic domain, and 3) a Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi reaction for the construction of the C21-C28 side chain domain. The NMR spectroscopic discrepancies observed between synthetic 2 and the authentic sample as well as careful inspection of the Faulkner's stereochemical assignment led us to postulate that the absolute configuration of the C10-C20 domain of 2 has been erroneously assigned. Accordingly, the total synthesis of the revised structure 65 was achieved to show that the NMR spectroscopic properties of synthetic 65 were in good agreement with those of the authentic sample. Furthermore, application of the phenylglycine methyl ester (PGME) method to the C7-C21 spiroacetal domain enabled us to establish the absolute configuration of didemnaketal B.

Radical oxidative cyclization of spiroacetals to bis-spiroacetals: an overview

The use of iodobenzene diacetate and iodine under photolytic conditions provides and efficient method for the oxidative cyclization of spiroacetals bearing an hydroxyalkyl side chain to bis-spiroacetals. An overview is provided of the use of this reaction for the synthesis of several bis-spiroacetal containing natural products such as the polyether antibiotics salinomycin and CP44,161 and the shellfish toxins, the spirolides.