A natural product binding protein

Using NMR, David Jakeman and co-workers at Dalhousie University reported in JACS on a natural product binding protein, JadX.

 

JACS paper

Biochemometric analysis ~ natural products (altersetin)

Nadja Cech and co-workers at UNC Greensboro have reported in the Journal of Natural Products on the isolation of altersetin, an antibacterial alkaloid.

 

JNP paper

Crystalline Sponge Method to Determine Absolute Configuration

X-ray crystallography is usually a good method to determine the relative configuration of natural products (i.e. diastereomers) containing more than one stereocenter. However, the method of determining the absolute configuration of natural products is very difficult by just using X-ray crystallography. Here’s a paper from the labs of Sylvia Urban (RMIT University) and Makoto Fujita (University of Tokyo)  that reports on the use of the crystalline sponge method to determine the absolute stereochemistry of elatenyne.

 

ACIE paper 

 

Other ways to determine absolute configuration by X-ray crystallography include derivatization with a chiral reagent then crystallizing, using the effects of anomalous dispersion (Friedif values).

Mollenynes B-E

Tadeusz Molinski and co-workers have reported in JACS on the isolation and characterization of mollenynes B-E.

JACS paper