Synthesis of Microbial Signaling Molecules and Their Stereochemistry-Activity Relationships

Microbial signaling molecules such as autoinducers and microbial hormones play important roles in intercellular communication in microorganisms. Information transfer between the individual cells of a microorganism is one of the most important biological events among them. Researchers often suffer from extremely low levels of microbial signaling molecule contents, which prevent them from understanding chemistry and biology of intercellular communication in microorganisms. Chemical synthesis is a powerful tool to obtain sufficient amounts of sample and to clarify the structure of a molecule. This review focuses on the synthesis and stereochemistry-bioactivity relationships of five microbial signaling molecules, Vibrio cholerae autoinducer-1 (CAI-1), AI-2 precursor (DPD), an acylhomoserine lactone from Rhizobium leguminosarum (small bacteriocin), a diffusible extracellular factor of Xanthomondas campestris pv. campestris, and Phytophthora mating hormone α1.