Open AccessIdentification and characterization of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleoside antibiotics
Author(s) -
Matt McErlean,
X. Liu,
Zheng Cui,
Bertolt Gust,
Steven G. Van Lanen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
natural product reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.703
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1460-4752
pISSN - 0265-0568
DOI - 10.1039/d0np00064g
Subject(s) - pyrimidine , nucleoside , biosynthesis , biochemistry , pyrimidine metabolism , enzyme , antibiotics , chemistry , identification (biology) , computational biology , biology , purine , botany
Covering: up to September 2020 Hundreds of nucleoside-based natural products have been isolated from various microorganisms, several of which have been utilized in agriculture as pesticides and herbicides, in medicine as therapeutics for cancer and infectious disease, and as molecular probes to study biological processes. Natural products consisting of structural modifications of each of the canonical nucleosides have been discovered, ranging from simple modifications such as single-step alkylations or acylations to highly elaborate modifications that dramatically alter the nucleoside scaffold and require multiple enzyme-catalyzed reactions. A vast amount of genomic information has been uncovered the past two decades, which has subsequently allowed the first opportunity to interrogate the chemically intriguing enzymatic transformations for the latter type of modifications. This review highlights (i) the discovery and potential applications of structurally complex pyrimidine nucleoside antibiotics for which genetic information is known, (ii) the established reactions that convert the canonical pyrimidine into a new nucleoside scaffold, and (iii) the important tailoring reactions that impart further structural complexity to these molecules.