Dynamic Aspects Of Natural Products Chemistry

Molecular Biological Approaches
1. Auflage 1997
ISBN: 978-90-5702-209-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 177 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 702 g

Preface: Natural products chemistry has a long history, and could be regarded as having its roots in the use of many kinds of herbal mixtures as crude drugs in traditional medicine. Systems of traditional medicine have been practiced in China and Japan for thousands of years, and virtually all regions of the world have used natural materials to treat human disease. It was clear that many plants, herbs, etc. contain components with powerful biological activities. The dawn of modern natural products chemistry began with the isolation of the active component, morphine, from opium. Subsequently, various alkaloids were isolated from medicinal plants and employed clinically. The discovery and the development of penicillin as a microbial metabolite opened up the era of antibiotics, which have saved countless lives in the past half century or so. The isolation and synthesis of steroid hormones resulted in the development of new concepts in molecular stereochemistry and organic synthetic techniques, as did the discovery of bioactive lipids such as prostaglandins and leukatrienes, bioactive peptides such as enkephalins and endetherines, and oligosaccharides, including glycoproteins. Further, the discovery of plant hormones has led to great strides in plant biotechnology, including plant tissue cultures, and derivatives of insect hormones and pheromones are now used as pesticides. Thus, applications of natural products chemistry have become all-pervasive in modern society.Apart from the extensive practical applications of natural products and their derivatives, natural products chemistry has played a central role in the development of modern organic chemistry as a result of its focus on structural and synthetic studies of often highly complex and inaccessible molecules. Biosynthetic studies have also attracted much attention, aiming to answer the questions of why and how such a large number and variety of compounds are synthesised by organisms. Researchers in the field of biosynthesis first focused on elucidation of the pathways of secondary metabolism, and then on the mechanisms, of the enzymes catalyzing the biosynthetic reactions. This was an extremely difficult task, because rather large amounts of enzymes are required for the investigation of reaction mechanisms and the enzyme proteins are often unstable and not easy to purify. However, in recent years the development of molecular biology has made gene and protein engineering rather routine. Thus, studies of mechanistic enzymology can now be conducted with cloned and overexpressed enzyme proteins. It has been shown that the enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of antibiotics in Streptomyces spp. are encoded in gene clusters. Further, cloning and functional analysis of the genes associated with flavonoid biosynthesis should soon cast light on the interesting question of why flavonoids are ubiquitously present in plant leaves.Life is maintained not only by large molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, but also by many small molecules which have essential and diverse roles in the physiology of living organisms. Such compounds often have highly specific interactions with target receptors, but the mechanisms involved largely remain to be explored. Current methodology means that this task can be addressed, and this in turn should lead to a host of new applications for natural products and their derivatives. The key may be an interdisciplinary approach taking account of both biological function and molecular behaviour based on precise structure recognition. As we increasingly understand the mechanisms of molecular recognition that operate in nature, many possibilities should open up for artificial control or modification of biological functions, as well as new challenges for synthetic organic chemists.Our intention in this book is to focus on such dynamic aspects of natural products chemistry. By dealing in detail with representative topics to which the most modern techniques of research have been applied, we hope to emphasize the value of combining traditional approaches to natural products chemists with current biochemical and molecular-biological ideas. Each chapter provides sufficient background information and experimental detail to make the subject accessible to non-specialists. It is our hope that these examples of recent progress in key areas of natural products chemistry will stimulate work in related topics by illustrating the power of a modern interdisciplinary approach to the subject.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ogura, Takeshi

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Betriebswirtschaft: Theorie & Allgemeines
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften: Allgemeines
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Organische Chemie Polymerchemie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Mechanistic Enzymology and Molecular Genetics of Chain Elongation in Isoprenoid BiosynthesisKyozo Ogura and Tanetoshi Koyama1.1 Introduction1.2 Farnesyl Diphosphate Synthase1.3 Geranylgeranyl Diphosphate Synthase1.4 Bacterial Prenyltransferases1.5 Summary2 Biosynthesis of Isoflavone and Related Compounds in Tissue Cultures of Pueraria lobataUshio Sankawa and Takashi Hakamatsuka2.1 Introduction2.2 Formation of the Flavonoid Skeleton by Chalcone Synthase2.3 Characterization of Chalcone-Flavone Isomerase2.4 Characterization of Isoflavone Synthase2.5 Purification and Characterization of Dehydratase that Forms Isoflavone2.6 Perspective3 Carotenoid Biosynthesis at the Gene LevelNorihiko Misawa3.1 Introduction3.2 Functional Analysis of Erwina Carotenoid Biosynthesis Genes3.3 Functional Analysis of Astaxanthin Biosynthesis Genes3.4 Functional Analysis of Carotenoid Biosynthesis Genes3.5 Perspectives4 Biosynthesis of Monoterpenoids in Higher Plants: Mechanisms of Chain Elongation and Chiral Center GenerationTakayuki Suga and Yoshikazu Hiraga4.1 Introduction4.2 Chain Elongation of the E-Prenyl Chain4.3 Stereochemical Control in the Biosynthesis of Cyclic Monoterpenoids5 Biogeneration of So-called Green Odor Components by Plant LeavesAkikazu Hatanaka5.1 Introduction5.2 Biosynthetic Pathway for Green Odor Components5.3 Enzymes Involved in Biogeneration of Green Odor Components5.4 Relationship of Enzyme Activities to the Environment5.5 Perspectives6 Biological Diels-Alder Reaction in Biosynthesis of PhytoxinsAkitami Ichihara and Hideaki Oikawa6.1 Introduction6.2 Biosynthesis of Betaenones6.3 Biosynthesis of Chaetoglobosins6.4 Biosynthesis of Solanapyrones6.5 Perspectives7 Biosynthesis of Natural C-P Compounds, Bialaphos and FosfomycinHaruo Seto and Tomomi Hidaka7.1 Introduction7.2 Biosynthesis of Bialaphos7.3 Biosynthesis of Fosfomycin7.4 Conclusion8 Regulation of Antibiotic Production: Protein Serine/Threonine Kinases and AutoregulatorsSueharu Horinouchi8.1 Introduction8.2 AfsR and AfsQ1 as Global Regulators for Secondary Metabolism8.3 Protein Serine/Threonine Kinases as Global Regulators8.4 Autoregulators8.5 Concluding Remarks9 Mechanistic Enzymology and Molecular Recognition of 3-Isopropylmalate Dehydrogenase Derived from the Extreme Thermophile, Thermus thermophilus HB8Katsumi Kakinuma9.1 Introduction9.2 Structure of a 3-Isopropylmalate Dehydrogenase9.3 Reaction Mechanism9.4 Substrate Recognition9.5 Design of Fluorinated Analogues and Mechanistic Analysis9.6 Modification of a 3-Isopropylmalate Dehydrogenase and Related Dehydrogenase9.7 Interactions of 3-Isopropylmalate Dehydrogenase and Substrate and Coenzyme9.8 Perspectives10 Biosynthesis of Cyclic Bromo Ethers from Red AlgaeAkio Murai10.1 Introduction10.2 Proposed Biogenetic Routes to Cyclic Bromo Ethers10.3 Biosynthetic Studies on Cyclic Bromo Ethers with Lactoperoxidase10.4 Purification of Bromoperoxidase from Laurencia nipponica10.5 Biosynthetic Studies on Cyclic Bromo Ethers with Bromoperoxidase10.6 Present Status of Research11 Molecular Biology and Engineering of Biosynthesis of Cysteine and Biogenetically Related Non-protein Amino Acids in PlantsKazuki Saito11.1 Introduction11.2 Natural Occurrence of Non-protein ß-Substituted Alanines11.3 General Biosynthetic Route of Non-protein ß-Substituted Alanines11.4 Molecular Cloning of Cysteine Synthases and Related Enzymes11.5 Molecular Engineering11.6 Future Prospects12 Pharmacological Applications of Physiologically Active Natural ProductsYasushi Ohizumi12.1 Introduction12.2 Elucidation of Molecular Mechanisms of Ion Channels12.3 Mechanistic Studies of Contractile Proteins12.4 Characterising Key Enzymes in Intracellular Signalling13 Mechanisms in New Bioluminescence SystemsMamoru Ohashi13.1 Introduction13.2 Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence of Imidazopyrazines13.3 Bioluminescence of New Systems13.4 Mechanisms of Excited-State Formation by Chemical ReactionsIndex