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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Fatty Acid 13C Isotopologue Profiling Provides Insight into Trophic Carbon Transfer and Lipid Metabolism of Invertebrate Consumers
Published on: April 17, 2018
Recent highlights in biosynthesis research using stable isotopes
Jan Rinkel1, Jeroen S Dickschat1
1Kekulé-Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Gerhard-Domagk-Str. 1, 53121 Bonn, Germany.
Abstract:
The long and successful history of isotopic labeling experiments within natural products research has both changed and deepened our understanding of biosynthesis. As demonstrated in this article, the usage of isotopes is not at all old-fashioned, but continues to give important insights into biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites. This review with 85 cited references is structured by separate discussions of compounds from different classes including polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides, their hybrids, terpenoids, and aromatic compounds formed via the shikimate pathway. The text does not aim at a comprehensive overview, but instead a selection of recent important examples of isotope usage within biosynthetic studies is presented, with a special emphasis on mechanistic surprises.
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