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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Using Terpene Synthase Plasticity in Catalysis: On the Enzymatic Conversion of Synthetic Farnesyl Diphosphate
Anwei Hou1, Jeroen S Dickschat1
1Kekulé-Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bonn, Gerhard-Domagk-Straße 1, 53121, Bonn, Germany.
Abstract:
Four synthetic farnesyl diphosphate analogues were enzymatically converted with three bacterial sesquiterpene synthases, including β-himachalene synthase (HcS) and (Z)-γ-bisabolene synthase (BbS) from Cryptosporangium arvum, and germacrene A synthase (SmTS6) from Streptomyces mobaraensis. These enzyme reactions not only yielded several previously unknown compounds, showing that this approach opened the door to a new chemical space, but substrates with blocked or altered reactivities also gave interesting insights into the cyclisation mechanisms and the potential to catalyse reactions with different initial cyclisation modes.
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