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Updated: Oct 16, 2025
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Cercosporin-Photocatalyzed [4+1]- and [4+2]-Annulations of Azoalkenes Under Mild Conditions
Published on: July 17, 2020
Cryptic halogenation reactions in natural product biosynthesis
Sanjoy Adak1, Bradley S Moore1,2
1Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92093, USA. bsmoore@ucsd.edu.
Abstract:
Covering: Up to December 2020Enzymatic halogenation reactions are essential for the production of thousands of halogenated natural products. However, in recent years, scientists discovered several halogenases that transiently incorporate halogen atoms in intermediate biosynthetic molecules to activate them for further chemical reactions such as cyclopropanation, terminal alkyne formation, C-/O-alkylation, biaryl coupling, and C-C rearrangements. In each case, the halogen atom is lost in the course of biosynthesis to the final product and is hence termed "cryptic". In this review, we provide an overview of our current knowledge of cryptic halogenation reactions in natural product biosynthesis.
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