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Updated: Sep 5, 2025

Biosynthesis of a Flavonol from a Flavanone by Establishing a One-pot Bienzymatic Cascade
Published on: August 14, 2019
Biosynthesis of strychnine
Benke Hong1, Dagny Grzech1, Lorenzo Caputi1
1Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis, Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
Strychnine is a natural product that, through isolation, structural elucidation and synthetic efforts, shaped the field of organic chemistry. Currently, strychnine is used as a pesticide to control rodents1 because of its potent neurotoxicity2,3. The polycyclic architecture of strychnine has inspired chemists to develop new synthetic transformations and strategies to access this molecular scaffold4, yet it is still unknown how plants create this complex structure. Here we report the biosynthetic pathway of strychnine, along with the related molecules brucine and diaboline. Moreover, we successfully recapitulate strychnine, brucine and diaboline biosynthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana from an upstream intermediate, thus demonstrating that this complex, pharmacologically active class of compounds can now be harnessed through metabolic engineering approaches.
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