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Updated: Sep 1, 2025

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Understanding the competing pathways leading to hydropyrene and isoelisabethatriene
Shani Zev1, Marion Ringel2, Ronja Driller3,4
1Department of Chemistry and Institute for Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
Abstract:
Terpene synthases are responsible for the biosynthesis of terpenes, the largest family of natural products. Hydropyrene synthase generates hydropyrene and hydropyrenol as its main products along with two byproducts, isoelisabethatrienes A and B. Fascinatingly, a single active site mutation (M75L) diverts the product distribution towards isoelisabethatrienes A and B. In the current work, we study the competing pathways leading to these products using quantum chemical calculations in the gas phase. We show that there is a great thermodynamic preference for hydropyrene and hydropyrenol formation, and hence most likely in the synthesis of the isoelisabethatriene products kinetic control is at play.
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