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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Common Biosynthesis of Non-Canonical C16 Terpenes through a Fragmentation-Recombination Mechanism
Houchao Xu1, Bernd Goldfuss2, Jeroen S Dickschat1
1Kekulé Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bonn, Gerhard-Domagk-Straße 1, 53121, Bonn, Germany.
Abstract:
The biosynthesis of six recently reported non-canonical C16 sesquiterpenoids named after ancient Greek philosophers, archimedene, aristotelene, eratosthenene, pythagorene, α-democritene and anaximandrene, was investigated through density functional theory (DFT) calculations and isotopic labeling experiments. The results revealed for all compounds except archimedene a unique fragmentation-recombination mechanism as previously demonstrated for sodorifen biosynthesis, in addition to a remarkable "dancing" mechanism for anaximandrene biosynthesis.
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