Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2010 Dec;21(6):819-26.
doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2010.09.003. Epub 2010 Sep 27.

Microscale methodology for structure elucidation of natural products

Tadeusz F Molinski  1
Affiliations
Review

Microscale methodology for structure elucidation of natural products

Tadeusz F Molinski. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2010 Dec.

Abstract

Advances in microscale spectroscopic techniques, particularly microcryoprobe NMR, allow discovery and structure elucidation of new molecules down to only a few nanomole. Newer methods for utilizing circular dichroism (CD) have pushed the limits of detection to picomole levels. NMR and CD methods are complementary to the task of elucidation of complete stereostructures of complex natural products. Together, integrated microprobe NMR spectroscopy, microscale degradation and synthesis, are synergistic tools for the discovery of bioactive natural products and have opened new realms for discovery among extreme sources including compounds from uncultured microbes, rare invertebrates and environmental samples.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
‘Three generations’ of macrolide natural products from a single sample of the marine sponge, Phorbas sp.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Hemi-phorboxazole A (6). (b) Structures of ‘proton-poor’ alkaloids (H/C < 2) petrosamine (7) [xxxix] and spiroleucettadine (8) [xl].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Liposomal CD (L-CD). Exciton coupling amplified by ordering or lipid chains in liposomal bilayer. (a) CD of a long-chain 1,5-diol tetraphenylporphyrincarboxylate (TPP) diester (MeOH) (b) L-CD spectrum (DPSC liposomes). See References [l] and [li]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Plakinic acids I-L (9-12) from a Plakortis-Xestospongia sponge association, and derived naphthamides 13 and 14 for Liposomal CD (L-CD).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Newman DJ, Cragg GM. Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs over the Last 25 Years. J Nat Prod. 2007;70:461–477. A very useful survey of the provenance of new drugs and the contributions of natural products.

    1. Li JWH, Vederas JC. Drug Discovery and Natural Products: End of an Era or an Endless Frontier? Science. 2009;325:161–165. The opinion-reviews in references 2, and reference nicely frame the relevance and modern standing of natural products drug discovery that exploit the combined powers of molecular genetics, enzymology and synthetic biology in ways that will tap into the vast number of unexpressed natural products encoded in microbial gene sequences.

    1. Nett M, Ikeda H, Moore BS. Genomic basis for natural product biosynthetic diversity in the actinomycetes. Nat. Prod. Rep. 2009;26:1362–1384. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Udwary DW, Zeigler L, Asolkar RN, Singan V, Lapidus A, Fenical W, Jensen PR, Moore BS. Genome sequencing reveals complex secondary metabolome in the marine actinomycete Salinispora tropica. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA. 2007;104:10376–10381. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Walsh CT, Fischbach MA. Natural Products Version 2.0: Connecting Genes to Molecules. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132:2469–2493. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances