Stitching in Fluoroacetate
Polyketide synthase enzymes stitch together an impressively diverse series of organic compounds from simple acetate and propionate building blocks.
Walker
et al.
(p.
1089
) now show that these biochemical pathways can be engineered to incorporate fluoroacetate—a primary product of the only known native enzymatic fluorination route—into tri- and tetraketides. In
Escherichia coli
cells, this process shows potential as a versatile means of inserting fluorine substituents into a range of complex molecules for use in pharmaceutical and agrochemical research.
在氟乙酸酯中的缝合
聚酮合酶酶能够将简单的乙酸和丙酸构建块缝合在一起,形成令人印象深刻的多样有机化合物系列。
Walker等人(第341卷,第6150期,第1089页,DOI: 10.1126/science.1242345)现在表明,这些生物化学途径可以被设计用来将氟乙酸酯——唯一已知的天然酶氟化途径的主要产物——纳入三酮和四酮中。在大肠杆菌细胞中,这一过程显示出潜力,可作为一种多功能手段,将氟取代基插入一系列复杂分子中,用于药物和农药研究。