Chemical Society Seminar: Dr. Bradley Moore - Asymmetric Alkene and Arene Halofunctionalization Reactions in Meroterpenoid Biosynthesis

Meroterpenoid natural products are important bioactive molecules with broad distribution throughout nature. In Streptomyces bacteria, naphthoquinone-based meroterpenoids comprise a simple yet structurally fascinating group of natural product antibiotics that are enzymatically constructed via a series of asymmetric alkene and arene halofunctionalization reactions. This lecture will discuss our discovery and characterization of a group of vanadium-dependent chloroperoxidase enzymes that catalyze halogen-assisted cyclization and rearrangement reactions and have inspired biomimetic syntheses of numerous meroterpenoid natural products, including the napyradiomycins and merochlorins.