SOME STUDIES IN THE BIOSYNTHESIS OF TERPENES AND RELATED…有关蕨类植物生物合成的相关研究及相关.pdfVIP

SOME STUDIES IN THE BIOSYNTHESIS OF TERPENES AND RELATED COMPOUNDS D. ARIGONI Organisch-chemisches Laboratorium, Eidgenon ische Technische Hoehschule, Zurich, Switzerland Cyclic terpenes as a class of natural products display a bewildering array of structural types. Well over a hundred different carbon frameworks have been detected so far, many new substances are being currently added to an already impressive list of compounds, and even several representatives of the long-sought group of sesterterpenes have at last made their appearance on the chemical scene14. In spite of this almost inexhaustible prodigality of Nature, it had been recognized at an early stage that the biological forma- tion of cyclic terpenes can be traced back to the operation of a unifying and, in principle, rather simple biosynthetic scheme5. In the light of present know- ledge three main phases can be discerned. In the first phase (Figure 1), regularly built pyrophosphate esters of ali- phatic terpene alcohols are formed through successive elongation of a basic OH OPP OPP OPP OH OP HO 0 H—O 0 Mono- Sesqul - Diterpenes .—- -Ic.OPP OPP OPP C10 C15 C20 2x 2x Squalene Phytoftuene Steroids Triterpenes Tetraterpenes Figure 1 C5-unit closely related to mevalonic acid. The detailed mechanism of the genesis of this important compound and of its conversion to the isoprenolo-