天然产物生物合成:探索大自然合成次生代谢产物的奥秘

天然产物(次生代谢产物)是大自然馈赠给人类的礼物,由于其复杂的骨架结构和良好的药用价值,吸引着化学家们对其进行结构鉴定以及化学合成。尽管人们在天然产物全合成中取得了巨大的成就,但仍然面临着合成路线长、产率低、缺乏选择性等问题。大自然是最伟大的化学家,它利用酶作为催化剂,往往能够高效地合成天然产物。在基因水平上探索大自然合成复杂多样的天然产物的奥秘不仅有助于人们进一步理解和认知有机化学,还为人们开发和利用大自然高效催化化学反应的工具——酶奠定了基础。

Biosynthesis of Natural Products: Exploring the Secret of How Nature Produces the Secondary Metabolites

Natural products (the secondary metabolites) are the gifts from mother nature to human beings. Because of their complex skeletons and promising pharmaceutical values, structural identification and chemical synthesis of natural products have drawn much attention from synthetic community. Although remarkable achievements have been made in the total synthesis of natural products, there still remain significant challenges concerning long synthetic route, low yield and the lack of selectivity in chemical synthesis. Nature is the best chemist, and it uses various enzymes as catalysts to efficiently synthesize natural products. Exploring the mystery of how nature produces complex and diverse natural products at the genetic level not only provides inspiration for the further development of organic synthesis, but also lays the foundation for the vast utilization of effective enzymes to produce medicine and functional material for humans.