Cover Picture: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 20/2002

The cover picture shows a series of ¹⁹F NMR spectra taken every hour during the monitoring of a time‐course experiment after addition of 5′‐fluoro‐5′‐deoxyadenosine (5′‐FDA) to a cell‐free extract of Streptomyces cattleya. This bacterium has the unusual capacity to biosynthesise organofluorine compounds from inorganic fluoride. The ¹⁹F NMR spectra illustrate that 5′‐FDA is a true intermediate in the biosynthesis of fluoroacetate and 4‐fluorothreonine. Other intermediates such as fluoroacetaldehyde are also observed for the first time. In a separate experiment, inorganic fluoride was converted into fluoroacetate, thus indicating that all of the enzymes involved in the fluoroacetate biosynthesis pathway are active in the cell‐free extract. These experiments report the first cell‐free biotransformations of inorganic fluoride into fluoroacetate, the most ubiquitous organic fluorine natural product, and pave the way for a biotechnological approach to organofluorine synthesis. Full details are described by O'Hagan and co‐workers on p. 3913 ff.