A Concise Ring-Expansion Route to the Compact Core of Platensimycin

摘要

Recently, researchers at Merck disclosed a new natural product, platensimycin (1; Figure 1), which was obtained by screening a large collection of South African soil samplesusing a novel antibiotic assay approach. Characterization revealed a unique compact core connected to a highly oxygenated and unusual aromatic ring through a propionate tether. Platensimycin has a novel mechanism of action, inhibiting the β-ketoacyl-(acyl carrier protein) synthase (FabF) in the bacterial fatty acid synthetic pathway.