Synthesis of depressin, cryptomeridiol and 4-epi-cryptomeridiol enabled by a terpenoid chiral pool-producing platform
Yao Kong, Tao Wang, Chen Wang, Pengcheng Zhang, Yuanning Liu, Kaibiao Wang, Fen Liu, Hongli Jia, Zhengren Xu · 2026
Read Synthesis of depressin, cryptomeridiol and 4-epi-cryptomeridiol enabled by a terpenoid chiral pool-producing platform by Yao Kong, Tao Wang, Chen Wang, Pengcheng Zhang, Yuanning Liu, Kaibiao Wang, Fen Liu, Hongli Jia, Zhengren Xu (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13159238.txt.
Description
Yao Kong and co-authors build three natural products with help from engineered bacteria in a 2026 paper. Depressin comes from soft coral and carries a hard-to-make fourteen member ring. Two plant compounds, cryptomeridiol and its close cousin, are also targets. Their platform grows the needed carbon skeletons inside engineered Escherichia coli carrying a special pathway and plant enzymes.
From the coral skeleton, two oxidation steps and one oxygen removal give depressin in nine steps, they report. From a second skeleton, an acid driven ring closure plus a hydration step yield both plant diols in just two steps. The route widens what chemists can borrow from living cells.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yao Kong, Tao Wang, Chen Wang, Pengcheng Zhang, Yuanning Liu, Kaibiao Wang, Fen Liu, Hongli Jia, Zhengren Xu |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 19 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |