The present feature article details our endeavors towards the synthesis of the highly intricate bisindole alkaloid bipleiophylline and its biosynthetic precursor voacalgine A: from the development of a divergent oxidative coupling between indole and dihydroxybenzoic acids, to the exploration of the chemical space from natural products and culminating in the biomimetic assembly of voacalgine A and bipleiophylline.
From structure, to labelling, biomimetic synthesis and mechanism, to gene clusters and engineering, the metabolites discovered by Harold Raistrick remain at the forefront of progress in fungal biosynthesis.
Biosynthesis and Biomimetic Synthesis of Flavonoid Diels-Alder Natural Products
