On the evolution of plant secondary chemical diversity

1991 ◽  
Vol 333 (1267) ◽  
pp. 273-280 ◽  

A common-sense evolutionary scenario predicts that well-defended plants should have a moderate diversity of secondary compounds with high biological activity. We contend that plants actually contain a very high diversity of mostly inactive secondary compounds. These patterns result because compounds arising via mutation have an inherently low probability of possessing any biological activity. Only those plants that make a lot of compounds will be well defended because only high diversity confers a reasonable probability of producing active compounds. Inactive compounds are retained, not eliminated, because they increase the probability of producing new active compounds. Plants should therefore have predictable metabolic traits maximizing secondary chemical diversity while minimizing cost. Our hypothesis has important implications to the study of the evolution of plant defence.

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 3910-3918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Remon M Zaki ◽  
Prof Adel M. Kamal El-Dean ◽  
Dr Nermin A Marzouk ◽  
Prof Jehan A Micky ◽  
Mrs Rasha H Ahmed

 Incorporating selenium metal bonded to the pyridine nucleus was achieved by the reaction of selenium metal with 2-chloropyridine carbonitrile 1 in the presence of sodium borohydride as reducing agent. The resulting non isolated selanyl sodium salt was subjected to react with various α-halogenated carbonyl compounds to afford the selenyl pyridine derivatives 3a-f  which compounds 3a-d underwent Thorpe-Ziegler cyclization to give 1-amino-2-substitutedselenolo[2,3-b]pyridine compounds 4a-d, while the other compounds 3e,f failed to be cyclized. Basic hydrolysis of amino selenolo[2,3-b]pyridine carboxylate 4a followed by decarboxylation furnished the corresponding amino selenolopyridine compound 6 which was used as a versatile precursor for synthesis of other heterocyclic compound 7-16. All the newly synthesized compounds were established by elemental and spectral analysis (IR, 1H NMR) in addition to mass spectra for some of them hoping these compounds afforded high biological activity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 653-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leena Kumari ◽  
Salahuddin ◽  
Avijit Mazumder ◽  
Daman Pandey ◽  
Mohammad Shahar Yar ◽  
...  

Heterocyclic compounds are well known for their different biological activity. The heterocyclic analogs are the building blocks for synthesis of the pharmaceutical active compounds in the organic chemistry. These derivatives show various type of biological activity like anticancer, antiinflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-convulsant, anti-malarial, anti-hypertensive, etc. From the last decade research showed that the quinoline analogs plays a vital role in the development of newer medicinal active compounds for treating various type of disease. Quinoline reported for their antiviral, anticancer, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory activity. This review will summarize the various synthetic approaches for synthesis of quinoline derivatives and to check their biological activity. Derivatives of quinoline moiety plays very important role in the development of various types of newer drugs and it can be used as lead compounds for future investigation in the field of drug discovery process.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 335
Author(s):  
Xia Yan ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
Xue Leng ◽  
Han Ouyang

Sinularia is one of the conspicuous soft coral species widely distributed in the world’s oceans at a depth of about 12 m. Secondary metabolites from the genus Sinularia show great chemical diversity. More than 700 secondary metabolites have been reported to date, including terpenoids, norterpenoids, steroids/steroidal glycosides, and other types. They showed a broad range of potent biological activities. There were detailed reviews on the terpenoids from Sinularia in 2013, and now, it still plays a vital role in the innovation of lead compounds for drug development. The structures, names, and pharmacological activities of compounds isolated from the genus Sinularia from 2013 to March 2021 are summarized in this review.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 720
Author(s):  
Valeria Catalani ◽  
Michelle Botha ◽  
John Martin Corkery ◽  
Amira Guirguis ◽  
Alessandro Vento ◽  
...  

Designer benzodiazepines (DBZDs) represent a serious health concern and are increasingly reported in polydrug consumption-related fatalities. When new DBZDs are identified, very limited information is available on their pharmacodynamics. Here, computational models (i.e., quantitative structure-activity relationship/QSAR and Molecular Docking) were used to analyse DBZDs identified online by an automated web crawler (NPSfinder®) and to predict their possible activity/affinity on the gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptors (GABA-ARs). The computational software MOE was used to calculate 2D QSAR models, perform docking studies on crystallised GABA-A receptors (6HUO, 6HUP) and generate pharmacophore queries from the docking conformational results. 101 DBZDs were identified online by NPSfinder®. The validated QSAR model predicted high biological activity values for 41% of these DBDZs. These predictions were supported by the docking studies (good binding affinity) and the pharmacophore modelling confirmed the importance of the presence and location of hydrophobic and polar functions identified by QSAR. This study confirms once again the importance of web-based analysis in the assessment of drug scenarios (DBZDs), and how computational models could be used to acquire fast and reliable information on biological activity for index novel DBZDs, as preliminary data for further investigations.


2004 ◽  
Vol 385 (12) ◽  
pp. 1171-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhan-Yun Guo ◽  
Xiao-Yuan Jia ◽  
You-Min Feng

Abstract Insulin contains three disulfide bonds, one intrachain bond, A6–A11, and two interchain bonds, A7–B7 and A20–B19. Site-directed mutagenesis results (the two cysteine residues of disulfide A7–B7 were replaced by serine) showed that disulfide A7–B7 is crucial to both the structure and activity of insulin. However, chemical modification results showed that the insulin analogs still retained relatively high biological activity when A7Cys and B7Cys were modified by chemical groups with a negative charge. Did the negative charge of the modification groups restore the loss of activity and/or the disturbance of structure of these insulin analogs caused by deletion of disulfide A7–B7? To answer this question, an insulin analog with both A7Cys and B7Cys replaced by Glu, which has a long side-chain and a negative charge, was prepared by protein engineering, and its structure and activity were analyzed. Both the structure and activity of the present analog are very similar to that of the mutant with disulfide A7–B7 replaced by Ser, but significantly different from that of wild-type insulin. The present results suggest that removal of disulfide A7–B7 will result in serious loss of biological activity and the native conformation of insulin, even if the disulfide is replaced by residues with a negative charge.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce da Silva ◽  
Rafaela da Trindade ◽  
Edith Moreira ◽  
José Maia ◽  
Noura Dosoky ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2923-2931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick R. Cross ◽  
Kristi Levine

ABSTRACT Many protein kinases are regulated by phosphorylation in the activation loop, which is required for enzymatic activity. Glutamic acid can substitute for phosphothreonine in some proteins activated by phosphorylation, but this substitution (T169E) at the site of activation loop phosphorylation in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) Cdc28p blocks biological function and protein kinase activity. Using cycles of error-prone DNA amplification followed by selection for successively higher levels of function, we identified mutant versions of Cdc28p-T169E with high biological activity. The enzymatic and biological activity of the mutant Cdc28p was essentially normally regulated by cyclin, and the mutants supported normal cell cycle progression and regulation. Therefore, it is not a requirement for control of the yeast cell cycle that Cdc28p be cyclically phosphorylated and dephosphorylated. TheseCDC28 mutants allow viability in the absence of Cak1p, the essential kinase that phosphorylates Cdc28p-T169, demonstrating that T169 phosphorylation is the only essential function of Cak1p. Some growth defects remain in suppressed cak1 cdc28 strains carrying the mutant CDC28 genes, consistent with additional nonessential roles for CAK1.


2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Milijanka Balandžić ◽  
Vera Stojšin ◽  
Mila Grahovac ◽  
Ferenc Bagi ◽  
Mladen Petreš ◽  
...  

SummarySugar beet leaf spot, caused by the air-borne fungus Cercospora beticola Sacc., leads to a decrease in sugar beet leaf mass and the consequent regrowth of leaves based on exploiting the sugar reserves stored in the plant’s roots, thus ultimately resulting in lower yields and sugar contents of sugar beets. Azoxystrobin belongs to the group of QoI fungicides, which inhibit mitochondrial respiration by blocking cytochrome c reductase. The QoI fungicides are characterized by a very high risk of resistance interfering with their biological activity. For the purpose of testing the azoxystrobin sensitivity of the Cercospora beticola population found at the site of Rimski Šančevi, a collection of 84 isolates was assembled and tested for sensitivity to azoxystrobin by measuring the mycelial growth on fungicide-amended media with the addition of SHAM. The results obtained indicate that none of the isolates tested exhibited complete sensitivity to azoxystrobin, 4% were found to have reduced sensitivity, 26% were moderately resistant and 70% were highly resistant. A higher proportion of resistant isolates recorded is associated with the loss of azoxystrobin biological efficacy at the experimental site.


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