Metamorphosis of cycloalkenes for the divergent total synthesis of polycyclic indole alkaloids.
Xu ZLaboratory of Synthesis and Natural Products, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL-SB-ISIC-LSPN, BCH5304, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. jieping.zhu@epfl.ch.
English
From tryptamine and secologanine, nature generates monoterpene indole alkaloids with an unprecedented level of skeletal diversity through a 'couple-divert' sequence. Intrigued by this biosynthetic machinery, new strategies and tactics to access skeletally distinct natural products are continuously emerging. In this Tutorial Review, we'll present a simplified view of nature's logic for biosynthesis and the representative strategies and tactics developed for the divergent total synthesis of monoterpene indole alkaloids. Our group has been developing a 'couple-divert' approach with the strategic use of cycloalkene as a pluripotent motif in the synthetic design and has developed an integrated oxidation/reduction/cyclization (iORC) sequence for transforming functionalized cycloalkenes, easily available by a variety of cross-coupling reactions, to skeletally diverse natural products. The integration of controlled regio-, chemo- and stereo-selective cyclization and heteroannulation reactions into these domino sequences will be highlighted.