Syracuse University SURFACE Chemistry - Dissertations College of Arts and Sciences 12-2011 Synthesis and Biosynthesis of Polyketide Natural Products Atahualpa Pinto Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/che_etd Part of the Chemistry Commons Recommended Citation Pinto, Atahualpa, "Synthesis and Biosynthesis of Polyketide Natural Products" (2011). Chemistry - Dissertations. 181. https://surface.syr.edu/che_etd/181 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chemistry - Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract Traditionally separate disciplines of a large and broad chemical spectrum, synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry have found in the last two decades a fertile common ground in the area pertaining to the biosynthesis of natural products. Both disciplines remain indispensable in providing unique solutions on numerous questions populating the field. Our contributions to this interdisciplinary pursuit have been confined to the biosynthesis of polyketides, a therapeutically and structurally diverse class of natural products, where we employed both synthetic chemistry and biochemical techniques to validate complex metabolic processes. One such example pertained to the uncertainty surrounding the regiochemistry of dehydration and cyclization in the biosynthetic pathway of the marine polyketide spiculoic acid A. The molecule's key intramolecular cyclization was proposed to occur through a linear chain containing an abnormally dehydrated polyene system. We synthesized a putative advanced polyketide intermediate and tested its viability to undergo a mild chemical transformation to spiculoic acid A. In addition, we applied a synthetic and biochemical approach to elucidate the biosynthetic details of thioesterase-catalyzed macrocyclizations in polyketide natural products.