Asymmetric One‐Pot Total Synthesis of Tenuipesone A/B Through a Tunable Multienzyme Cascade

While biocatalysis has rapidly become a versatile tool in the synthetic chemist's toolbox, one of its main benefits, the broad cross‐compatibility of enzymes, which could lead to cell biochemistry‐like artificial metabolisms, is still underutilized in organic synthesis. Herein, we demonstrate the power of biocatalysis with an integrated single‐pot operation for the total synthesis of the fungal tenuipesone spirolactones directly from the biorefinery side stream furfural. An assembly of six enzymes at the core of a route design covering five linear steps delivers the tenuipesones in overall yields up to 72% (i.e. 94% per individual step). Careful selection of specific enzyme combinations allows to produce either of the enantiomers in excellent optical purities, facilitating the reassignment of the metabolites’ absolute configurations. This one‐pot process highlights the immense potential of complex multienzyme in vitro metabolisms and may inspire a much broader implementation of biocatalytic retrosynthesis to develop streamlined routes to other target scaffolds.

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Publication Details

Journal
ChemistryEurope
Published
2026-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ceur.202500440
Primary Topic
Synthetic Organic Chemistry Methods
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Asymmetric One‐Pot Total Synthesis of Tenuipesone A/B Through a Tunable Multienzyme Cascade

Joel Björklund, Jan Deska, Adam O’Connell, Yu‐Chang Liu et al.
ChemistryEurope
Synthetic Organic Chemistry Methods
article

Asymmetric One‐Pot Total Synthesis of Tenuipesone A/B Through a Tunable Multienzyme Cascade

Joel Björklund, Jan Deska, Adam O’Connell, Yu‐Chang Liu, Marleen Hallamaa
article en

Abstract

While biocatalysis has rapidly become a versatile tool in the synthetic chemist's toolbox, one of its main benefits, the broad cross‐compatibility of enzymes, which could lead to cell biochemistry‐like artificial metabolisms, is still underutilized in organic synthesis. Herein, we demonstrate the power of biocatalysis with an integrated single‐pot operation for the total synthesis of the fungal tenuipesone spirolactones directly from the biorefinery side stream furfural. An assembly of six enzymes at the core of a route design covering five linear steps delivers the tenuipesones in overall yields up to 72% (i.e. 94% per individual step). Careful selection of specific enzyme combinations allows to produce either of the enantiomers in excellent optical purities, facilitating the reassignment of the metabolites’ absolute configurations. This one‐pot process highlights the immense potential of complex multienzyme in vitro metabolisms and may inspire a much broader implementation of biocatalytic retrosynthesis to develop streamlined routes to other target scaffolds.

ChemistryEuropeVol. 4(2)
University of Helsinki (FI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (CN)
Tekniikan Edistämissäätiö, Orionin Tutkimussäätiö, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020 European Research Council
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 60%
Synthetic Organic Chemistry Methods
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Asymmetric One‐Pot Total Synthesis of Tenuipesone A/B Through a Tunable Multienzyme Cascade — Joel Björklund, Jan Deska, et al. · ChemistryEurope (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS