Research

Biosynthesis of Plant Side Chain Crosslinked Cyclopeptides

While plants are well known producers of alkaloids, terpenoids, and polyketide secondary metabolites, they are also prolific producers of peptidic natural products. Our group focuses on an emerging class of plant produced cyclic peptides. While the structural scaffolds of these plant natural products vary, they are characterized by diverse crosslinks between the side chains of aromatic amino acids and another nearby amino acid. Even though molecules in this family have been known for decades, little is known of their biosynthesis. Using a combination of transcriptomics, metabolomics, and transient expression in plants, we are working to fully elucidate these biosynthetic pathways.

 

See our publications here:

Kriger, D.*, Pasquale, M. A.*, Ampolini, B. G.*, and Chekan, J. R. (2024) Mining raw plant transcriptomic data for new cyclopeptide alkaloids. Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 20, 1548–1559 (doi: 10.3762/bjoc.20.138)

Chekan, J. R.^#, Mydy, L. S., Pasquale, M. A., and Kersten, R. D.^# (2024) Plant peptides – redefining an area of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides. Nat. Prod. Rep. (doi: 10.1039/D3NP00042G)

Lima, S. T.*, Ampolini, B. G.*, Underwood, E. B.*, Graf, T. N., Earp, C. E., Khedi, I. C., Pasquale, M. A., and Chekan, J. R. (2022) A Widely Distributed Biosynthetic Cassette Is Responsible for Diverse Plant Side Chain Cross-Linked Cyclopeptides. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. (doi: 10.1002/anie.202218082)