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The first example of a direct aromatic nitration reaction in natural product biosynthesis has been reported by the Challis group and collaborators at Cornell University in the leading journal Nature Chemical Biology. This unprecedented transformation, which is the first committed step in the assembly of the phytotoxin thaxtomin A in the plant pathogenic bacterium Streptomyces scabies, is catalysed by a unique cytochrome P450 enzyme that uses nitrogen monoxide and dioxygen to generate the reactive nitrating species. Aromatic nitration is an industrially-important reaction that usually utilises nitric acid, a highly corrosive mineral acid, as the source of the nitro group. The remarkable new enzyme discovered by Challis group could open the way for development of enviromentally-benign biocatalysts that avoid the need to use nitric acid for aromatic nitration. For full details see http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.1048.html.