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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L91375/01
Title: ELUCIDATION OF THE NEW TERPENE BIOSYNTHESIS PATHWAY
Principal Investigator: O'Hagan, Professor D
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Department: Chemistry
Organisation: Durham, University of
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 22 April 1998 Ends: 21 April 2000 Value (£): 104,340
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Biological & Medicinal Chem.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
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Summary on Grant Application Form
It is perhaps not fully realised within the community yet, but the text books that describe the biosynthesis of terpenes from mevalonic acid need substantial revision. This realisation has grown steadily over the last few years but has been strikingly brought home by recent papers of Bacher and Lichtenthaler which report biosynthesis studies of terpenes inhigher plants. 1-Deoxy-D-xylulose and not mevalonic acid is the more common intermediate to IPP in bacteria and green algae and this pathway appears significant in higher plants. None of the intermediates between 1-deoxy-D-xylulose and IPP are known. Considering the importance of this pathway, these issues need to be resolved.The program will use terpene metabolites from two bacteria and a fungi and will assess the role of putative intermediates by preparing them in isotopically labelled forms of feeding studies. The structure and stereochemistry of intermediates will be evaluated. This synthesis of such compounds for biosynthesis studies is a specialism of the Durham group. The operation of the pathway in fungi will be explored for the first time.
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