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A personal selection of 32 recent papers is presented covering various aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products such as illisimonin A from Illicium simonsii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering: up to 2015 In this highlight we describe two case studies from our laboratory, involving the biomimetic syntheses and the biological mechanism elucidation of the bioactive oligomeric sesquiterpenoids, (+)-ainsliadimer A (4) and (−)-ainsliatrimer A (5). Ainsliadimer A possesses potent anti-inflammatory activity by inhibition of the NF-κB signalling pathway via binding at a previously untargeted allosteric site. (−)-Ainsliatrimer A induces apoptosis in cancer cells by activation of PPARγ. Furthermore, we highlight a new bioorthogonal ligation (TQ-ligation) developed in our laboratory which facilitates the target identification of complex natural products via pre-target fluorescence imaging and affinity chromatography. Generally, this paper will discuss the complete process from total synthesis to biological studies of complex natural products, and from the establishment of new bio-orthogonal chemistry to successful target identification. Our approach provides a systematic and efficient methodology for addressing the challenge of natural product target identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering: up to 2014 A wide variety of organisms communicate via the chemical channel using small molecules. A structural feature quite often found is the lactone motif. In the present paper, the current knowledge on such lactones will be described, concentrating on the structure, chemistry, function, biosynthesis and synthesis of these compounds. Lactone semiochemicals from insects, vertebrates and bacteria, which this article will focus on, are particularly well investigated. In addition, some ideas on the advantageous use of lactones as volatile signals, which promoted their evolutionary development, will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]