Bisphosphine-functionalized cyclic decapeptides based on the natural product Gramicidin S: a potential scaffold for transition-metal coordination.

The natural product Gramicidin S is a promising scaffold for novel oligopeptide-based bisphosphine ligands, combining the advantageous rigid chiral backbone with the close proximity of phosphine substituents. The required unnatural, phosphine-containing, amino acid building blocks were synthesized by means of a novel protocol that involves the enantioselective alkylation of a chiral nickel Schiff base template. Three Ni complexes were prepared with different alkyl chains between the phosphine group and the alpha-carbon atom of the incorporated glycine; the absolute stereochemistry of two of them was determined by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. By detaching the template, enantiopure L-phosphine amino acids resulted enabling the solid-phase, stepwise construction of a linear sequence of the phosphine-modified oligopeptides. On cyclization three bisphosphine-substituted Gramicidin S analogues resulted, differing only in the size and shape of the linkage between the phosphine groups and the oligopeptides backbone. Their crystal structures suggest these species to have potential as chelating ligands.