The 1-aryl-tetrahydroisoquinoline moiety is a desirable synthetic target, but generating single enantiomers of THIQ products is synthetically challenging. Here the authors demonstrate that the M97V variant of enzyme norcoclaurine synthase catalyzes the synthesis of (1 S)-aryl-THIQs in high yields and enantiomeric excesses.
- Rebecca Roddan
- Altin Sula
- Helen C. Hailes