Many essential biological processes are controlled by posttranslational protein modifications. The inability to synthetically attain the diversity enabled by these modifications limits functional studies of many proteins. We designed a three-step approach for installing authentic posttranslational modifications in recombinant proteins. We first use the established O-phosphoserine (Sep) orthogonal translation system to create a Sep-containing recombinant protein. The Sep residue is then dephosphorylated to dehydroalanine (Dha). Last, conjugate addition of alkyl iodides to Dha, promoted by zinc and copper, enables chemoselective carbon-carbon bond formation. To validate our approach, we produced histone H3, ubiquitin, and green fluorescent protein variants with site-specific modifications, including different methylations of H3K79. The methylated histones stimulate transcription through histone acetylation. This approach offers a powerful tool to engineer diverse designer proteins.

A convergent asymmetric total synthesis of phorbaketal A was achieved in 10 steps through a Au(I)-catalyzed intramolecular spiroketalization reaction of an alkyne diol intermediate prepared from (R)-carvone and geranial. The spiroketalization reaction was regio- and stereoselective and was accompanied by isomerization of an exo-olefin into the trisubstituted olefin to form a unique spiroketal structure of phorbaketals.

An efficient total synthesis of ceratopicanol was achieved through successive Pd catalyzed reductive cycloaddition and cyclization reactions. The Pd mediated cyclization reaction to form a triquinane structure demonstrated that a small [a]

A photolytically generated ruthenium hydride species catalyzing a free radical cyclization reaction was developed. As the new methodology ensures reproducibility of the free radical reaction of trialkyltin hydrides and a fast hydrogen transfer to the radical intermediates, the methodology provides fast quenching of radical intermediates and thus suppresses rearrangement of radical intermediates before the hydride quench. By offering new reactivity and selectivity to the trialkyltin hydride mediated free radical cyclization reactions, the methodology will find wide range of applications in organic synthesis.