Comprehensive Natural Products Chemistry: Isoprenoids Including Carotenoids and Steroids (Vol. two)

Hardbound. This volume covers the dramatic advances which have been made in the last two decades in the understanding of isoprenoid biosynthesis at the chemical, biochemical, and molecular genetic level. Tens of thousands of isoprenoid metabolites - from pinenes to cholesterol, from ubiquinone to carotene, from phytols to prenylated proteins, from dolichols to gibberellins - have been isolated from essentially all forms of life, including prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and archaebacteria: from Escherichia coli to mammals, from extremophiles and fungi to marine and terrestrial plants. All of these isoprenoids can be derived from a single, five-carbon acyclic precursor, isopentenyl diphosphate. Early chapters in this Volume detail the key findings that have led to an understanding of the metabolic pathways leading to isopentenyl diphosphate, including both the classical route involving mevalonic acid as well as the recently discovered pyruvate-triose phosphate