New strategies are urgently required to develop antibiotics. The siderophore uptake system has attracted considerable attention, but rational design of siderophore antibiotic conjugates requires knowledge of recognition by the cognate outer-membrane transporter. Acinetobacter baumannii is a serious pathogen, which utilizes (pre)acinetobactin to scavenge iron from the host. We report the structure of the (pre)acinetobactin transporter BauA bound to the siderophore, identifying the structural determinants of recognition. Detailed biophysical analysis confirms that BauA recognises preacinetobactin. We show that acinetobactin is not recognised by the protein, thus preacinetobactin is essential for iron uptake. The structure shows and NMR confirms that under physiological conditions, a molecule of acinetobactin will bind to two free coordination sites on the iron preacinetobactin complex. The ability to recognise a heterotrimeric iron-preacinetobactin-acinetobactin complex may rationalize contradictory reports in the literature. These results open new avenues for the design of novel antibiotic conjugates (trojan horse) antibiotics.

The macrocyclization of linear peptides is very often accompanied by significant improvements in their stability and biological activity. Many strategies are available for their chemical macrocyclization, however, enzyme‐mediated methods remain of great interest in terms of synthetic utility. To date, known macrocyclization enzymes have been shown to be active on both peptide and protein substrates. Here we show that the macrocyclization enzyme of the cyanobactin family, PatGmac, is capable of macrocyclizing substrates with one, two, or three 1,4‐substituted 1,2,3‐triazole moieties. The introduction of non‐peptidic scaffolds into macrocycles is highly desirable in tuning the activity and physical properties of peptidic macrocycles. We have isolated and fully characterized nine non‐natural triazole‐containing cyclic peptides, a further ten molecules are also synthesized. PatGmac has now been shown to be an effective and versatile tool for the ring closure by peptide bond formation.

The kinetic target-guided synthesis (KTGS) strategy is an unconventional discovery approach that takes advantage of the presence of the biological target itself in order to irreversibly assemble the best inhibitors from an array of building blocks. This strategy has grown over the last two decades notably after the introduction of the in situ click chemistry concept by Sharpless and colleagues in the early 2000s based on the use of the Huisgen cycloaddition between terminal alkynes and azides. KTGS is a captivating area of research offering an unprecedented and powerful strategy to probe the macromolecular complexity and dynamics of biological targets. After a brief introduction listing all chemical ligation reactions reported to date in KTGS, this review focuses on the last five years' progress to expand the repertoire of the click or “click-like” tool box targeting proteins, as well as to overcome limitations arising in particular from false negatives, i.e. potent ligands that are not formed, or formed in undetectable trace amounts. Furthermore, we wish to analyze the new twists and novelties described in some of these applications in order to better understand the conditions that govern this strategy and the extent to which it can be developed and generalized for a more efficient process.

Cyclic ribosomally derived peptides possess diverse bioactivities and are currently of major interest in drug development. However, it can be chemically challenging to synthesize these molecules, hindering the diversification and testing of cyclic peptide leads. Enzymes used in vitro offer a solution to this, however peptide macrocyclization remains the bottleneck. PCY1, involved in the biosynthesis of plant orbitides, belongs to the class of prolyl oligopeptidases and natively displays substrate promiscuity. PCY1 is a promising candidate for in vitro utilization but its substrates require an 11 to 16 residue C-terminal recognition tail. We have characterized PCY1 both kinetically and structurally with multiple substrate complexes revealing for the molecular basis of recognition and catalysis. Using these insights, we have identified a three residue C-terminal extension that replaces the natural recognition tail permitting PCY1 to operate on synthetic substrates. We demonstrate that PCY1 can macrocyclize a variety of substrates with this short tail, including unnatural amino acids and non-amino acids, highlighting PCY1's potential in biocatalysis.

In recent years, the interest to develop cyclizations promoted by visible light has been gaining a lot of attention due to its sustainability aspect. In this review, we summarize the most important advances in this period by describing the methods used to generate different ring sizes, while focusing on the mechanistic details of these reactions.