We report here the observation of O-H...N hydrogen-bond (1h)J(N,OH) scalar coupling in a biologically active natural product. The intramolecular hydrogen bond between the threonine hydroxyl (Thr-OH) group and the thiazolyl nitrogen at the second thiazole ring (Thz-2) in nocathiacin I was directly detected by a 1H-15N HMBC NMR experiment. The magnitude of the scalar coupling constant (1h)J(N,OH) was accurately measured to be 1.8 +/- 0.1 Hz by a J-resolved 1H-15N HMBC experiment. By adding the O-H...N distance restraint, the 3D solution structure of nocathiacin I was refined. The structure refinement indicated that the distance between the Thr-3 hydroxyl hydrogen and the Thz-2 nitrogen is <or=2.50 A in all the refined structures, and there are no NOE restraint violations >or= 0.23 A. The presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond in nocathiacin I is further supported by a number of NMR parameters and additional NMR experiments. This observation provides valuable information for characterizing molecular conformations, and for studying structure-activity relationships.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.