Reconsideration of the spectroscopic data for penipacids A-E, first reported in 2013 as the acyclic amidines 1-5 from the South China deep sea sediment-derived fungus Penicillium paneum SD-44, prompted a total synthesis structure revision as the hydrazones 6-10. This revision strongly supported the proposition that penipacids A-B (6-7) were artifact Schiff base adducts of the cryptic (undetected) natural product N-aminoanthranilic acid (11) with diacetone alcohol, induced by excessive exposure to acetone and methanol under acidic handling conditions. Likewise, the revised structures for penipacids C-D (8-9) and E (10) raise the possibility that they may also be artifact Schiff base adducts of 11 and the media constituents pyruvic acid and furfural, respectively. A review of the natural products literature revealed other Schiff base (hydrazone) natural products that might also be viewed as Schiff base adduct artifacts of 11. Having raised the prospect that 11 is an undetected and reactive cryptic natural product, we went on to establish that 11 is not cytotoxic to a range of bacterial, fungal or mammalian (human) cell types. Instead, when added as a supplement to microbial cultivations, 11 can act as a chemical cue/transcriptional regulator, activating and/or enhancing the yield of biosynthetic gene clusters encoding for other natural product chemical defenses. This study demonstrates the value of challenging the structure and artifact status of natural products, as a window into the hidden world of cryptic and highly reactive natural products.
Keywords: N-aminoanthranilic acid; Schiff base adduct; artifact; microbioreactor cultivation profiling; structure revision; total synthesis; transcriptional regulator.