Practical Synthesis of DOPA Derivative for Biosynthetic Production of Potent Antitumor Natural Products, Saframycins and Ecteinascidin 743

A practical synthetic route of DOPA derivative 2, which should be useful for direct biosynthetic production of potent antitumor natural products, saframycins and ecteinascidin 743 was established. The developed strategy features i) easy-to-handle reactions without special care upon both dryness and inert atmopsphere, and ii) the facile HPLC-free purification of 2 via recrystallization enabling scalable synthesis of 2. Keywords: Biosynthesis, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, DOPA, ecteinascidin 743, non-natural amino acid, saframycin, bacteria, sarcoma, polypeptide, tyrosine