Structure Revision of Protoaculeine B, a Posttranslationally Modified N-Terminal Residue in the Peptide Toxin Aculeine B

Here, we newly propose the structure of protoaculeine B, an N-terminal moiety of the marine peptide toxin aculeine B, as possessing the cis-disubstituted tetrahydro-beta-carboline framework. We prepared two truncated model compounds that lack long-chain polyamine by one-step Pictet-Spengler reaction of tryptophan, and compared the NMR and mass spectra and chemical reactivity with those of natural protoaculeine B. The synthetic models reproduced the profiles of the natural product well, which was conclusive for the structural revision.