A Biomimetic Approach to Lanthionines

The asymmetric sulfa-Michael additions of appropriately protected l- and d-cysteine derivatives to new chiral dehydroamino acid derivatives have been developed as key steps in the synthesis of biologically important cysteine derivatives, such as lanthionine (Lan) and β-methyllanthionine (MeLan), which are unusual bis-α-amino acids found in the emerging lantibiotics such as nisin.