ABSTRACT
This chapter presents several examples of the use of natural product template strategies to search for the novel antimicrobial agents. The identification of novel antibiotics from the natural products moenomycin and anisomycin demonstrates the viability of the natural product template strategy. Natural products are distinguished by a larger diversity of ring systems, and ring systems of more complex architecture. In addition, natural products are uniquely characterized by their high stereochemical complexities and functional group density. The hypothesis-driven approach relies on the identification of a natural product or derivative that shows either biological activity in a therapeutic area of interest or whose biological mode of action is mechanistically understood. The chapter demonstrates varied levels of the synthetic complexity and highlights several different approaches to template accessibility. The complexity of the natural product template will dictate the feasibility of template total synthesis.
