The discovery of long-existing terpenoid biosynthetic pathways in soft corals changes the way specialized metabolism in animals is thought about, and opens unprecedented access to the largely untapped treasure trove of medicinal marine natural products.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
27,99 € / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
269,00 € per year
only 22,42 € per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
Fu, J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 119, e2100361119 (2022).
Torres, J. P. & Schmidt, E. W. J. Biol. Chem. 294, 17684–17692 (2019).
Lyu, C. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 49, D509–D515 (2021).
Berrue, F. & Kerr, R. G. Nat. Prod. Rep. 26, 681–710 (2009).
Burkhardt, I., De Rond, T., Chen, P.Y. & Moore, B.S. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01026-2 (2022).
Scesa, P.D., Lin, Z. & Schmidt, E.W. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01027-1 (2022).
Smit, S.J. & Lichman, B.R. Nat. Prod. Rep. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2np00005a (2022).
McFadden, C. S. et al. Syst. Biol. 70, 635–647 (2021).
Beran, F., Köllner, T. G., Gershenzon, J. & Tholl, D. New Phytol. 223, 52–67 (2019).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nguyen, TD., Dang, TT.T. Old path, new frontier. Nat Chem Biol 18, 582–583 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01045-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01045-z