Biosynthesis in theory and practice: structure determinations.

Classical appraoches to structure determinations of natural molecules can be assisted by biosynthetic considerations. Application of these needs some structural evidence, based on degradations and spectra, as to biogenetic type. This evidence can be effectively supplemented by incorporations of precursors labelled with 14C, 13C or 15N, as appropriate, with examinations of the distributions of label in the product. Several examples of both classical and incorporation techniques are reviewed.