General Solution to the Preparation of β-Thiolated/Selenolated Amino Acids Via Visible Light Catalyzed Asymmetric Giese Reaction.

Thiolated/selenolated amino acids are irreplaceable despite their rare abundance in proteins. They play critical roles in regulating the conformation and function of proteins and peptide design as well as bioconjugation. Furthermore, β-thiolated/selenolated amino acids are important motifs in native chemical ligation-dechalcogenation strategy for protein synthesis. However, a universal method to access enantiopure β-thiolated/selenolated amino acids has not been reported. Herein, we developed a practical strategy for the preparation of a variety of enantiopure β-thiolated/selenolated amino acids via photoredox-catalyzed Giese reaction.