The Synthesis of Optically Pure Enantiomers of N-Acyl-homoserine Lactone Autoinducers and Their Analogues

Optically pure enantiomers of N-acyl-homoserine lactones and thiolactones, whose optical purities were unambiguously determined by chiral stationary phase HPLC analyses, were firstly synthesized. Bioassays revealed that l-isomers were essential as the autoinducers in quorum sensing, while no effect was observed with d-isomers.