N5-phosphonoacetyl-L-ornithine (PALO): a convenient synthesis and investigation of influence on regulation of amino acid biosynthetic genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A scalable four-step synthesis of the ornithine transcarbamylase inhibitor N(5)-phosphonoacetyl-l-ornithine (PALO) is achieved through boroxazolidinone protection of ornithine. Investigations in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae found that, in contrast to a previous report, PALO did not influence growth rate or expression of genes involved in arginine metabolism.