Nitrogen–nitrogen (N–N) bond–containing compounds are occasionally described in nature. Despite their interesting structural and biological features, biosynthetic machineries of N–N bond formation in nature remained undiscovered for a long time. However, the understanding on biosynthetic machineries of N–N bond formation have rapidly accumulated within the last few years. This includes the discovery of nitrous acid biosynthetic pathway used in secondary metabolism and the identification of metalloenzymes actually catalyzing N–N bond formation. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the understanding on the biosyntheses of N–N bond–containing natural products.

自然界中偶尔会描述含氮-氮 (N-N) 键的化合物。尽管具有有趣的结构和生物学特征，但自然界中 N-N 键形成的生物合成机制在很长一段时间内仍未被发现。然而，在过去几年中，对 N-N 键形成的生物合成机制的理解迅速积累。这包括发现用于次生代谢的亚硝酸生物合成途径和识别实际催化 N-N 键形成的金属酶。在这篇综述中，我们总结了对含 N-N 键天然产物生物合成理解的最新进展。