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    "headline": "A Poisonous Flower Gave Up Its First Assembly Steps",
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    "dek": "Researchers identified enzymes that start building atisinium, a foothold for sustainable synthesis of complex medicinal alkaloids.",
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    "body_text": "Michigan State researchers mapped early steps used by highly toxic flowering plants to make atisinium-class diterpenoid alkaloids. The team identified enzymes that construct and fold the carbon scaffold and found an unexpected route for adding nitrogen. Reconstituting the entry steps creates a platform for studying a family that includes biologically active compounds difficult to synthesize. It does not establish a safe drug or scalable production process.",
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    "tags": [
      "plant chemistry",
      "biosynthesis",
      "alkaloids",
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      "title": "Molecular Plant: diterpenoid alkaloid biosynthesis entry steps",
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