(2 R, 3 S)-3-Vinylmalic acid (VM) was designed as a mechanism-based inhibitor of threo-3- isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (IPMDH), the rate-determining enzyme responsible for the penultimate step in the biosynthetic pathway of the essential amino acid l-leucine. The synthesis of VM was achieved in six steps from diethyl (R)-malate. Besides its weak activity as a substrate, VM was shown to be a mechanism-based inhibitor (KI= 1.20 mM) for ...