On a Relation Between Potentials for Pluriharmonic Maps and Para-Pluriharmonic Maps

In this paper, we show that one can interrelate pluriharmonic maps with para-pluriharmonic maps by means of the loop group method. As an appendix, we give examples for the interrelation between pluriharmonic maps and para-pluriharmonic maps. Moreover, we investigate the relation among CMC-surfaces by use of such maps.     

Highly Selective Stereodivergent Synthesis of Separable Amide Rotamers,by Using Pd Chemistry,and Their Thermodynamic Behavior

Going separate ways : By using π‐allyl–palladium chemistry (path A) and Pd^II‐catalyzed Claisen chemistry (path B), a highly selective stereodivergent synthesis of separable amide rotamers was achieved (see scheme).

     

Comparative Biochemical Analysis of Cellulosomes Isolated from Clostridium clariflavum DSM 19732 and Clostridium thermocellum ATCC 27405 Grown on Plant Biomass

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - The cellulosome is a supramolecular multienzyme complex formed via species-specific interactions between the cohesin modules of scaffoldin proteins and the...     

The synthesis of seneciphyllic acid

A total synthesis of seneciphyllic acid, the necic acid of the Senecio alkaloid seneciphylline, is reported.     

Syntheses of (-)-funebrine and (-)-funebral, using sequential transesterification and intramolecular cycloaddition of a chiral nitrone

The first syntheses of (-)-funebrine [(-)-1] and (-)-funebral [(-)-2] are described. The syntheses feature sequential formation of nitrone VI from methyl glyoxylate (5) with oxime 6, transesterification of nitrone VI with (E)-crotyl alcohol (4), and intramolecular cycloaddition of the resulting nitrone VII bearing crotyl ester to afford cycloadduct 7 as a major product. The adduct 7 was readily elaborated to amino lactone (-)-3, the key synthetic intermediate of (-)-1 and (-)-2.     

Phospha-1,2-dioxetanes: possible chemiluminescent intermediates of photooxygenation of benzophenone and fluorenone triphenylphosphazines

Photosensitized oxygenation of enzophenone and fluorenone triphenylphosphazine (1a–b) at ?78 °C gave the corresponding ketone (5a–b) and triphenylphosphine oxide (6) and also gave light emission when warmed up to room temperature.     

Versatile use of acid-catalyzed ring-opening of β-aziridinyl-α,β-enoates to stereoselective synthesis of peptidomimetics

Treatment of N-arylsulfonylaziridines bearing α,β-unsaturated esters with alcohols, thiols or weak acids such as AcOH in the presence of catalytic amount of Lewis acids affords regio- and stereoselectively ring-opened products, such as δ-aminated γ-alkoxy-(alkylthio or acetoxy)-α,β-enoates. In addition, the regio- and stereoselective ring-opening reactions can be performed on solid supports and applied to stereoselective synthesis of (E)-alkene dipeptide isosteres.     

All-electron density functional calculation on insulin with quasi-canonical localized orbitals

An all-electron density functional (DF) calculation on insulin was performed by the Gaussian-based DF program, ProteinDF. Quasi-canonical localized orbitals (QCLOs) were used to improve the initial guess for the self-consistent field (SCF) calculation. All calculations were carried out by parallel computing on eight processors of an Itanium2 cluster (SGI Altix3700) with a theoretical peak performance of 41.6 GFlops. It took 35 h for the whole calculation. Insulin is a protein hormone consisting of two peptide chains linked by three disulfide bonds. The numbers of residues, atoms, electrons, orbitals, and auxiliary functions are 51, 790, 3078, 4439, and 8060, respectively. An all-electron DF calculation on insulin was successfully carried out, starting from connected QCLOs. Regardless of a large molecule with complicated topology, the differences in the total energy and the Mulliken atomic charge between initial and converged wavefunctions were very small. The calculation proceeded smoothly without any trial and error, suggesting that this is a promising method to obtain SCF convergence on large molecules such as proteins.     

Topochemical exploration of potent compounds using retro-enantiomer libraries of cyclic pentapeptides

Cyclic pentapeptides have been adopted as conformationally restricted peptide templates to dispose pharmacophores of bioactive peptides. In our recent study, use of two orthogonal cyclic pentapeptide libraries involving conformation-based and sequence-based libraries containing critical residues of a bioactive peptide led to the discovery of potent downsized peptides that possess activity comparable to that of the parent peptide. The present study demonstrates that a third library consisting of retro-enantiomers (retro-inverso peptides) that possess not only all residues with the opposite configuration to those in the corresponding original peptide but also amino acid sequences with reversed arrangement, is important as an alternative library for rationally finding active compounds.     

Unexpected highly chemoselective deprotection of the acetals from aldehydes and not ketones: TESOTf-2,6-lutidine combination

Acetal functions are recognized as good protecting groups of carbonyl groups. Although many deprotecting methods of acetals to carbonyl functions have already been developed, there is no methodology which can deprotect acetals in the presence of ketals because the usual acidic or radical reactions occur more easily via the more stable cationic or radical intermediates from the ketals. On the other hand, this new method can proceed in a reverse manner to that described in previous reports. That is, the method can deprotect aliphatic acetals in the presence of ketals. The reaction condition is common for silylation, i.e., the TESOTf-2,6-lutidine combinations. Although the TMSOTf-2,6-lutidine combination can also deprotect acetals, it lacks chemoselectivity in deprotection of the acetals from aldehydes and ketones. The treatment of acetals with TESOTf and 2,6-lutidine in CH2Cl2 followed by a H2O workup gave the corresponding aldehydes. Of course, the compounds, which have both acetal and hydroxyl functions afforded the compounds obtained by the usual silylation of an alcohol and deprotection of an acetal without any problem. However, deprotection of the ketals from ketones was not observed during the conversion reaction of acetals from aldehydes. This chemoselectivity was confirmed in the reactions of the compounds that have the acetal and ketal in the same molecule. In both cases, the acetal functions were deprotected to give aldehydes with intact ketals. Furthermore, under the conditions described here, many functional groups such as methoxy, acetoxy, allyl alcohol, and silyloxy ether are intact. This method is very mild and available for many compounds.