Novel fluorescent isoquinoline pigments, panaefluorolines A-C from the cultured mycobiont of a lichen, Amygdalaria panaeola

Novel fluorescent substances, named panaefluorolines A-C (1-3), were isolated from the cultured mycobiont of a lichen, Amygdalaria panaeola. These structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data, especially 2D NMR.     

Electron transport with mobility above 10–3 cm2/Vs in amorphous film of co‐planar bipyridyl‐substituted oxadiazole

We demonstrate that a bipyridyl substituted oxadiazole (Bpy‐OXD) shows high electron mobility that reached above 10^–3 cm²/Vs. We believe that the high mobility results from both the hybrid molecular structure of the two electron‐accepting units: bipyridyl and oxadiazole, and the planar molecular structure based on its lack of sterically hindered bulky substituent. The computational analysis elucidates that the amorphous nature of Bpy‐OXD in thin‐film state probably results from the polymorphic effect in isolated state and the volume effect in solid state. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Lannotinidines A-G, new alkaloids from two species of Lycopodium

Seven new Lycopodium alkaloids, lannotinidines A-G (1-7), have been isolated from the club moss Lycopodium annotinum and L. annotinum var. acrifolium. Stereochemistry of 1-7 was elucidated by combination of NOESY correlations and chemical transformation. Lannotinidines B-E (2-5) elevated NGF mRNA expression.     

Proton-ionizable crown compounds. 11. Synthesis of macrocyclic ligands containing two sulfonamide groups and chloro substituents or pyridine subcyclic units and a preliminary study of cation transport by three of these ligands

Five new macrocyclic ligands each containing two sulfonamide groups have been prepared. Three of these compounds contain one or two chloro substituents and the other two have one or two pyridine subcyclic units. A seventeen-membered ring ligand (4) was found to be an excellent transport agent for all alkali metal cations in a water-methylene chloride-water bulk liquid membrane system when the pH of the source phase was 13 or higher. The chlorine-substituted analog (5) was a poor transport agent for the alkali metal cations possibly because the chlorine atom blocked entry to the macrocycle cavity. An open-chain analog containing two sulfonamide groups was particularly effective in transporting cesium ions.     

Probing the conformational features of a phage display polypeptide sequence directed against single-walled carbon nanohorn surfaces

Single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) are interesting carbon nanostructures that have applications to science and technology. Using M13 phage display technology, polypeptides directed again SWNHs surfaces have been created for a number of nanotechnology and pharmaceutical purposes, yet the molecular mechanism of polypeptide sequence interaction and binding to SWNHs surfaces is not known. Recently, we identified a linear 12-AA M13 phage pIII sequence, NH-12-5-2 (DYFSSPYYEQLF), that binds with high affinity to SWNHs surfaces. To probe the structure of this pIII tail polypeptide further, we investigated the conformation of a model peptide representing the 12 AA NH-12-5-2 sequence. At neutral pH, the NH-12-5-2 model polypeptide is conformationally labile and exhibits two-state conformational exchange involving the D1-S5 N-terminal segment. Simultaneous with this conformational exchange process is the observation that the P6 residue exhibits imido ring conformational variation. In the presence of the structure-stabilizing solvent, TFE, or at pH 2.5, both the exchange process and Pro ring motion phenomena disappear, indicating that the structure of this peptide sequence can be stabilized by extrinsic factors. Interestingly, we observe NMR parameters (ROEs, (3)J coupling constants) for NH-12-5-2 in 90% v/v TFE that are consistent with the presence of a partial helical structure, similar to what was observed at low pH in our earlier CD experiments. We conclude that the NH-12-5-2 model polypeptide sequence possesses an inherent conformational instability that involves the D1-S5 sequence segment and the P6 residue but that this instability can be offset by extrinsic factors (e.g., charge neutralization, imido ring interconversion, and hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions). These nonbonding interactions may play a role in the recognition and binding of this phage sequence region to SWNHs surfaces.     

Development of a new software for the X-ray structural analysis of polymer crystals by utilizing the X-ray imaging plate system

A software and some useful tools have been developed for identifying individual x-ray reflectional peaks recorded with an x-ray imaging plate system. These techniques were applied to analyze the crystal structure of uniaxially oriented polymer samples. Characteristic features of the present method may be summarized as follows. (1) The indexing of the observed reflections and the determination of the unit cell parameters can be made easily on the display of the computer. (2) The integrated intensity of the individual component of the overlapped reflections can be evaluated quantitatively through the curve separation technique. The R_merge's for the equivalent reflections were 5–6%, indicating the exact evaluation of the integrated intensities. (3) The thus obtained reflectional data were successfully utilized for the extraction of the initial structural models by the direct method. The actual applications have been made for orthorhombic polyethylene, trigonal polyoxymethylene, and isotactic polybutene-1, giving the refined crystal structures including even the positions of hydrogen atoms in some cases. The reliability factors were 12, 5, and 15%, respectively, for these three polymer cyrstals. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1677–1700, 1997     

DNA Origami Scaffolds as Templates for Functional Tetrameric Kir3 K+ Channels

In native systems, scaffolding proteins play important roles in assembling proteins into complexes to transduce signals. This concept is yet to be applied to the assembly of functional transmembrane protein complexes in artificial systems. To address this issue, DNA origami has the potential to serve as scaffolds that arrange proteins at specific positions in complexes. Herein, we report that Kir3 K⁺ channel proteins are assembled through zinc‐finger protein (ZFP)‐adaptors at specific locations on DNA origami scaffolds. Specific binding of the ZFP‐fused Kir3 channels and ZFP‐based adaptors on DNA origami were confirmed by atomic force microscopy and gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, the DNA origami with ZFP binding sites nearly tripled the K⁺ channel current activity elicited by heterotetrameric Kir3 channels in HEK293T cells. Thus, our method provides a useful template to control the oligomerization states of membrane protein complexes in vitro and in living cells.     

Formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under femtosecond laser irradiation

We report on the formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser irradiation. We simultaneously focused two beams of femtosecond laser pulses inside a glass and confirmed the formation of characteristically shaped element distributions. The results of the numerical simulation in which we considered concentration- and temperature-gradient-driven diffusions were in excellent qualitative agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the main driving force is the sharp temperature gradient. Since the composition of a glass affects its refractive index, absorption, and luminescence property, the results in this study provide a framework to fabricate a functional optical device such as optical circuits with a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser.     

Design and synthesis of novel chiral spiro ionic liquids

[reaction: see text] Novel chiral imidazolium salts have been synthesized as examples of chiral ionic liquids with a spiro skeleton. Effects of N-substituents and counteranions on the melting point of spiro imidazolium salts and their chiral discrimination abilities are described.