Insight into herbicide resistance of W574L mutant Arabidopsis thaliana acetohydroxyacid synthase: molecular dynamics simulations and binding free energy calculations

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) is the target enzyme of several classes of herbicides, such as sulfonylureas and imidazolinones. Now many mutant AHASs with herbicide resistance have emerged along with extensive use of herbicides, therefore it is imperative to understand the detailed interaction mechanism and resistance mechanism so as to develop new potent inhibitors for wild-type or resistant AHAS. With the aid of available crystal structures of the Arabidopsis thaliana (At) AHAS-inhibitor complex, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate the interaction and resistance mechanism directly and dynamically at the atomic level. Nanosecond-level MD simulations were performed on six systems consisting of wild-type or W574L mutant AtAHAS in the complex with three sulfonylurea inhibitors, separately, and binding free energy was calculated for each system using the MM-GBSA method. Comprehensive analyses from structural and energetic aspects confirmed the importance of residue W574, and also indicated that W574L mutation might alert the structural charactersistic of the substrate access channel and decrease the binding affinity of inhibitors, which cooperatively weaken the effective channel-blocked effect and finally result in weaker inhibitory effect of inhibitor and corresponding herbicide resistance of W574L mutant. To our knowledge, it is the first report about MD simulations study on the AHAS-related system, which will pave the way to study the interactions between herbicides and wild-type or mutant AHAS dynamically, and decipher the resistance mechanism at the atomic level for better designing new potent anti-resistance herbicides.     

Amphiphilic dendronized homopolymers

A series of second generation of amphiphilic dendronized homopolymers are efficiently synthesized, and their thermoresponsiveness in aqueous solutions and secondary structures in methanol solutions are described. These polymers are constructed in each repeat unit with various generations of hydrophobic 4-aminoproline and hydrophilic oligoethylene glycol (OEG)-based dendrons, and their over-all hydrophilicity is tuned by varying these dendron generations. Polymers with or without the first generation of proline dendron show good water solubility at room temperature, but exhibit typical thermoresponsive behaviors at elevated temperatures as characterized by turbidity measurements using UV-vis spectroscopy, while the polymer with the secondary generation of proline dendron is not soluble in water. All polymers show ordered secondary structures as evidenced by the optical rotation and circular dichroism experiments. Finally, assembly of these amphiphilic homopolymers into porous films via breath figure (BF) technique is described, and polymer structures are found to show significant influence on the morphology of porous film.     

5‐Formylsalicylic acid and 5‐(benzimidazolium‐2‐yl)salicylate

Both title compounds are derivatives of salicylic acid. 5‐Formylsalicylic acid (systematic name: 5‐formyl‐2‐hydroxybenzoic acid), C₈H₆O₄, possesses three good hydrogen‐bond donors and/or acceptors coplanar with their attached benzene ring and abides very well by Etter's hydrogen‐bond rules. Intermolecular O—H...O and some weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into a planar sheet. Reaction of this acid and o‐phenylenediamine in refluxing ethanol produced in high yield the new zwitterionic compound 5‐(benzimidazolium‐2‐yl)salicylate [systematic name: 5‐(1H‐benzimidazol‐3‐ium‐2‐yl)‐2‐hydroxybenzoate], C₁₄H₁₀N₂O₃. Each imidazolium N—H group and its adjacent salicyl C—H group chelate one carboxylate O atom via hydrogen bonds, forming seven‐membered rings. As a result of steric hindrance, the planes of the molecules within these pairs of hydrogen‐bonded molecules are inclined to one another by ∼74°. There are also π–π stacking interactions between the parallel planes of the imidazole ring and the benzene ring of the salicyl component of the adjacent molecule on one side and the benzimidazolium component of the molecule on the other side.     

以戊二醛为间隔臂的万古霉素键合手性固定相制备

基于戊二醛具有双官能团、高反应活性的特征,以其为间隔臂将万古霉素键合到氨基二氧化硅填料表面,制备了万古霉素键合手性固定相,制备方法简单易行。采用元素分析及扫描电子显微镜对制备的万古霉素键合手性固定相进行了表征。在高效液相色谱分离模式下,分别对谷氨酸、天冬氨酸、苯丙氨酸和异亮氨酸等4种手性氨基酸和手性药物罗格列酮进行拆分,其中谷氨酸和罗格列酮的分离度分别达到了2.0和2.3。系统考察了流动相条件对对映体拆分的影响,证实有机改性剂、缓冲液种类和浓度、pH值及温度对所测样品的保留行为和手性选择性均有显著影响。     

高效液相色谱-电喷雾-离子阱质谱法推定硫酸依替米星中有关物质的结构

采用高效液相色谱-电喷雾-离子阱质谱法(HPLC-ESI-IT-MSn)对硫酸依替米星中有关物质结构进行推定.采用Phenomnex Gemini NX C18色谱柱,以水-氨水-冰醋酸(96∶ 3.6∶ 0.4, V/V)-甲醇(70∶ 30, V/V)为流动相,质谱条件:电喷雾离子源(ESI),正离子检测模式;离子源温度350 ℃;雾化氮气压力275.8 kPa;干燥氮气流速10 L/min;离子阱质谱检测器,Smart扫描模式,扫描质量范围m/z 100～900.硫酸依替米星样品中共检出18种有关物质,对其中的13种物质的结构进行了推定,其余5种有关物质的结构未进行解析,只提供了分子量和二级质谱信息.     

New implementations of MRCI in semiempirical frameworks

Multireference configuration interaction with single and double excitations (MRCISD) as well as its analytic CI gradients has been implemented in the semiempirical framework. The hole‐particle symmetry and a mixed driven model for computing coupling coefficients have been used in the new code that allows us to perform MRCI and gradient calculations with higher efficiency and less storage requirements. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

氟甲喹单克隆抗体制备、鉴定及间接竞争酶联免疫吸附分析法

以氟甲喹(FLU)为原料,合成4个碳原子手臂的半抗原(FLUABA),采用活泼酯法与牛血清白蛋白(BSA)偶联制备免疫抗原,通过免疫Balb/c小鼠及细胞融合,获得1株稳定分泌抗氟甲喹单克隆抗体的杂交瘤细胞株DB6-E7,其抗体亚类为IgG1,亲和力常数(KA)为8.19×108L/mol。将氟甲喹、FLUABA及6个碳原子手臂的半抗原FLUACA分别与卵清白蛋白(OVA)偶联作为包被抗原,研究异源包被对间接竞争ELISA灵敏度的影响。结果表明,异源包被可显著提高ELISA方法的灵敏度。基于最佳异源包被(FLU-OVA)的酶联免疫吸附分析法的IC50为26.33μg/L,检出限为4μg/L,定量检测范围为8.0～114μg/L(IC20～IC80)。与喹诺酮类药物及结构类似物几乎不存在交叉反应,特异性高。此方法可满足畜禽产品中氟甲喹残留的快速筛查。     

Efficient synthesis of natural polyphenolic stilbenes: resveratrol, piceatannol and oxyresveratrol

The practical synthesis of important natural polyphenolic stilbenes, including resveratrol, piceatannol and oxyresveratrol, through Perkin methodology is described. Starting from 3,5-dihydoxyacetophenone (1), the common intermediate 3,5-dimethoxyphenylacetic acid (3) can be obtained via methylation and Willgerodt-Kindler reaction. Perkin condensations between (3) and substituted phenylaldehydes 4 furnished E-2,3-diarylacrylic acids 5, followed by decarboxylation in Cu/quinoline giving stilbene intermediates 6 which bear the Z-configuration. Finally, through a simultaneous demethylation/isomerization process in AlI?/CH?CN system, the target compounds 7a-c can be obtained respectively in good to high overall yields. The synthetic method proved to be more concise, trans-specific, mild, economical and commonly applicable.     

2,3,7,8,12,13‐Hexaaryltruxenes: An ortho‐Substituted Multiarm Design and Microwave‐Accelerated Synthesis toward Starburst Macromolecular Materials with Well‐Defined π Delocalization

We present herein a novel design and the efficient synthesis towards a “homogeneous” starburst fluorene system based on the novel 2,3,7,8,12,13‐hexaaryltruxene scaffold. Controlled microwave heating provides a facile and powerful approach for each step in the synthesis of these bulky materials with large steric hindrance, suggesting an avenue to access structurally well‐defined complex organic semiconductors (OSCs) rapidly and conveniently with high yield and purity. The resulting materials exhibited good thermal stability and an excellent glassy structure as revealed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well as wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) studies. Moreover, compared with their corresponding three‐arm‐substituted counterparts T1 – T4 , the introduction of the ortho substituents around the truxene core in Tr1 – Tr4 results in significant blueshifts (of 7–24 nm) of the absorption maxima λ_max and higher energy optical gaps (E_g). Comparative studies with corresponding linear, rod‐shaped oligofluorene counterparts (OFX) have revealed that the longest para‐conjugated segment in the TrX (X=1–4) structures plays the dominant role in determining their electronic properties. UV/Vis data and cyclic voltammetry (CV) investigations have indicated that there is little electronic interaction between the arms, even for the shortest armed oligomer Tr1 . A clear linear relationship of both 1/λ_max and E_g with the inverse of (n+1) for these branched systems was found. Our findings highlight a novel molecular design comprising an ortho‐substituted, multiarmed architecture that would allow the introduction of isotropic physical and/or mechanical properties, while at the same time maintaining most of the important electronic properties of the rod‐shaped constituents of a fully conjugated system.