Total syntheses of natural tubelactomicins B, D, and E: establishment of their stereochemistries

Total syntheses of the antimicrobial tricyclic 16-membered macrolides, (+)-tubelactomicin B, (+)-tubelactomicin D, and (+)-tubelactomicin E, have been accomplished for the first time with common synthetic approaches. These total syntheses established the relative and absolute configurations of the three tubelactomicins, for which planar structures had solely been reported. The total synthesis of (+)-tubelactomicin D included a newly developed stereoselective intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction for constructing the highly functionalized octahydronaphthalene substructures.     

Ultrafast dynamics of photoactive yellow protein via the photoexcitation and emission processes

Pump-dump fluorescence spectroscopy was performed for photoactive yellow protein (PYP) at room temperature. The effect of the dump pulse on the population of the potential energy surface of the electronic excited state was examined as depletion in the stationary fluorescence intensity. The dynamic behavior of the population in the electronic excited state was successfully probed in the various combinations of the pump-dump delay, the dump-pulse wavelength, the dump-pulse energy and the observation wavelength. The experimental results were compared with the results obtained by the femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.     

Distinction of absolute configuration at C-22 of C-23-hydroxyspirostane and C-23-hydroxyspirosolane glycosides

It has been revealed that the absolute configurations at C-22 of 23-hydroxyspirostane and 23-hydroxyspirosolane could be unambiguouly judged by the (1)H- and (13)C-NMR spectroscopies.     

Coherent oscillations in ultrafast fluorescence of photoactive yellow protein

The ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of photoactive yellow protein in aqueous solution were studied at room temperature by femtosecond fluorescence spectroscopy using an optical Kerr-gate technique. Coherent oscillations of the wave packet were directly observed in the two-dimensional time-energy map of ultrafast fluorescence with 180 fs time resolution and 5 nm spectral resolution. The two-dimensional map revealed that four or more oscillatory components exist within the broad bandwidth of the fluorescence spectrum, each of which is restricted in the respective narrow spectral region. Typical frequencies of the oscillatory modes are 50 and 120 cm(-1). In the landscape on the map, the oscillatory components were recognized as the ridges which were winding and descending with time. The amplitude of the oscillatory and winding behaviors is a few hundred cm(-1), which is the same order as the frequencies of the oscillations. The mean spectral positions of the oscillatory components in the two-dimensional map are well explained by considering the vibrational energies of intramolecular modes in the electronic ground state of the chromophore. The entire view of the wave packet oscillations and broadening in the electronic excited state, accompanied by fluorescence transitions to the vibrational sublevels belonging to the electronic ground state, was obtained.     

Nickel-catalyzed Heck-type reactions of benzyl chlorides and simple olefins

Nickel-catalyzed intermolecular benzylation and heterobenzylation of unactivated alkenes to provide functionalized allylbenzene derivatives are described. A wide range of both the benzyl chloride and alkene coupling partners are tolerated. In contrast to analogous palladium-catalyzed variants of this process, all reactions described herein employ electronically unbiased aliphatic olefins (including ethylene), proceed at room temperature, and provide 1,1-disubstituted olefins over the more commonly observed 1,2-disubstituted olefins with very high selectivity.     

Synthesis of para- or ortho-substituted triarylbilindiones and tetraarylbiladienones by coupled oxidation of tetraarylporphyrins

Coupled oxidation of [tetraarylporphyrinato]iron(III) chloride carrying substituents in the ortho or para positions was performed by allowing the iron porphyrin to react with dioxygen, ascorbic acid, and pyridine to give biladienone as the major product and bilindione as a minor one. Efforts to find reaction conditions and workup procedures to obtain bilindione improved the yields of triarylbilindiones ranging between 2% and 19%. Electron-withdrawing substituents in the para position on the aryl groups increased the selectivity of bilindione relative to biladienone: the isolated yields of bilindione and biladienone were 2% and 85% (OMe), 6% and 44% (COOMe), and 7% and 28% (CN), respectively. Electronic effects of substituents affected both isolation procedures and the spectroscopic properties of bilindiones. Tri(4-methoxyphenyl)bilindione showed a red-shifted electronic absorption compared to unsubstituted and 4-methoxycarbonyl substituted analogues. This was ascribed to the destabilization of the HOMO-1 level by the methoxy groups.     

Copper mediated defluorinative allylic alkylation of difluorohomoallyl alcohol derivatives directed to an efficient synthetic method for (Z)-fluoroalkene dipeptide isosteres

Difluoroallylation of optically pure O-silylated (S)-2-methyl-3-hydroxypropanal 10a with bromodifluoropropene mediated by indium provided the corresponding difluorohomoallyl alcohol 11a with low diastereoselectivity, but without a decrease in optical purity. Defluorinative allylic alkylation of each diastereomer of the difluorohomoallyl alcohol efficiently proceeded by the reaction with trialkylaluminium and Cu(I) system or Grignard reagent and a catalytic amount of CuI system in THF to give the fluorine-substituted allylic alcohol 12 in an high yield and in an excellent Z selective manner. Subsequent imidate Claisen rearrangement of the allylic alcohol 12 proceeded with a complete 1,3-chirality transfer to give the fluoroalkene dipeptide isostere structure 14 after the final conversion of the primary alcohol 20 into the carboxylic acid form.     

Structural comparison of n-type and p-type LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces

Using a surface x-ray diffraction technique, we investigated the atomic structure of two types of interfaces between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, that is, p-type (SrO/AlO2) and n-type (TiO2/LaO) interfaces. Our results demonstrate that the SrTiO3 in the sample with the n-type interface has a large polarized region, while that with the p-type interface has a limited polarized region. In addition, atomic intermixing was observed to extend deeper into the SrTiO3 substrate at the n-type interface compared to the p type. These differences result in distinct degrees of band bending, which likely contributes to the striking contrast in electrical conductivity between the two types of interfaces.     

Enzymatic Syntheses of N-Acetyllactosamine and N-Acetylallolactosamine by the Use of β-D-Galactosidases

Abstract

A β-D-galactosidase from Bacillus circulans induced β-D-galactopyranosyl transfer from lactose predominantly to a secondary (OH-4) rather than the primary hydroxyl group (OH-6) of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose. 4-O-β-D-Galacto-pyranosyl-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose (N-acetyl-lactosamine) was thus readily synthesized on a gram scale and conveniently isolated by chromatography on a column of charcoal-Celite. On the other hand, the glycosyl transfer to the 6-position predominantly was efficiently induced to give 6-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose (N-acetyl-allolactosamine) by consecutive use of β-D-galactosidases from Kluyveromyces lactis and B. circulans. These enzyme reactions were efficient enough to allow the one-pot preparation of the desired disaccharides.