Synthesis of Methylenebis(Phosphonate) Analogues of Nucleotide Coenzymes. A Novel Coupling Mechanism

Synthesis of P¹, P²-disubstituted methylenebis(phosphonate)s as inhibitors of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase is presented.     

Phosphorylation of Inositols

Abstract

Chemical synthesis of inositol phosphates which are involved in a newly discovered intracellular transduction system is required. For this purpose, phosphorylation is a crucial step. However, phosphorylation of inositol derivatives which involve vicinally situated hydroxyl functions is quite difficult because of steric crowdness and easy formation of cyclic phosphate. This problem was solved by the following two methods. One method consists of the reaction of an inositol derivative with butyllithium and tetrabenzyl pyrophosphate. By this reaction, various inositol polyphosphates were obtained in good yields. The other involves a new phosphitylating agent, 2-diethylamino-1,3,2-benzodioxaphosphepine. Thus, inositols were first treated with the phosphoramidite in the presence of tetrazole and the resulting phosphites were oxidized by mCPBA to give the corresponding phosphates in excellent yields.     

A Nickel Complex Containing a Pyramidalized,Ambiphilic Pincer Germylene Ligand

Reaction of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-stabilized PGeP-type germylene Ge{o-(PiPr₂)C₆H₄}₂⋅^MeIiPr ( 1 ) (^MeIiPr=1,3-diisopropyl-4,5-dimethylimidazol-2-ylidene) with Ni(cod)₂ gave pincer germylene complex Ni[Ge{o-(PiPr₂)C₆H₄}₂](^MeIiPr) ( 2 ), in which the Ge center of 2 is significantly pyramidalized. Theoretical calculation on 2 predicted the ambiphilicity of the germanium center, which was confirmed by reactivity studies. Thus, complex 2 reacted with both Lewis base ^MeIMe (^MeIMe=1,3,4,5-tetramethylimidazol-2-ylidene) and Lewis acid BH₃⋅SMe₂ at the germanium center to afford the adducts Ni[Ge{o-(PiPr₂)C₆H₄}₂⋅^MeIMe](^MeIiPr) ( 3 ) and Ni[Ge{o-(PiPr₂)C₆H₄}₂⋅BH₃](^MeIiPr) ( 4 ), respectively. Furthermore, the former was slowly converted to dinuclear complex Ni₂[Ge{o-(PiPr₂)C₆H₄}₂]₂(^MeIMe)₂ ( 5 ) at room temperature. Complex 5 can be regarded as a dimer of the ^MeIMe analog of 2 with a Ni-Ge-Ge-Ni linkage.     

Lewis Acid-Induced Reaction of γ,δ-Epoxy Tin Compounds

γ,δ-Epoxy tin compounds underwent divergent reactions depending upon the substitution pattern of the substrates as well as upon Lewis acids used as the indueer.     

Unique features of animal mitochondrial translation systems: – The non-universal genetic code,unusual features of the translational apparatus and their relevance to human mitochondrial diseases –

In animal mitochondria, several codons are non-universal and their meanings differ depending on the species. In addition, the tRNA structures that decipher codons are sometimes unusually truncated. These features seem to be related to the shortening of mitochondrial (mt) genomes, which occurred during the evolution of mitochondria. These organelles probably originated from the endosymbiosis of an aerobic eubacterium into an ancestral eukaryote. It is plausible that these events brought about the various characteristic features of animal mt translation systems, such as genetic code variations, unusually truncated tRNA and rRNA structures, unilateral tRNA recognition mechanisms by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, elongation factors and ribosomes, and compensation for RNA deficits by enlarged proteins. In this article, we discuss molecular mechanisms for these phenomena. Finally, we describe human mt diseases that are caused by modification defects in mt tRNAs.