MS<Superscript>n</Superscript> characterization of protonated cyclic peptides and metal complexes

MSⁿ experiments involving low energy collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) in a quadrupole ion trap were used to characterize the fragmentation of alkali, alkaline earth and transition metal complexes of five cyclic peptides, and the results were compared with those obtained for protonated cyclic peptides. Complexes with metal ions produced enhanced abundances of the most diagnostic fragments for elucidating the primary structures. For cyclosporin A, nickel and lithium complexes gave additional sequence information compared with the protonated peptide. For depsipeptides, sodium and lead complexes were superior to the protonated peptide or other metal complexes for sequencing residues, and CAD of the lead complexes led to preferential cleavage of two residues at a time. For cyclic lipopeptides, complexes with silver, nickel and strontium ions provided enhanced abundances of key fragment ions.     

Intermolecular dihydrogen‐ and hydrogen‐bonding interactions in diammonium closo‐decahydrodecaborate sesquihydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, 2NH₄⁺·B₁₀H₁₀²⁻·1.5H₂O or (NH₄)₂B₁₀H₁₀·1.5H₂O, (I), contains two B₁₀H₁₀²⁻ anions, four NH₄⁺ cations and three water molecules. (I) was converted to the anhydrous compound (NH₄)₂B₁₀H₁₀, (II), by heating to 343 K and its X‐ray powder pattern was obtained. The extended structure of (I) shows two types of hydrogen‐bonding interactions (N—H...O and O—H...O) and two types of dihydrogen‐bonding interactions (N—H...H—B and O—H...H—B). The N—H...H—B dihydrogen bonding forms a two‐dimensional sheet structure, and hydrogen bonding (N—H...O and O—H...O) and O—H...H—B dihydrogen bonding link the respective sheets to form a three‐dimensional polymeric network structure. Compound (II) has been shown to form a polymer with the accompanying loss of H₂ at a faster rate than (NH₄)₂B₁₂H₁₂ and we believe that this is due to the stronger dihydrogen‐bonding interactions shown in the hydrate (I).     

Induced Color Change of Conjugated Polymeric Vesicles by Interfacial Catalysis of Phospholipase A2

A blue to red color change is induced on addition of phospholipase A₂ to modified PDA vesicles 1 (PDA=polydiacetylene). This bathochromic transition results from chemical modification of the vesicles by hydrolysis of the enzyme substrate embedded in the PDA matrix. Addition of a known phospholipase inhibitor or removal of Ca²⁺ ions suppresses the color change, which suggests the potential for applications in high‐throughput screening assays.     

Commutants of analytic Toeplitz operators on the Bergman space

In this note we show that if two Toeplitz operators on a Bergman space commute and the symbol of one of them is analytic and nonconstant, then the other one is also analytic.