Salt Stress Proteins Identified by a Functional Approach in Yeast

We have performed functional genomics of salt stress by overexpression of gene libraries in yeast and selection for salt tolerance. Thirty halotolerance genes were isolated from yeast, Arabidopsis, and sugar beet. The results indicate that Na⁺ transport (uptake, efflux, and compartmentation), sulfate activation, RNA processing, and protein synthesis are crucial for salt tolerance.     

Effect of environmental factors and carbohydrate on gellan gum production

Submerged culture fermentation studies were carried out in batch mode for optimizing the environmental parameters and carbon source requirement by Pseudomonas elodea for the production of gellan gum. The maximum production of gellan gum was obtained with 16-h-old culture and 8% inoculum at 30°C and pH 7.0 after 52 h of incubation (6.0 g/L). Of the various carbon sources tested, 2% sucrose, glucose, and soluble starch yielded considerably high amounts of gellan. Studies on the concentration of various carbohydrates on gellan gum production indicated that the optimum concentration of glucose and starch was 3%, whereas for sucrose it was 4%. The addition of glucose in the medium above 3% had a detrimental effect on gellan yield. The investigation of intermediate two-step addition of glucose under identical conditions of fermentation showed an enhanced production of gellan (8.12 g/L) as compared with the control (6.0 g/L). To optimize the recovery of gellan from fermented broth, different solvents were tested for precipitation of gellan gum. Among the various solvents tested, tetrahydrofuran gave better recovery of gellan (82%) as compared with the conventional solvent isopropanol (49%).     

Ruthenium(II)/(III) complexes of bidentate acetyl hydrazide Schiff bases

A series of octahedral Ru^II/Ru^III complexes of the type [Ru(Y)(CO)(BAX)(PPh₃)₂] and [RuCl₂(BAX)(PPh₃)₂] (Y = H or Cl; BAX = benzaldehydeacetylhydrazone anion; X = H, Me, OMe, OH, Cl or NO₂) have been prepared and characterised by spectral, magnetic and cyclic voltammetric studies. The Ru^II complexes are low spin diamagnetic (S = 0) whereas the Ru^III complexes are low spin and paramagnetic (S = 1/2). These Ru^II and Ru^III complexes absorb in the visible region respectively at ca. 16,000 and 28,000 cm^–1 which bands are assigned to the MLCT. The correlation of the _max values of the Ru^III complexes with the ⁺ Hammett parameter, is linear, indicating the profound effect of substituents on the electron density of the central metal. I.r. spectral data reveals that the hydrazone is chelated to ruthenium through the hydrazinic nitrogen and the deprotonated enolic oxygen. The rhombic nature of the e.s.r. spectra of the Ru^III complexes indicates an asymmetry in the electronic environment around the Ru atom. Ru^II complexes in CH₂Cl₂ show an irreversible Ru^II/III redox couple at ca. 0.9–0.5 V, while the Ru^III complexes show two reversible redox couples in the –0.1–0.1 and 0.8–0.6 V range, indicating that the higher oxidation state of ruthenium is stabilised by hydrazones.     

Regioselective side-chain as well as nuclear monobromination of aromatic substrates with N-bromosuccinimide using phosphotungstic acid supported on zirconia as a heterogeneous catalyst

Regioselective monobromination of aromatic substrates with N-bromosuccinimide has been achieved in excellent isolated yields (84–98%) using phosphotungstic acid supported on zirconia as a novel heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst has been characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface area and acidity measurements. Remarkably, the new catalyst system described brought about the side-chain bromination of aromatics to afford bromomethyl arenes in excellent yields (86–98%) without the need for a radical initiator. Recovery and recylability of the catalyst have been well established.     

Group 6 heteroatom- and non-heteroatom-stabilized carbene complexes. beta,beta'- and alpha,beta,beta'-annulation reactions of cyclic enamines

Cyclization reactions of group 6 Fischer carbene complexes with cyclopentanone and cyclohexanone enamines are described. Enamine 3a undergoes thermal alpha,beta,beta'-annulation with alkenylcarbene complexes 1 and 2 (THF, 60 degrees C), affording semibullvalenes 5. The metalate intermediates 6, resulting from beta,beta'-annulation of the enamines 3a and 4a, were quantitatively formed by running the reaction in hexane at room temperature. Acid-promoted demetalation of 6 afforded endo-2-bicyclo[3.2.1]octen-8-ones 7 and endo/exo-2-bicyclo[3.3.1]nonen-9-ones 8 (endo/exo = 5:1). Using (S)-methoxymethylpyrrolidine-derived enamines 3b and 4b,c allowed highly enantioenriched cycloadducts endo-(+)-7 as well as endo-(-)-8 and exo-(-)-8 to be accessed. The non-heteroatom-stabilized carbene complex 10 was formed from complex 6 by Me(3)SiOTf-promoted elimination of the methoxy group, characterized by (13)C NMR, and transformed into the organic compounds 7, 7-d, and 11 as well as into bicyclo[3.2.1]octan-2,8-diones 14 and cycloheptanones 15. On the basis of this sequence, enantioenriched cycloheptanones (+)-15 were efficiently prepared in one pot from carbene complexes 2 and enamine 3b (51-55% yield, 91-96% ee). Extension of this work to simple Fischer carbene complexes 16 allowed an appropriate way to generate the nonstabilized pentacarbonyl[(phenyl(alkyl)carbene]tungsten complex 17 to be designed, for which the thermal and chemical behavior leading to compounds 18-21 is described.     

Role of Hartree-Fock and Kohn-Sham orbitals in the basis set superposition error for systems linked by hydrogen bonds

In this work the effect of the basis set superposition error (BSSE) is explored with the counterpoise method on the occupied and unoccupied Hartree-Fock (HF) and Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals. Three different systems linked by hydrogen bonds, H(2)O...FH, H(2)O...H(2)O, and H(2)O...CFH(3), were studied by using the basis set families cc-pVXZ and aug-cc-pVXZ (X = D, T, Q). The basis sets were tested with the HF method and two approximations for the exchange-correlation functional of KS: a generalized gradient approximation and a hybrid approach. In addition to these methods, the second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory, MP2, was considered. It was found that the presence of the "ghost" basis set affects the orbitals in two ways: (1) The occupied KS orbitals are more sensitive to the presence of this "ghost" basis set than the occupied HF orbitals. For this reason the BSSE observed in HF is less than that obtained with KS. (2) The unoccupied HF orbitals are more sensitive to the presence of the "ghost" basis set than their corresponding occupied orbitals. Because the MP2 method uses both, occupied and unoccupied HF orbitals, to compute the total energy, the contribution of the BSSE is bigger than that obtained with HF or KS methodologies.     

A new selective cleavage of n,n-dicarbamoyl-protected amines using lithium bromide

A mild and new procedure for the selective cleavage of an alkoxycarbonyl group (Boc, CBz) in N,N-dicarbamoyl-protected amino compounds is described. The method is based on the use of lithium bromide in acetonitrile and is compatible with a large range of other functionalities present in the substrates. Compared with other reported methodologies, the procedure is particularly useful for the Cbz-selective cleavage in N,N-Ts,Cbz-diprotected amines. A rationalization of the selectivity supported by ab initio calculations is also presented.     

Separation of molybdenum from interfering elements by extraction as phosphomolybdenum blue

A simple method is described for the separation of molybdenum from titanium, zirconium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, uranium and aluminium in a wide variety of samples in <30 min. Phosphomolybdenum blue is produced by boiling for 2 min a molybdate solution containing phosphate to give Mo/P = 20-37 (w/w) with hydrazine sulphate in 0.1N sulphuric acid. The volume and acidity are adjusted to give a molybdenum concentration of 0.6-5 my/ml in 0.4-0.5N sulphuric acid. The phosphomolybdenum blue is 99.5% extracted with methyl isobutyl ketone in a single extraction. The residual molybdenum and hydrazine in the aqueous phase are oxidized with a few drops of liquid bromine and the molybdenum is quantitatively extracted with the same solvent from 1N sulphuric acid as its reddish brown thiosulphato complex. The molybdenum is stripped by ammonia-hydrogen peroxide solution. The back-extract is heated to boiling and filtered to remove the insoluble hydroxides of traces of accompanying elements. The thiosulphate in the filtrate is destroyed by boiling for 4-5 min with excess of hydrogen peroxide in slightly ammoniacal medium. The molybdenum is determined finally by cerimetry or other standard methods.     

Statistical theory of parcticle size distributions in emulsions and suspensions

Summary The particle size distributions in emulsions and suspensions are mostly empirical. Here a rigorous statistical theory of the problem is given, leading to the logarithmic-normal distribution for the sizes of the particle. On the simple physical basis that the disruption of the interface and the evolution of the particle sizes during emulsification are random turbulent processes, the log-normal law is derived by considering the process as aMarkoff chain. An alternate simpler derivation is also presented. The nature of the simplifying assumption involved in the theory is clearly brought out. Some properties of the log-normal curve are given. The statistical analysis in fitting the log-normal distribution to the experimental data with special reference to the distortion of the fractile diagram and the advantages of a theoretical distribution over an empirical one are discussed in detail with suitable examples.

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Zusammenfassung Die Teilchenverteilungen von Emulsionen und Dispersionen sind meist empirisch. Hier wird eine strenge statistische Theorie des Problems gegeben, die zu der logarithmischen Normalverteilung der Teilchengr?\en führt. Auf der einfachen physikalischen Grundlage, da\ Zerbrechen der Oberfl?chen und die Entstehung der Teilchengr?\en w?hrend Emulgierung einem zuf?lligen turbulenten Proze\ zuzuschreiben sind, wird die log-Normalverteilung durch Analyse dieses Prozesses als eineMarkoffsche Kette abgeleitet. Eine einfache alternative Ableitung wird au\erdem gebracht. Die Natur der in die Theorie eingehenden Grundannahmen wird erkl?rt. Einige Eigenschaften der log-Normal-Kurve werden diskutiert. Die statistische Analyse zur Darstellung von Beobachtungsdaten mit Hilfe der log-Normalverteilung, speziell in Bezug auf die Ver?nderung der Kurven für H?ufigkeitsverteilungen sowie die Vorteile einer theoretischen Verteilung gegenüber einer empirischen Kurve, werden an geeigneten Beispielen in allen Einzelheiten dargelegt.

     

Highly enantioselective copper(I)-fesulphos-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides

The catalyst system formed by Cu(CH3CN)4ClO4 and the planar chiral P,S-ligand Fesulphos behaves as a very efficient chiral Lewis acid in the catalytic asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides. This catalyst shows a remarkable reactivity at low catalyst loading (0.5-3 mol %), affording in good yields the endo adducts with exceptional levels of enantioselectivity (up to >99% ee). This catalytic asymmetric procedure has a broad structural scope with regard to both azomethine and dipolarophile substitution. The first examples of catalytic asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with ketimine-derived azomethines are reported.