Evaluation of methods to measure differential 15N labeling of soil and root N pools for studies of root exudation

To study patterns of root exudation, the effectiveness of different techniques for in situ 15N labeling of Brassica napus, Centaurea jacea and Lolium perenne with ammonium nitrate was tested. Stem infiltration was found to effectively label plants with thicker stems, whereas, for grass species, cutting and immersing the leaf tips into 15N solution proved to be most effective. A microdiffusion technique to isolate ammonium, combined with conventional cation-exchange chromatography to separate nitrate from amino-N compounds thereafter, was found suitable for separation of the N fractions of plant and soil extracts for 15N determination. All three species were then cultivated in nutrient solution and labeled with 15NH4 15NO3 by stem feeding for 42 hours. Kinetics of 15N labeling of bulk roots and shoots as well as hot water extractable material were assessed, and up to 1.1 at% 15N excess (APE) was found in nutrient solutions. The main amino acids exuded by L. perenne were glycine, serine, alanine and aspartic acid. To assess the suitability of this set of methods to study root exudation in field settings, L. perenne was grown without fertiliser addition in pots containing low-nutrient soil. Plants were 15N labeled via tip immersion and 15N and N concentrations were analysed in shoots, roots and soils during a 48-h interval. Shoots reached 1.25 APE, roots and soil 0.10 and 0.005 APE, respectively. Between 4% (48 h) and 6% (24 h) of total plant 15N was exuded by roots into the soil. In roots amino acids comprised the largest proportion of the soluble 15N pool, whereas soil 15N levels were similar for amino acids and ammonium, exceeding those of nitrate. Mechanisms for the shift within N fractions from roots to soils are briefly discussed.     

Polyphospha

The Eglinton reaction of diethynyl(2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl)phosphane (7a), that is, the oxidative coupling of 3, 4, 5, or 6 of these phosphane units, affords a mixture of the 15-, 20-, 25-, and 30-membered macrocycles 8, 9, 10, and 11. Pure triphosphacyclopentadecahexayne 8 and pentaphosphacyclopentacosadecayne 10 were isolated by HPLC, while the mixture of 9 and 11 could not be separated. Multistep syntheses of open-chain polyphosphapolyynes are described, whose intra- or intermolecular coupling yields the phosphamacrocycles 8, 9, and 11. Eglinton coupling of bis(ethynylphosphanyl)butadiyne (17) gave a mixture of the 20-membered tetraphosphacycloicosaoctayne 9, the 30-membered hexaphosphacyclotriacontadodecayne 11, and the 40-membered octaphosphacyclotetracontahexadecayne 23 as result of a di-, tri-, and tetramerization, respectively. Intramolecular coupling of bis[(ethynylphosphanyl)butadiynyl]phosphane 25a gave 8, while intermolecular coupling gave 11; these two compounds were isolated by chromatography to give yields of 70 and 5%, respectively. The open-chain tetraphosphaeikosaoctayne 28 couples intramolecularly to give 9 and intermolecularly to give the 40-membered octaphosphacyclotetracontahexadecayne 23, which was isolated in the pure form. Octaphosphatetracontahexadecayne 32 cyclized to give 23, exclusively. The temperature-dependent 1H and 31P NMR spectra of the open-chain and cyclic ethynylphosphanes indicated a lowering of the inversion barrier of the tertiary phosphanes from the usual 130-140 kJ mol(-1) to 65-75 kJ mol(-1). Ab initio calculations proved that the dramatic reduction of the inversion barriers results from the interaction of the lone pair on phosphorus with the pi orbitals of the triple bonds in the planar transition state during inversion. The situation is comparable with the dramatic reduction of the P inversion barrier in phospholes, because of the planar, aromatic transition state. The polyphospha[m]cyclo[n]carbons may be considered as precursors to cyclic PmCn systems.     

A Nonlinear Dirichlet Problem on the Unit Ball

In the present paper, we consider the nonlinear Dirichlet problem - Δu(x) u^β(x) = 0 is the unit ball and q is a continuous radially symmetric function on B which may be singular on ?B. We state some mild conditions for the function q so that the Dirichlet problem has a positive classical solution.     

Der “thermo-stat” — eine ergänzung der verfahren zur bestimmung katalytisch wirksamer substanzen

The “Thermo-Stat” — a new device for the determination of catalyticaily active substancesA device for the determination of catalytically active substances, called a “ThermoStat”, is described. An additional heater is used to keep constant an arbitrarily preset temperature gradient between the reaction mixture and a cooling coil. Any heat produced by the catalysed reaction induces a deviation from the preset parameter and thus cuts out the additional heater. These breaks are plotted versus time by an integrating recorder. The slope of the reaction curve obtained is a measure of the concentration of the catalyst. As examples, determinations of copper in the range 0.1–2.0μg and molybdenum in the range 5–50 μg are discussed.     

New improvements in oligonucleotide synthesis by use of the p-nitrophenylethyl phosphate blocking group and its deprotection by DBU or DBN

Phosphate protection in the phosphotriester approach is improved by the new, versatile p-nitrophenylethyl group due to its stability in the condensation step and its clean removal by DBU and DBN respectively.     

An Alternative to Automatic Titration

Automatic titrators are designed to do exactly what a lab-technician used to do. Much more sophisticated automation of volumetry is possible. Omegaphoresis [3] in buffer-free [2] sample solutions automatically creates a stationary multiple component titration curve or zoned pattern with normalized concentrations of each separated species. An automatic measurement of each zone length yields their quantity. Simultaneous automatic detection of all the zones in a 10–20 component solution in less than 2 minutes, with a precision of ±2%, a required amount of the order of less than one nanomol and a resolution of ±pK < 0.01 replaces acid-base, complexometric, and certain types of redox-titrimetry. An option of the method allows identification of the components as well.     

Intramolecular,Stoichiometric (Li,Mg, Zn) and Catalytic (Ni,Pd, Pt) Metallo-Ene Reactions in Organic Synthesis [New Synthetic Methods (75)]

Metallo-ene reactions, hardly recognized until very recently, have experienced a breathtaking development when applied in an intramolecular sense. Efficient regio- and stereoselective magnesium-ene cyclizations have served as a cornerstone for numerous syntheses of structurally diverse natural products (e.g., sesquiterpenes of marine or plant origin, alkaloids, fragrances, insect defense compounds, and a fungitoxin). A brilliant example is the synthesis of the elusive odorant (+)-khusimone which outshines 20 years of work in the field of tricyclovetivane synthesis. Palladium-, platinum-, and nickel-catalyzed versions of the metallo-ene reaction are in a comparatively early stage of exploration, but, nevertheless, reveal intriguing potential. Hence an almost 100% stereospecific C? O→C? ;Pd-→ C? C chirality transfer permits simple and selective, cis- or trans-annelation processes. The mild cyclization conditions are compatible with various functional groups, such as nitrogen moieties, which offer interesting perspectives for the preparation of heterocycles (e.g., alkaloids) difficult to obtain by other methods. Carbon monoxide insertion reactions of the cyclized σ-metal intermediates were shown to afford annelated cyclopentanones and cyclopentenones with concomitant stereocontrolled formation of four carbon–carbon bonds. These and other observations, highlighted in this article, provide a platform for further extensions and applications of this powerful method in organic synthesis.