A synthesis of rhodotorulic acid

A comparative study of the catalytic hydrogenation of benzyloxyamine hydrochloride (2a·HCl), benzyl benzohydroxamate (2b), and benzohydroxamic acid (3b) using PdC as a catalyst has disclosed that 2a·HCl smoothly undergoes the hydrogenolytic cleavage at both the benzyl—O and NO bonds, whereas 2b almost selectively suffers benzyl—O cleavage. The use of the benzyl group for protecting a hydroxamic acid function, suggested by the hydrogenolysis study, was embodied in the synthesis of rhodotorulic acid (1) starting with the reaction of 2a with bromide 5 to give 8. The key intermediate l-9 was conveniently prepared by the selective, asymmetric deacetylation of 8 using Taka-diastase. Conversion of l-9 into amino ester l-13 through the N^α-protected amino acid (l-11) and ester l-12 and coupling of l-11 with l-13 yielded dipeptide ll-14. Removal of the tert-butoxycarbonyl group from ll-14 and cyclization of the resulting amino ester produced the penultimate benzyl hydroxamate (ll-15), which was debenzylated selectively with PdC and hydrogen to furnish 1.     

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of quaternary carbons bearing two aryl substituents. Enantioselective synthesis of 3-alkyl-3-aryl oxindoles by catalytic asymmetric intramolecular heck reactions

A practical sequence involving three consecutive palladium(0)-catalyzed reactions has been developed for synthesizing 3-alkyl-3-aryloxindoles in high enantiopurity. The Heck cyclization precursors 10 and 11a-k are generated in one step by chemoselective Stille cross-coupling of 2'-triflato-(Z)-2-stannyl-2-butenanilide 9 with aryl or heteroaryl iodides. The pivotal catalytic asymmetric Heck cyclization step of this sequence takes place in high yield and with high enantioselectivity (71-98% ee) with the Pd-BINAP catalyst derived from Pd(OAc)(2) to construct oxindoles containing a diaryl-substituted all-carbon quaternary carbon center. A wide variety of aryl and heteroaryl substituents, including ones of considerable steric bulk, can be introduced at C3 of oxindoles in this way (Table 4). The only limitations encountered to date are aryl substituents containing ortho nitro or basic amine functionalities and the bulky N-alkyl-7-oxindolyl group. Asymmetric Heck cyclization of butenalide 22 having an o-(N-acetyl-N-benzylamino)phenyl substituent at C2 provided a approximately 1:1 mixture of amide atropisomers 23 and 24 in high yield and high enantioselectivity. These atropisomers are formed directly upon Heck cyclization of 22 at 80 degrees C, as they interconvert thermally to only a small extent at this temperature.     

Molecular paramagnetic semiconductor: crystal structures and magnetic and conducting properties of the Ni(dmit)(2) salts of 6-oxoverdazyl radical cations (dmit = 1,3-dithiol-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate)

Four kinds of 1:1 and 1:3 salts of 3-[4-(trimethylammonio)phenyl]-1,5-diphenyl-6-oxoverdazyl radical cation ([1](+)) and its mono- and dimethyl derivatives ([2](+) and [3](+)) with Ni(dmit)(2) anions (dmit = 1,3-dithiol-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate) ([1](+)[Ni(dmit)(2)](-) (4), [2](+)[Ni(dmit)(2)](-) (5), [3](+)[Ni(dmit)(2)](-) (6), and [1](+)[Ni(dmit)(2)](3)(-) (7)) have been prepared, and the magnetic susceptibilities (chi(M)) have been measured between 1.8 and 300 K. The chi(M) values of salts 5 and 7 can be well reproduced by the sum of the contributions from (i). a Curie-Weiss system with a Curie constant of 0.376 (K emu)/mol and negative Weiss constants (THETAV;) of -0.4 and -1.7 K and (ii). a dimer system with strong negative exchange interactions of 2J/k(B) = -354 and -258 K, respectively. The dimer formations in Ni(dmit)(2) anions have been ascertained by the crystal structure analyses of salts 4-6. In salts 4 and 6, Ni(dmit)(2) dimer molecules are sandwiched between two verdazyl cations, indicating the formation of a linear tetramer in 4 and 6. The magnetic susceptibility data for salts 4 and 6 have been fitted to a linear tetramer model using an end exchange interaction of 2J(1)/k(B) = -600 K and a central interaction of 2J(2)/k(B) = -280 K for 4 and 2J(1)/k(B) = -30 K and 2J(2)/k(B) = -580 K for 6, respectively. The results of the temperature dependence of the g(T) value in salts 4-6 obtained by ESR measurement also support the above analyses. The 1:1 salts 4-6 are insulators. On the other hand, the conductivity of the 1:3 salt 7 at 20 degrees C was sigma = 0.10 S cm(-)(1) with an activation energy E(A) = 0.099 eV, showing the semiconductor property. Salt 7 is a new molecular paramagnetic semiconductor.     

Identification of photolabeled peptides for the acceptor substrate binding domain of beta 1,4-galactosyltransferase.

We successfully applied a carbene-generating N-acetylglucosamine derivative carrying a biotinyl group to the radioisotope-free identification of peptides within bovine UDP-galactose: N-acetylglucosamine beta 1,4-galactosyltransferase (GalT, EC 2.4.1.38) catalytic domain. Owing to the low yield of cross-linking, conventional photoaffinity labeling experiments usually encounter a thorny problem in attempting to isolate labeled components from very complex mixtures. A biotin tag introduced with our photoaffinity probe enabled us to separate the photolabeled protein from a large amount of coexisting unlabeled GalT. The introduction of biotin was also useful for the radioisotope-free detection of a labeled protein based on a highly sensitive chemiluminescent technique. We developed a novel poly(vinylidene difluoride) membrane for the identification of labeled peptides in a simple dot blot assay. Using this membrane, we successfully identified biotinyl peptides among a number of HPLC separated fragments derived from the protease digestion of photolabeled GalT proteins. The sequence analysis revealed that the biotin tag was incorporated within a tryptic GalT fragment of Y197-R208. Our approach yields, for the first time, information on the acceptor substrate binding-site fragment in this enzyme, that has been difficult to obtain using other approaches. These data are consistent with previous suggestions concerning the GalT acceptor site and clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for rapid identification of photolabeled peptides.     

Effect of uniaxial stress cooling on the neutron magnetic scattering in a ZnCr2O4 single crystal

For the determination of the magnetic structure, elimination of the magnetic domains is indispensable and the appropriate stress will be effective when the crystal has a structural transformation at T_N. The effect of uniaxial stress cooling on the neutron magnetic scattering in a ZnCr₂O₄ single crystal was studied. The pressure axis was set parallel to the [1 0 0] or [0 0 1], parallel or perpendicular to the diffraction plane, (0 0 1). The [1 0 0] pressure cooling increases one half-integer spots along the [1 0 0], whereas decreases others. The [0 0 1] pressure cooling increases two half-integer spots in the (0 0 1) plane, whereas decreases one half-integer spots.     

Quasi-phase-matched optical parametric oscillation with periodically poled stoichiometric LiTaO(3)

We have demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, periodic poling of a 2-mm-thick near-stoichiometric LiTaO(3) substrate and its operation in a nanosecond optical parametric oscillator. Because the coercive field of stoichiometric LiTaO(3) is ~2 kV/mm , which is approximately one tenth that of the conventional congruent field, periodic poling of thicker stoichiometric substrates was successfully performed by means of an electric-field poling process at room temperature. The performance of a parametric oscillator with a 1-mm-thick sample was compared with that of the oscillator with the periodically poled congruent oscillator. The stoichiometric device exhibited better performance.     

New line-narrowing effect in triple-quantum resonance in a two-level NMR system

We report a new line-narrowing effect associated with triple-quantum resonance in a two-level NMR system. The experiment was carried out in the rotating frame on (19)F nuclei in Teflon; namely, the magnetization is spin-locked along the RF field and the triple-quantum resonance is induced by the oscillating field perpendicular to the RF field. We observed that the decay time of the triple-quantum nutation becomes extraordinarily long at a particular intensity and frequency of the oscillating field. The decay time is about seven times as long as that of the single-quantum nutation and also much longer than that of the magic angle nutation. The mechanism is not interpreted by straightforward analogy to the theory of the current magic angle narrowing.     

Optimization of a sonochemical reactor using a pulsing operation

It is known that sonochemical reactions are enhanced by pulsing ultrasound. A method to optimize a sonochemical reactor using a pulsing operation was studied through the measurement of changes in sonoluminescence (SL) intensity from distilled water under various experimental conditions. It was confirmed that pulsing with a constant input power level enhanced SL intensity at lower power levels because of the higher amplitude of ultrasound. In contrast to this, a quenching effect due to excessive sound pressure appeared at higher power levels, and the pulsing operation was not effective under these conditions. Pulsing is more effective at higher frequency than at lower frequency.