Sortase-Mediated Transpeptidation for Site-Specific Modification of Peptides, Glycopeptides, and Proteins

Sortases are a family of transpeptidases found in Gram-positive bacteria responsible for covalent anchoring of cell surface proteins to bacterial cell walls. It has been discovered that sortase A (SrtA) of Staphylococcus aureus origin is rather promiscuous and can accept various molecules as substrates. As a result, SrtA has been widely used to ligate peptides and proteins with a variety of nucleophiles, and the ligation products are useful for research in chemical biology, proteomics, biomedicine, etc. This review summarizes the recent applications of SrtA with special emphasis on SrtA-catalyzed ligation of carbohydrates with peptides and proteins.     

Copper‐catalyzed Clauson–Kass pyrroles synthesis in aqueous media

An efficient and convenient copper‐catalyzed Clauson–Kass reaction of 2,5‐dimethoxytetrahydrofuran with amines in aqueous media has been developed, providing a wide range of N‐substituted pyrroles in good yields. It is noteworthy that the Clauson–Kass reaction of 2,5‐dimethoxytetrahydrofuran with p‐phenylenediamine or m‐phenylenediamine proceeds smoothly to afford the corresponding monopyrroles and bispyrroles with high selectivity in impressive yields. A plausible mechanism for the formation of N‐substituted pyrroles has been proposed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Copolymerization of styrene and norbornene with β‐diketiminato nickel/methylaluminoxane catalytic system

Styrene–norbornene (S‐N) copolymerizations were carried out using β‐diketiminato nickel complexes CH{C(CF₃)NAr}₂NiBr (Ar = 2,6‐ⁱPr₂C₆H₃, 1 ; Ar = 2,6‐Me₂C₆H₃, 2 ) in the presence of methylaluminoxane. The influence of the comonomer feed content and polymerization temperature on the conversion and composition of the copolymers with the catalytic system was investigated. An increase in the feed ratio of S/N led to an increase in the incorporated styrene content of the resulting copolymer. NMR characterization of the copolymers generated with the catalytic systems showed that the random S‐N copolymers are produced. Differential scanning calorimetric determination of the copolymers shows higher T_g values than polystyrene, and gel permeation chromatographic measurements have shown that the copolymers possess rather narrow molecular weight distributions, suggesting that the copolymerization take place at a single active site. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Turing structures and stability for the 1-D Lengyel–Epstein system

This paper continues the analysis on the Lengyel–Epstein reaction- diffusion system of the chlorite-iodide-malonic acid-starch (CIMA) reaction for the rich Turing structures. The steady state structures, especially the double bifurcation one, and their stability and multiplicity are studied by the use of Lyapunov–Schmidt reduction technique and singularity theory. Numerical simulations are presented to support our theoretical studies. The results show that the richer stationary Turing patterns heavily rely both on the size of the reactor and on the effective diffusion rate in the CIMA reaction.     

Cyclopalladated ferrocenylimine as an efficient catalyst for the syntheses of diarylmethane derivatives

The cyclopalladated ferrocenylimine adducts Ia , Ib , Ic were evaluated in the Suzuki cross‐coupling reaction of benzyl halides with arylboronic acids. The tricyclohexylphosphine adduct Ia exhibited highly catalytic activity for the coupling of aryl and heteroaryl boronic acids containing various functional groups with benzylic bromides and chlorides (up to 99% yield), furnishing diarylmethane derivatives with low catalyst loading (1 mol%). It is worth noting that catalyst Ia can be reused eight times without losing its catalytic activity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlated scale-free network with community: modeling and transportation dynamics

Many transport processes on network depend crucially on the underlying network topology. In this paper, we propose a model to generate correlated scale free transportation networks with community structure by considering the mechanisms of dynamical network evolution and rewiring links. With the introduction of congestion effects, we investigate the performance and carrying capacity of this network. The results show that congestion in the uncorrelated network is more serious than the assortative or disassortative ones. Therefore, the correlated network with communities can bear much more traffic flow. In addition, the networks with lager modularity can enhance the transportation efficiently.     

Synthesis of tetrasubstituted thiophenes from pyridinium 1,4-zwitterionic thiolates and modified activated alkynes

Pyridinium 1,4-zwitterionic thiolates were applied to a formal [3 + 2] annulation reaction with modified activated alkynes, affording various tetrasubstituted thiophenes with aryl, alkenyl, alkyl or silyl group at the special position. The structural modification of alkyne substrates enabled the synthesis of diverse thiophenes to be achieved using the pyridinium 1,4-zwitterionic thiolates as the sulfur-containing building blocks. This approach is metal-free and catalyst-free.     

稠苯芳杂环及其烷基质子化学位移的计算

本文提出了予测稠苯芳杂环及其烷基链上质子化学位移的计算方法。 将稠苯芳杂环化合物用凯库勒式表示,计算式为为需考虑的苯环内的乙烯基效应。σ_mi,ci为各苯环的环流效应。σ_1,Hc为各芳杂环的屏蔽效应,对杂环上质子它就是该单独芳杂环上相应质子的δ值,对苯环上质子要将它分解为各结构因素的效应,即:σ_1,He=(1/2)^d-1δ_x=y(或σ_z)+σ_c-c·σ_m,H. σ_x-y与σ_z为杂原子或其基团的屏蔽效应,σ_c=c为存在于芳杂环中的乙烯基的效应,σ_m,Hc为芳杂环的环流效应,d为对不同质子所考虑的键数。有取代基时需考虑取代基的效应。计算环上烷基质子的公式为:δ=σ_p,CH3+ασ_c,CH3+βσ_t,CH3+σ_l,G σ_l,G为稠苯芳杂环基的某级效应。     

NaCl、KCl和NaF晶体高压结构相变点的计算

 通过晶格动力学方法，计算了NaCl、KCl和NaF晶体的NaCl（BⅠ相）结构和CsCl（BⅡ相）结构的Gibbs函数，以及晶体的BⅠ相- BⅡ相变点。计算结果表明，次近邻离子对间存在较强的短程吸引作用，对上述晶体的高压结构相变起关键作用。利用刚离子模型算得的离子势，得到了较为满意的相变点。结果还表明，温度变化对相变点的影响很小。还从Gordon-Kim模型出发，对短程作用势的物理实质作了讨论。