ABSTRACT
The xanthine scaffold is known to be the forefather of a class of biological active molecules. Xanthine is a planar framework in which an aryl substituent linked in the 1 or 3 position is driven out of the xanthine plane because of the steric hindrance exerted by the two carbonyls. This work analyses the stereodynamics of some 1-aryl and 1,3-bisaryl-xanthines and describes the steric requirements needed to produce stable heteroaromatic atropisomers or diastereoisomers, with one or two N-Csp2 stereogenic axes. The N-C racemization barrier was found to be bigger than 25 kcal/mol. The absolute configurations of the novel atropisomers has been assigned using TD-DFT simulation of ECD spectra.
ABSTRACT
DNA Polymerases generate pyrophosphate every time they catalyze a step of DNA elongation. This elongation reaction is generally believed as thermodynamically favoured by the hydrolysis of pyrophosphate, catalyzed by inorganic pyrophosphatases. However, the specific action of inorganic pyrophosphatases coupled to DNA replication in vivo was never demonstrated. Here we show that the Polymerase-Histidinol-Phosphatase (PHP) domain of Escherichia coli DNA Polymerase III α subunit features pyrophosphatase activity. We also show that this activity is inhibited by fluoride, as commonly observed for inorganic pyrophosphatases, and we identified 3 amino acids of the PHP active site. Remarkably, E. coli cells expressing variants of these catalytic residues of α subunit feature aberrant phenotypes, poor viability, and are subject to high mutation frequencies. Our findings indicate that DNA Polymerases can couple DNA elongation and pyrophosphate hydrolysis, providing a mechanism for the control of DNA extension rate, and suggest a promising target for novel antibiotics.
