Cation control of diastereoselectivity in iridium-catalyzed allylic substitutions. Formation of enantioenriched tertiary alcohols and thioethers by allylation of 5H-oxazol-4-ones and 5H-thiazol-4-ones.

We report highly diastereo- and enantioselective allylations of substituted 5H-oxazol-4-ones and 5H-thiazol-4-ones catalyzed by a metallacyclic iridium complex. Enantioselective Ir-catalyzed allylation of substituted 5H-oxazol-4-ones occurs with high diastereoselectivity by employing the corresponding zinc enolates; enantioselective Ir-catalyzed allylation of substituted 5H-thiazol-4-ones occurs with the corresponding magnesium enolates with high diastereoselectivity. The allylation of substituted 5H-oxazol-4-ones provides rapid access to enantioenriched tertiary α-hydroxy acid derivatives unavailable through Mo-catalyzed allylic substitution. The allylation of substituted 5H-thiazol-4-ones provides a novel method to synthesize enantioenriched tertiary thiols and thioethers. The observed cation effect implies a novel method to control the diastereoselectivity in Ir-catalyzed allylic substitution.

Perfluoro-tert-butyl-homoserine as a sensitive 19F NMR reporter for peptide-membrane interactions in solution.

Fluorine ((19)F) NMR is a valuable tool for studying dynamic biological processes. However, increasing the sensitivity of fluorinated reporter molecules is a key to reducing acquisition times and accessing transient biological interactions. Here, we evaluate the utility a novel amino acid, L-O-(perfluoro-t-butyl)-homoserine (pFtBSer), that can easily be synthesized and incorporated into peptides and provides greatly enhanced sensitivity over currently used (19)F biomolecular NMR probes. Incorporation of pFtBSer into the potent antimicrobial peptide MSI-78 results in a sharp (19)F NMR singlet that can be readily detected at concentrations of 5 µm and lower. We demonstrate that pFtBSer incorporation into MSI-78 provides a sensitive tool to study binding through (19)F NMR chemical shift and nuclear relaxation changes. These results establish future potential for pFtBSer to be incorporated into various proteins where NMR signal sensitivity is paramount, such as in-cell investigations.

Optimization of lipase-catalyzed synthesis of fructose stearate using response surface methodology.

In this study, immobilized lipase-catalyzed esterification reaction between fructose and stearic acid was examined for the synthesis of a useful compound, fructose stearate, using response surface methodology. The increase of water content in the reaction medium was the negative effect while the increase in initial stearic acid/fructose molar ratio was the greatest positive effect on the yield. The highest fructose stearate yield was obtained as 65% in tert-butanol. The product yield was enhanced in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate obtained as 74% under the optimized conditions. The spectroscopic and elemental analysis methods showed that the esterification reaction is regioselective and the product is fructose monostearate.

Transition-metal-free synthesis of aryl-substituted tert-butyl ynol ethers through addition/elimination substitution at an sp centre.

Nucleophilic attack of an alkoxide on an alkynyl sulfonamide leads to displacement of the sulfonamide at the sp centre and isolation of the ynol ether in good yield in a single operation. The mechanistic pathway has been probed by the use of coordinating additives, (13)C-labelling experiments and ab initio calculations, which indicated that an addition/elimination mechanism is in operation.