Identification of novel long chain N-acylhomoserine lactones of chain length C20 from the marine phototrophic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum.

Gram-negative bacterial quorum sensing is mainly regulated by an extracellularly produced N-acylhomoserine lactone (AHL). AHL consists of a lactone ring and an acyl chain, which generally varies from C4 to C18 in length and affords species-specific variety. In this study, we developed an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry system and detected two kinds of long chain AHLs with chain length C20 from the reverse-phase thin layer chromatography-fractionated cultured supernatant of the marine photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum. By fragmentation search analysis to detect compounds with a homoserine lactone ring moiety for data dependent acquisition, a minor AHL, presumed to be 3-OH-C18-homoserine lactone (HSL), was also found. Among the detected C20-HSLs, 3-OH-C20-HSL was structurally identified and 3-OH-C20:1-HSL was strongly suggested. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show a novel AHL with the longest C20 acyl side chain found to date. ABBREVIATIONS: AGC: automatic gain control; AHL: N-acylhomoserine lactone; CD: cyclodextrin; CID: collision induced dissociation; DDA: data dependent acquisition; EPI: enhanced product ion; FISh: fragment ion search; HCD: high energy collisional dissociation; HSL: homoserine lactone; IT: injection time; LC: liquid chromatography; MS: mass spectrometry; PRM: parallel reaction monitoring; RP: reverse phase; SRM: selected reaction monitoring; TLC: thin layer chromatography; UHPLC: ultra high performance liquid chromatography.

Enantioselective fluorination of α-branched aldehydes and subsequent conversion to α-hydroxyacetals via stereospecific C-F bond cleavage.

The highly enantioselective fluorination of α-branched aldehydes was achieved using newly developed chiral primary amine catalyst 1. Furthermore, the C-F bond cleavage of the resulting α-fluoroaldehydes proceeded smoothly under alcoholic alkaline conditions to yield the corresponding α-hydroxyacetals in a stereospecific manner. Accordingly, the one-pot conversion of α-branched aldehydes into α-hydroxyacetals was achieved for the first time in high enantioselectivity.

Organocatalytic asymmetric fluorination of α-chloroaldehydes involving kinetic resolution.

In a previous study it was shown that the enantioselective α-fluorination of racemic α-chloroaldehydes with a chiral organocatalyst yielded the corresponding α-chloro-α-fluoroaldehydes with high enantioselectivity. It was also revealed that kinetic resolution of the starting aldehydes was involved in this asymmetric fluorination. This paper describes the determination of the absolute stereochemistry of a resulting α-chloro-α-fluoroaldehyde. Some information about the substrate scope and a possible reaction mechanism are also described which shed more light on the nature of this asymmetric fluorination reaction.