A Light-Harvesting/Charge-Separation Model with Energy Gradient Made of Assemblies of meta-Pyridyl Zinc Porphyrins.

Self-assembly of porphyrins is a fascinating topic, not only for mimicking chlorophyll assemblies in photosynthetic organisms, but also for the potential of creating molecular-level devices. Herein, zinc porphyrin derivatives bearing a meta-pyridyl group at the meso position were prepared and their assemblies studied in chloroform. Among the porphyrins studied, one with a carbamoylpyridyl moiety gave a distinct 1 H NMR spectrum in CDCl3 , which allowed the supramolecular structure in solution to be probed in detail. Ring-current-induced chemical-shift changes in the 1 H NMR spectrum, together with vapor-pressure osmometry and diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy, among other evidence, suggested that the porphyrin molecules form a trimer with a triangular cone structure. Incorporation of a directly linked porphyrin-ferrocene dyad with the same assembling properties in the assemblies led to a rare example of a light-harvesting/charge-separation system in which an energy gradient is incorporated and reductive quenching occurs.

Synthesis of galactosyl glycerol from guar gum by transglycosylation of α-galactosidase from Aspergillus sp. MK14.

A guar gum-hydrolyzing strain, Aspergillus sp. MK14, secreted α-galactosidase selectively in liquid culture. Its α-galactosidase activity (0.820 U/ml) was much higher than its ß-mannosidase and ß-mannanase activities (0.027 and 0.050 U/ml, respectively). The molecular weight was estimated to be 59,000 Da by SDS-PAGE. The optimal pH was 5 and it was active from pH 2.2 to 6.2. The optimal temperature was 60 °C and the activity was stable below 50 °C. Enzyme activity toward melibiose was much lower than that with pNP-α-D-galactopyranoside. The activities toward 6(1)-α-D-galactosyl-mannobiose and 6(3),6(4)-α-D-galactosyl-mannopentaose were relatively high (86.2% and 48.4% relative to pNP-α-D-galactopyranoside, respectively). MK14 crude enzyme released only the monosaccharides, galactose and mannose (Gal/Man: 0.64) from guar gum. When glycerol was added to the reaction mixture, the transglycosylation proceeded efficiently, and the synthesis of galactosyl glycerol was 76.6 mg/g of guar gum. MK14 α-galactosidase could use guar gum as a good substrate (donor) in the transglycosylation.