Fluorescent substrates for haloalkane dehalogenases: Novel probes for mechanistic studies and protein labeling.

Haloalkane dehalogenases are enzymes that catalyze the cleavage of carbon-halogen bonds in halogenated compounds. They serve as model enzymes for studying structure-function relationships of >100.000 members of the α/β-hydrolase superfamily.

The impact of tunnel mutations on enzymatic catalysis depends on the tunnel-substrate complementarity and the rate-limiting step.

Transport of ligands between bulk solvent and the buried active sites is a critical event in the catalytic cycle of many enzymes. The rational design of transport pathways is far from trivial due to the lack of knowledge about the effect of mutations on ligand transport. The main and an auxiliary tunnel of haloalkane dehalogenase LinB have been previously engineered for improved dehalogenation of 1,2-dibromoethane (DBE).

Chiral Microneedles from an Achiral Bis(boron dipyrromethene): Spontaneous Mirror Symmetry Breaking Leading to a Promising Photoluminescent Organic Material.

Supramolecular self-assembly of a highly flexible and achiral meso bis(boron dipyrromethene) [bis(BODIPY)] dye straightforwardly yields fluorescent microfibers, exhibiting an intriguing anisotropic photonic behavior. This performance includes the generation of chiroptical activity owing to spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking (SMSB). Repetition of several self-assembly experiments demonstrates that the involved SMSB is not stochastic but quasi deterministic in the direction of the induced chiral asymmetry.

Detergent-modified catalytic and enzymomimetic activity of silver and palladium nanoparticles biotemplated by Pyrococcus furiosus ferritin.

Palladium and silver nanoparticles (NPs) anchored at the outer surface of ferritin form stable suspension of non-coated particles that possess several catalytic and enzymomimetic activities. These activities are strongly affected by detergents that significantly influence the reaction efficiency and specificity. Reductive dehalogenation of various azo dye substrates shows strong differences in reactivity for each substrate-detergent pair.

Controlled photorelease of alkynoic acids and their decarboxylative deprotection for copper-catalyzed azide/alkyne cycloaddition.

A controlled photorelease of alkynoic acids from the meso-methyl BODIPY photoremovable protecting group facilitates their subsequent efficient decarboxylation to give terminal alkynes for a CuI-catalyzed azide/alkyne cycloaddition. The quantum efficiencies of the photochemical step and the kinetics of the click reaction step are reported.

Modulation of ICT probability in bi(polyarene)-based O-BODIPYs: towards the development of low-cost bright arene-BODIPY dyads.

We report the synthesis, and spectroscopic and electrochemical properties of a selected library of novel spiranic O-BODIPYs bearing a phenol-based bi(polyarene) unit tethered to the boron center through oxygen atoms. These dyes constitute an interesting family of arene-BODIPY dyads useful for the development of photonic applications due to their synthetic accessibility and tunable photonic properties. It is demonstrated that the electron-donor capability of the involved arene moiety switches on a non-emissive intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state, which restricts the fluorescence efficiency of the dyad.

Bis(haloBODIPYs) with Labile Helicity: Valuable Simple Organic Molecules That Enable Circularly Polarized Luminescence.

Simple organic molecules (SOM) based on bis(haloBODIPY) are shown to enable circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), giving rise to a new structural design for technologically valuable CPL-SOMs. The established design comprises together synthetic accessibility, labile helicity, possibility of reversing the handedness of the circularly polarized emission, and reactive functional groups, making it unique and attractive as advantageous platform for the development of smart CPL-SOMs.

Circularly Polarized Luminescence from Simple Organic Molecules.

This article aims to show the identity of "circularly polarized luminescent active simple organic molecules" as a new concept in organic chemistry due to the potential interest of these molecules, as availed by the exponentially growing number of research articles related to them. In particular, it describes and highlights the interest and difficulty in developing chiral simple (small and non-aggregated) organic molecules able to emit left- or right-circularly polarized light efficiently, the efforts realized up to now to reach this challenging objective, and the most significant milestones achieved to date. General guidelines for the preparation of these interesting molecules are also presented.

Spiranic BODIPYs: a ground-breaking design to improve the energy transfer in molecular cassettes.

Boosted excitation energy transfer in spiranic O-BODIPY/polyarene cassettes, when compared with the parent non-spiranic (flexible) system, is highlighted as a proof for the ability of a new structural design to improve the energy transfer in molecular cassettes.

Circularly polarized luminescence by visible-light absorption in a chiral O-BODIPY dye: unprecedented design of CPL organic molecules from achiral chromophores.

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in simple (small, nonaggregated, nonpolymeric) O-BODIPYs (R)-1 and (S)-1 by irradiation with visible light is first detected as proof of the ability of a new structural design to achieve CPL from inherently achiral monochromophore systems in simple organic molecules. The measured level of CPL (|g(lum)|) in solution falls into the usual range of that obtained from other simple organic molecules (10(-5)-10(-2) range), but the latter having more complex architectures since axially chiral chromophores or multichromophore systems are usually required. The new design is based on chirally perturbing the acting achiral chromophore by orthogonally tethering a single axially chiral 1,1'-binaphtyl moiety to it.

Unprecedented induced axial chirality in a molecular BODIPY dye: strongly bisignated electronic circular dichroism in the visible region.

Enantiomeric bis(BODIPYs) 1a and 1b exhibit strong bisignated ECD due to the formation of a stable helical conformation with induced axial chirality, which allows efficient exciton coupling of the BODIPY chromophores in the Vis region.

Cheap and long-life reusable polymer for asymmetric organozinc catalysis based on camphor-derived hydroxyamides.

Polystyrene grafted with a chiral zinc-complexing camphor-derived N,N-disubstituted hydroxyamide is proposed as a new type of functional polymer of high reusability for the development of sustainable organozinc-catalyzed asymmetric reactions. The main goal of this new functional polymer is the ease of the hydroxyamide-moiety preparation (cheap chiral ligand obtained straightforwardly from an enantiopure starting material coming from the chiral pool), as well as its chemical robustness when compared with other related zinc-complexing functional groups. The latter allows the polymer to be active after multiple applications, without significant loss of its catalytic activity.

Unexpected efficiency of non-C(2) -symmetric bis(hydroxyamide)-based zinc-chelate catalysts.

Asymmetric bis(hydroxyamide)-based zinc-chelate catalysts are able to promote the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde in the absence of titanium with yields and ees comparable, or inclusively superior, to their C(2) -symmetric analogues. This unexpected fact demonstrates that the previously established assumption on the necessity of using C(2) -symmetric bis(hydrdoxyamides) to generate C(2) -symmetric zinc-chelate catalysts can be discarded, which expand the possibilities for designing new ligands based on the interesting hydroxyl-amide functional grouping.