Aryl ether C-glycoside scaffolds have been prepared from tri-O-acetyl-D-glucal by C-glycosylation followed by allylic substitution with phenols mediated by Pd(0). The aryl ethers were subjected to either [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement to produce 3-pyranyl-phenols or Au(III)-mediated ring contraction to create highly substituted tetrahydrofurans. [structure: see text]

Chitin synthase polymerizes UDP-GlcNAc to form chitin (poly-beta(1,4)-GlcNAc) and is essential for fungal cell wall biosynthesis. The alternating orientation of the GlcNAc residues within the chitin chain has led to the proposal that chitin synthase possesses two active sites. We report the results of the first direct test of this possibility. Two simple uridine-derived dimeric inhibitors are shown to exhibit 10-fold greater inhibition than a monomeric control, consistent with the presence of two active sites. This observation has important implications for the development of antifungal agents, as well as the understanding of polymerizing glycosyltransferases.

Asymmetric scandium (III)-catalyzed rearrangement of 3-allyloxyflavones was utilized to prepare chiral, non-racemic 3,4-chromanediones in high yields and enantioselectivities. These synthetic intermediates have been further elaborated to novel heterocyclic frameworks including angular pyrazines and dihydropyrazines. The absolute configuration of rearrangement products was initially determined by a nonempirical analysis of circular dichroism (CD) using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations and verified by x-ray crystallography of a hydrazone derivative. Initial studies of the mechanism support an intramolecular rearrangement pathway that may proceed through a benzopyrylium intermediate.

[structure: see text] Chitin synthase (CS) polymerizes UDP-GlcNAc to form chitin (poly-beta(1,4)-GlcNAc), a key component of fungal cell wall biosynthesis. Little is known about the substrate specificity of chitin synthase or the scope of substrate modification the enzyme will tolerate. Following a previous report suggesting that 6-O-dansyl GlcNAc is biosynthetically incorporated into chitin, we became interested in developing an assay for CS activity based on incorporation of a fluorescent substrate. We describe the synthesis of two fluorescent UDP-GlcNAc analogues and their evaluation as chitin synthase substrates.

[reaction: see text] The synthesis of a complex hybrid oxime library is reported utilizing convergent ligation of alkoxyamine and carbonyl monomers via "chemical domain shuffling". Initial biological screening of the library against human small cell lung carcinoma (A549) cells led to the identification of a novel hybrid dimer in contrast to the corresponding monomeric compounds which were found to be inactive.