Significance Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is an essential component of many biological molecules and thus is required by all life forms. However, soluble Pi is typically at low abundance in the environment. To compensate, microbes have evolved unique carbon–phosphorus-bond cleaving reactions to use organophosphonates as an alternative source of Pi. The marine-derived enzyme PhnZ utilizes a new oxidative mechanism for CP bond cleavage involving iron and molecular oxygen. The three-dimensional structure of PhnZ reveals unique active site features that contribute to catalysis of CP bond cleavage and substrate specificity, as well as an evolutionary link between phosphodiester bond hydrolysis and oxidative bond cleavage. This evolutionary link likely reflects the ancient origins of organophosphonates in the environment.

No abstract

Stereochemical investigations have shown that the conversion of 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate to hydroxymethylphosphonate by the enzyme HEPD involves removal of the pro-S hydrogen at C2 and, surprisingly, the loss of stereochemical information at C1. As a result, the mechanisms previously proposed for HEPD must be re-evaluated.

(Tributylstannyl)methyl 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-carboxylate was metalated with t-BuLi/TMEDA at -78 degrees C and borylated with the mixed borate derived from (R,R)-1,2-dicyclohexylethane-1,2-diol and t-butanol to give diastereomeric boronates 31/32 in equal amounts. Boronates 31 and 32 were reduced with LiBEt3D and then oxidized with basic H2O2 to give (S)- and (R)-tributylstannyl-[1-2H1]methanol of 99% ee, respectively. Treatment of their respective phosphates with n-BuLi at -78 and 0 degrees C gave microscopically configurationally stable phosphinyloxy-substituted [2H1]methyllithiums, which rearranged to hydroxy-[1-2H1]methylphosphonates of ee > 98% (phosphate-phosphonate rearrangement). The N,N-diisopropylcarbamates of the enantiomeric tributylstannyl-[1-2H1]methanols were transmetalated to give carbamoyloxy-substituted chiral [2H1]methyllithiums, which were macroscopically configurationally stable for prolonged periods of time (up to 3 h, ee still 99%) at -78 degrees C, deduced from trapping experiments with benzaldehyde. The chemical stability of these methyllithiums ended at -50 degrees C. The stereochemistry of the monoprotected and monodeuterated 1-phenylethane-1,2-diols obtained was secured by spectroscopic comparison of their Mosher esters with that of all four stereoisomeric 1-phenyl-[1-2H1]ethane-1,2-diols synthesized independently. Furthermore, the configurations of the boronates and the chiral methyllithiums derived from them were deduced from a single-crystal X-ray structure analysis of a carbamate in which the tributylstannyl group had been replaced by the [(1R)-menthyl]dimethylstannyl group.