The first chemical method for resolution of N,C-unprotected β-amino acids was developed through enantioselective formation and disassembly of nickel(II) complexes under operationally convenient conditions. The specially designed chiral ligands are inexpensive and can be quantitatively recycled along with isolation of the target β-substituted-β-amino acids in good yields and excellent enantioselectivity. The method features a broad synthetic generality including β-aryl, β-heteroaryl, and β-alkyl-derived β-amino acids. The procedure is easily scaled up, and was used for the synthetically and economically advanced preparation of the anti-diabetic drug sitagliptin.

Structurally simple and inexpensive chiral tridentate ligands were employed for substantially advancing the purely chemical dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of unprotected racemic tailor-made α-amino acids (TM-α-AAs), enabling the first DKR of TM-α-AAs bearing tertiary alkyl chains as well as multiple unprotected functional groups. Owing to the operationally convenient conditions, virtually complete stereoselectivity, and full recyclability of the source of chirality, this method should find wide applications for the preparation of TM-α-AAs, especially on large scale.

Microbial ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE) converts the C3-C4 fragment of the ubiquitous primary metabolite, 2-oxoglutarate (2OG), to its namesake alkene product. This reaction is very different from the simple decarboxylation of 2OG to succinate promoted by related enzymes and has inspired disparate mechanistic hypotheses. We show that EFE produces stereochemically random (equal cis and trans) 1,2-[2H2]-ethylene from (3S,4R)-[2H2]-2OG, appends an oxygen from O2 upon the C1-derived (bi)carbonate, and can be diverted to ω-hydroxylated monoacid products by modifications to 2OG or the enzyme. These results implicate an unusual radical-polar hybrid mechanism involving iron(II)-coordinated acylperoxycarbonate and alkylcarbonate intermediates. The mechanism explains how EFE accesses a high-energy carboxyl radical to initiate its fragmentation cascade, and it hints at new capabilities of 2OG-dependent enzymes that may await discovery and exploitation.

Internal alkynes have been used widely in transition-metal-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions, in which they generally serve as two-carbon reaction partners. Herein, we report ruthenium(II)-catalyzed redox-neutral [4 + 1] annulation of benzamides and propargyl alcohols, in which propargyl alcohols act as one-carbon units. This synthetic utility of propargyl alcohols led to a series of potentially bioactive Nsubstituted quaternary isoindolinones with moderate to high yields under mild conditions. Without the requirement for an external metal oxidant, this title transformation is compatible with various functional groups, which further underscores its synthetic utility and versatile applicability. In addition, preliminary mechanism experiments have been conducted and a plausible mechanism is proposed.

Fom3, a cobalamin-dependent radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) methylase, has recently been shown to catalyze the methylation of carbon 2″ of cytidylyl-2-hydroxyethylphosphonate (HEP-CMP) to form cytidylyl-2-hydroxypropylphosphonate (HPP-CMP) during the biosynthesis of fosfomycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic. It has been hypothesized that a 5'-deoxyadenosyl 5'-radical (5'-dA) generated from the reductive cleavage of SAM abstracts a hydrogen atom from HEP-CMP to prime the substrate for addition of a methyl group from methylcobalamin (MeCbl); however, the mechanistic details of this reaction remain elusive. Moreover, it has been reported that Fom3 catalyzes the methylation of HEP-CMP to give a mixture of the ( S)-HPP and ( R)-HPP stereoisomers, which is rare for an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. Herein, we describe a detailed biochemical investigation of a Fom3 that is purified with 1 equiv of its cobalamin cofactor bound, which is almost exclusively in the form of MeCbl. Electron paramagnetic resonance and Mössbauer spectroscopies confirm that Fom3 contains one [4Fe-4S] cluster. Using deuterated enantiomers of HEP-CMP, we demonstrate that the 5'-dA generated by Fom3 abstracts the C2″- pro-R hydrogen of HEP-CMP and that methyl addition takes place with inversion of configuration to yield solely ( S)-HPP-CMP. Fom3 also sluggishly converts cytidylyl-ethylphosphonate to the corresponding methylated product but more readily acts on cytidylyl-2-fluoroethylphosphonate, which exhibits a lower C2″ homolytic bond-dissociation energy. Our studies suggest a mechanism in which the substrate C2″ radical, generated upon hydrogen atom abstraction by the 5'-dA, directly attacks MeCbl to transfer a methyl radical (CH) rather than a methyl cation (CH), directly forming cob(II)alamin in the process.

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An operationally convenient, scalable asymmetric synthesis of linear, ω-trifluoromethyl-containing amino acids, which were not previously produced in their enantiomerically pure form, has been developed via alkylation of chiral equivalents of nucleophilic glycine and alanine. The simplicity of the experimental procedures and high stereochemical outcome (yields up to 90% and diastereoselectivity up to 99%) of the presented method render these fluorinated amino acids readily available for systematic medicinal chemistry studies and de novo peptide design.

We report herein that the NaOMe-catalyzed reactions between the chiral glycine Schiff base (S)-4 with 2-cyanobenzaldehyde 3a provide for a convenient preparation of the novel α-(1-oxoisoindolin-3-yl)glycine 1 of high pharmaceutical potential. The reactions involve at least eight synthetic steps and can mechanistically be realized only with application of Ni(II) complexes described in this study.