The incorporation of hydrophobic vitamin B, , derivatives, which have ester groups in place of the peripheral amide moieties of the naturally occurring vitamin B12, into single-compartment vesicles composed of synthetic lipids having an alanyl residue in the single-chain segment, is primarily controlled b y the hydrophobicity of the peripheral ester groups. Such incorporation into vesicles of another synthetic lipid, having a histidyl residue in place of an alanyl residue, was much enhanced when coordination was allowed to take place between the nuclear cobalt of the hydrophobic vitamin B, , and the imidazolyl moiety of the lipid. Microenvironmental properties around heptapropyl cobyrinate derivatives placed in single-compartment vesicles of the former lipid were examined b y electronic, fluorescence and fluorescence polarization measurements as well as b y differential scanning calorimetry. The hydrophobic vitamin B, , was incorporated into the intramembrane domain composed of assembly of the single-chain segment of each lipid molecule, and its molecular motion was markedly suppressed under such microenvironmental conditions. Carbon-skeleton rearrangement reactions of alkyl ligands bound to heptapropyl cobyrinate were markedly favoured in the single-compartment vesicle, relative to the reactions in methanol and benzene, under anaerobic photolysis conditions at ordinary temperatures. The 1,2-migration of electron-withdrawing groups, such as acetyl, cyano, carboxylic ester and thioester, apparently arises both from suppression of molecular motion and desolvation effects operating on the alkylated hydrophobic vitamin B, , in the vesicle. Finally, the catalytic mediator, constituted with heptapropyl cobyrinate perchlorate and the single-compartment vesicle in aqueous media, was coupled with a substrate-activation system, composed of atmospheric oxygen and vanadium( 111) ions, to establish a real artifical holoenzyme. 2 -Acety I -2 -et hoxycarbonyl pro pa ne, 1 -acety I -1et hoxycarbonylethane were converted catalytically into the corresponding rearrangement products under aerobic photolysis conditions at 20 "C. A plausible reaction mechanism for the catalytic reaction is discussed. 2 -cya no -2 -et hoxycarbonyl propa ne and Coenzyme B ,-dependent enzymes which catalyse isomerization reactions, leading to the intramolecular exchange of a functional group (X) and a hydrogen atom between neighbouring carbon atoms [eqn. (l)], have received much attention because of the novel nature of these reactions from the viewpoints of organic and organometallic chemistry. Various cobalt complexes have been synthesized as vitamin B , model complexes, and their physicochemical properties and catalytic performance have been investigated in attempts to clarify mechanisms involved in vitamin B , ,-dependent enzymatic reactions. ' Recently, these complexes have been extensively * This synthesis was carried out by Mr. Xi-Ming Song of this laboratory.