Effects of indole derivatives from Purpureocillium lilacinum in controlling tobacco mosaic virus

There are various types of compounds studied and applied for plant disease management, and some of them are environment friendly and suitable in organic production. An example is indole-3-carboxaldehyde (A1) and indole-3-carboxylic acid (A2) derived from Purpureocillium lilacinum H1463, which have shown a strong activity in the control of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). In this study, the effects of these compounds were studied on suppressing TMV and corresponding mechanism. Both A1 and A2 exhibited strong anti-TMV activities in vitro and in vivo. They fractured TMV virions and forced the fractured particles agglomerated. A1 and A2 also induced immune responses or resistance of tobacco to TMV infection, including expressing hypersensitive reaction (HR), increasing defense-related enzymes and overexpressing pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. The upregulation of salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis genes PAL, ICS, and PBS3 confirmed that SA served as a defense-related signal molecule. Therefore, indole derivatives have a potential for activating defense of tobacco against TMV and other pathogens and can be used for disease control.

Shono-Type Oxidation for Functionalization of N-Heterocycles

The development of facile synthetic methods for stereodefined aliphatic cyclic amines is an important research field in synthetic organic chemistry since such scaffolds constitute a variety of natural products and biologically active compounds. N-Acyl cyclic N,O-acetals which prepared by electrochemical oxidation of the corresponding cyclic amines have proven to be useful and versatile precursors for the synthesis of such skeletons. In this Personal Account, we introduce our efforts toward the development of synthetic strategies for the diastereo- and/or enantioselective synthesis of cyclic amines by using electrochemically prepared cyclic N,O-acetals. In addition, the investigation of the "memory of chirality" in the electrooxidative methoxylation of N-acyl amino acid derivatives, the strategy for the synthesis of chiral azabicyclic compounds by utilizing electrochemical oxidation, and halogen cation-mediated synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles are also described.

Anodic Oxidation for the Stereoselective Synthesis of Heterocycles

Stereodefined aliphatic heterocycles are one of the fundamental structural motifs observed in natural products and biologically active compounds. Various strategies for the synthesis of these building blocks based on transition metal catalysis, organocatalysis, and noncatalytic conditions have been developed. Although electrosynthesis has also been utilized for the functionalization of aliphatic heterocycles, stereoselective transformations under electrochemical conditions are still a challenging field in electroorganic chemistry. This Account consists of four main topics related to our recent efforts on the diastereo- and/or enantioselective synthesis of aliphatic heterocycles, especially N-heterocycles, using anodic oxidations as key steps. The first topic is the development of stereoselective synthetic methods for multisubstituted piperidines and pyrrolidines from anodically prepared α-methoxy cyclic amines. Our strategies were based primarily on N-acyliminium ion chemistry, and the key electrochemical transformations were diastereoselective anodic methoxylation, diastereoselective arylation, and anodic deallylative methoxylation. Furthermore, we found a unique property of the N-cyano protecting group that enabled the electrochemical α-methoxylation of α-substituted cyclic amines. The second topic of investigation is memory of chirality in electrochemical decarboxylative methoxylation. We observed that the electrochemical decarboxylative methoxylation of oxazolidine and thiazolidine derivatives with the appropriate N-protecting group occurred in a stereospecific manner even though the reaction proceeded through an sp² planar carbon center. Our findings demonstrated the first example of memory of chirality in N-acyliminium ion chemistry. The third topic is the synthesis of chiral azabicyclo-N-oxyls and their application to chiral organocatalysis in the electrochemical oxidative kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols. The final topic is stereoselective transformations utilizing anodically generated halogen cations. We investigated the oxidative kinetic resolution of amino alcohol derivatives using anodically generated bromo cations. We also developed an intramolecular C-C bond formation of keto amides, a diastereoselective bromoiminolactonization of α-allyl malonamides, and an oxidative ring expansion reaction of allyl alcohols. It is noteworthy that most of the electrochemical reactions were performed in undivided cells under constant-current conditions, which avoided a complicated reaction setup and was beneficial for a large-scale reaction. In addition, we developed some enantioselective electrochemical transformations that are still challenges in electroorganic chemistry. We hope that our research will contribute to the further development of diastereo- and/or enantioselective transformations and the construction of valuable heterocyclic compounds using an electrochemical approach.

Synthesis of γ-substituted carbonyl compounds from DMSO-mediated oxidation of enynamides: mechanistic insights and carbon- and hetero-functionalizations

1,3-Enynamides underwent oxygenative coupling with carbon- and heteroatom nucleophiles with high remote selectivity. Kinetic analysis revealed a continuum mechanism between concerted S_N2′′ and via a carbocation, depending on the nucleophiles used.

Oxidative coupling of 1,3-enynamides using DMSO as a terminal oxidant has been developed. Carbon as well as unmodified heteroatom nucleophiles, including aliphatic alcohols, thiols, and hydrazides, could be efficiently alkylated at the γ-position in a highly regioselective fashion. The kinetic analysis suggested a nucleophile-dependent mechanism ranging from a concerted S_N2′′ to a carbocationic mechanism. Thus, the remote site-selectivity was ascribed to the partial positive charge developing at the terminal carbocationic center.

Asymmetric amination of α,α-dialkyl substituted aldehydes catalyzed by a simple chiral primary amino acid and its application to the preparation of a S1P1 agonist

The chiral catalytic amination of an α,α-dialkyl substituted aldehyde usually proceeds with low enantioselectivity. We selected naphthyl-l-alanine as the catalyst and observed improved enantioselectivity for the amination. Using this method, racemic α-methyl-α-benzyloxypropanal was aminated to give chiral serine derivatives in 74% ee, which was further increased to >99% ee after recrystallization. Moreover, we also successfully synthesized a chiral phosphonium salt 9 for the preparation of one α-substituted alaninol compound 14 as an S1P₁ agonist in high overall yield.

The chiral catalytic amination of an α,α-dialkyl substituted aldehyde usually proceeds with low enantioselectivity.

Computational Study on N-N Homolytic Bond Dissociation Enthalpies of Hydrazine Derivatives

The hydrazine derivatives have been regarded as the important building blocks in organic chemistry for the synthesis of organic N-containing compounds. It is important to understand the structure-activity relationship of the thermodynamics of N-N bonds, in particular, their strength as measured by using the homolytic bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs). We calculated the N-N BDEs of 13 organonitrogen compounds by eight composite high-level ab initio methods including G3, G3B3, G4, G4MP2, CBS-QB3, ROCBS-QB3, CBS-Q, and CBS-APNO. Then 25 density functional theory (DFT) methods were selected for calculating the N-N BDEs of 58 organonitrogen compounds. The M05-2X method can provide the most accurate results with the smallest root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 8.9 kJ/mol. Subsequently, the N-N BDE predictions of different hydrazine derivatives including cycloalkylhydrazines, N-heterocyclic hydrazines, arylhydrazines, and hydrazides as well as the substituent effects were investigated in detail by using the M05-2X method. In addition, the analysis including the natural bond orbital (NBO) as well as the energies of frontier orbitals were performed in order to further understand the essence of the N-N BDE change patterns.