Enantioselective Construction of Tertiary Fluoride Stereocenters by Organocatalytic Fluorocyclization.

1,1-Disubstituted styrenes with internal oxygen and nitrogen nucleophiles undergo oxidative fluorocyclization reactions with in situ generated chiral iodine(III)-catalysts. The resulting fluorinated tetrahydrofurans and pyrrolidines contain a tertiary carbon-fluorine stereocenter. Application of a new 1-naphthyllactic acid-based iodine(III)-catalyst allows the control of tertiary carbon-fluorine stereocenters with up to 96% ee. Density functional theory calculations are performed to investigate the details of the mechanism and the factors governing the stereoselectivity of the reaction.

Improved production of adipate with Escherichia coli by reversal of ß-oxidation.

The linear C6 dicarboxylic acid adipic acid is an important bulk chemical in the petrochemical industry as precursor of the polymer nylon-6,6-polyamide. In recent years, efforts were made towards the biotechnological production of adipate from renewable carbon sources using microbial cells. One strategy is to produce adipate via a reversed ß-oxidation pathway. Hitherto, the adipate titers were very low due to limiting enzyme activities for this pathway. In most cases, the CoA intermediates are non-natural substrates for the tested enzymes and were therefore barely converted. We here tested heterologous enzymes in Escherichia coli to overcome these limitations and to improve the production of adipate via a reverse ß-oxidation pathway. We tested in vitro selected enzymes for the efficient reduction of the enoyl-CoA and in the final reaction for the thioester cleavage. The genes encoding the enzymes which showed in vitro the highest activity were then used to construct an expression plasmid for a synthetic adipate pathway. Expression of paaJ, paaH, paaF, dcaA, and tesB in E. coli BL21(DE3) resulted in the production of up to 36 mg/L of adipate after 30 h of cultivation. Beside the activities of the pathway enzymes, the availability of metabolic precursors may limit the synthesis of adipate, providing another key target for further strain engineering towards high-yield production of adipate with E. coli.

A diastereoselective one-pot, three-step cascade toward α-substituted allylboronic esters.

A new highly diastereoselective synthesis of chiral α-substituted allylboronic esters, based on a one-pot, three-step cascade, is presented. The palladium- and acid-cocatalyzed reaction cascade involves a desilylation of a TBS-protected allylic alcohol, borylation, and addition of an allyl group to an aldehyde. Herein we present the first application of a TBS-protected allylic alcohol in a palladium-catalyzed borylation/allylation reaction.

Trifluoromethylthiolation-arylation of diazocarbonyl compounds by modified Hooz multicomponent coupling.

A new Zn-mediated trifluoromethylthiolation-based bifunctionalization reaction is developed. In this process, simultaneous C-SCF3 and C-C bond formation takes place in a multicomponent reaction, in which an aryl and a SCF3 group arise from different reagents. Our studies show that the reaction mechanism is similar to the Hooz multicomponent coupling. The process involves in situ generation of BAr3, which reacts with a diazocarbonyl compound, and the reaction is terminated by an electrophilic SCF3 transfer. The reaction can also be extended to fluorination based bifunctionalization which proceeds with somewhat lower yield than the analogous trifluoromethylthiolation reaction.

Trifluoromethylthiolation-Based Bifunctionalization of Diazocarbonyl Compounds by Rhodium Catalysis.

A new Rh-catalyzed, three-component reaction for the oxytrifluoromethylthiolation of α-diazoketones was developed. The SCF3 functionality was introduced using a stable dibenzenesulfonimide reagent under mild conditions. Alcohols, acetals, and ethers were used as the alkoxy sources. Cyclic ethers underwent a trifunctionalization reaction through the introduction of SCF3, OR, and N(SO2Ph)2 substituents in a single step.

Efficient DBU accelerated synthesis of 18F-labelled trifluoroacetamides.

Nucleophilic 18F-fluorination of bromodifluoromethyl derivatives was performed using [18F]Bu4NF in the presence of DBU (1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene). This novel procedure provided a diverse set of [18F]trifluoroacetamides in good to excellent radiochemical conversions. A mechanism where DBU acts as organomediator in this transformation is proposed.