Biology and chemistry of endophytes.

Continuum mean-field models that have been carefully designed to address the various electrostatic and nonelectrostatic interactions that develop between a molecule and a surrounding medium are particularly efficient tools for studying the effects of condensed phases on molecular structure, energetics, properties, spectra, interaction potentials, and dynamics. The SM8 model may be combined with density functional theory or Hartree–Fock theory to describe a solute’s electronic structure and its self-consistent-field polarization by a solvent. A key feature is the use of class IV charge models to obtain accurate charge distributions (either in the vapor phase or in solution), even when using small basis sets that are affordable for large systems. A second key feature is that nonelectrostatic effects due to cavity formation, dispersion interactions, and changes in solvent structure are included in terms of empirical atomic surface tensions that depend on geometry but do not require atom-type assignments by t...

A Universal Approach to Solvation Modeling

This review covers the progress made in the chemistry, synthesis and biology of carbasugars until May 2004. It includes the extensively studied carbapyranoses as well as the scarcely considered carbafuranoses. Specific topics discussed include the natural occurrence of carbasugars, biosynthesis and biological activity of carbasugars, conformational analysis of carbasugars, and the compilation of synthetic methods of carbafuranoses and carbapyranoses.

Synthesis and conformational and biological aspects of carbasugars.

Loline alkaloids: Currencies of mutualism.

The thermodynamically less stable form of galactose-galactofuranose (Galf)-is essential for the viability of several pathogenic species of bacteria and protozoa but absent in this form in mammals, so the biochemical pathways by which Galf-containing glycans are assembled and catabolysed are attractive sites for drug action This potential has led to increasing interest in the synthesis of molecules containing Galf residues, their subsequent use in studies directed towards understanding the enzymes that process these residues and the identification of potential inhibitors of these pathways Major achievements of the past several years have included an in-depth understanding of the mechanism of UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM), the enzyme that produces UDP-Galf, which is the donor species for galactofuranosyltransferases A number of methods for the synthesis of galactofuranosides have also been developed, and practitioners in the field now have many options for the initiation of a synthesis of glycoconjugates containing either alpha- or beta-Galf residues UDP-Galf has also been prepared by a number of approaches, and it appears that a chemoenzymatic approach is currently the most viable method for producing multi-milligram amounts of this important intermediate Recent advances both in the understanding of the mechanism of UGM and in the synthesis of galactofuranose and its derivatives are highlighted in this review

Chemistry and biology of galactofuranose-containing polysaccharides.

The solution conformation of a furanose ring can be assessed through PSEUROT analysis of three-bond 1H−1H coupling constants (3JHH) of the ring hydrogens. For each coupling constant, PSEUROT requires two parameters, A and B, which are used to translate the H−C−C−H dihedral angle predicted from the 3JHH into an endocyclic torsion angle from which the identity of the conformers can be determined. In this paper, we have used density functional theory methods to generate a family of envelope conformers for methyl furanosides 1−8. From these structures, A and B were calculated for each H−C−C−H fragment. In turn, the values of these parameters for the arabinofuranose ring were used in PSEUROT calculations to determine the conformers populated by monosaccharides 1 and 2 as well as the furanose rings in oligosaccharides 9−15. The results of these analyses are consistent with the low-energy conformers identified from previous computational and X-ray crystallographic studies of 1 and 2.

Conformational analysis of furanose rings with PSEUROT: parametrization for rings possessing the arabino, lyxo, ribo, and xylo stereochemistry and application to arabinofuranosides.

Chemistry and biology of arabinofuranosyl- and galactofuranosyl-containing polysaccharides.

Solid-state 17O NMR in carbohydrates

Loline alkaloids are saturated pyrrolizidines with a substituted 1-amino group and an oxygen bridge between C2 and C7, and are insecticidal metabolites of plant-symbiotic fungi (endophytes). Cultures of the endophyte, Neotyphodium uncinatum, incorporated labeled L-proline and L-homoserine into the 1-aminopyrrolizidine, N-formylloline. The A-ring carbons C1-C3 and the N1 were derived from L-homoserine; the B-ring carbons C5-C8 and the ring nitrogen were derived from L-proline. Incorporation of both deuterium atoms from L-[4,4-(2H2)]homoserine and feeding tests with labeled L-methionine indicated that L-homoserine incorporation was not achieved via aspartyl semialdehyde or S-adenosylmethionine, but probably involved a highly novel N--C bond-forming gamma-substitution reaction.

Biosynthetic precursors of fungal pyrrolizidines, the loline alkaloids.

A computational method for probing furanose conformation has been developed using a methylated monosaccharide derivative 1. First, a large library of conformers was generated by a systematic pseudo Monte Carlo search followed by optimization with the AMBER molecular mechanics force field. A subset of these conformers was then subjected to ab initio and density functional theory calculations in both the gas and aqueous phases. These calculations indicate that entropic contributions to the Gibbs free energy are important determinants of the Boltzmann distribution for the conformational preferences of 1 in the gas phase. The results obtained at each level of theory are discussed and compared with the experimentally determined conformer distribution from NMR studies in aqueous solution. In addition, the ability of each level of theory to reproduce the experimentally measured 1H-1H coupling constants in 1 is discussed. Empirical Karplus equations and density functional theory methods were used to determine average 3J(H1,H2), 3J(H2,H3), and 3J(H3,H4) for each level of theory. On the basis of this comparison, consideration of solvation with the MN-GSM model provided good agreement with the experimental data.

Justin B. Houseknecht

Papers

Conformational analysis of furanose rings with PSEUROT: parametrization for rings possessing the arabino, lyxo, ribo, and xylo stereochemistry and application to arabinofuranosides.

Chemistry and biology of arabinofuranosyl- and galactofuranosyl-containing polysaccharides.

Solid-state 17O NMR in carbohydrates

Biosynthetic precursors of fungal pyrrolizidines, the loline alkaloids.

Conformational studies of methyl 3-O-methyl-alpha-D-arabinofuranoside: an approach for studying the conformation of furanose rings.