Distinguishing nest-mates from non-nest-mates underlies key animal behaviours, such as territoriality, altruism and the evolution of sociality. Despite its importance, there is very little empirical support for such a mechanism in nature. Here we provide data that the nest-mate recognition mechanism in an ant is based on a colony-specific Z9-alkene signature, proving that surface chemicals are ...

Rhodococcus corallinus (formerly Nocardia corallina) B-276, isolated with propene as sole carbon and energy source, is able to oxidize trichloroethene (TCE). Glucose- or propene-grown R. corallinus B-276 cells exhibited no difference in TCE degradation efficiency. TCE degradation was found to be growth-phase-dependent and maximum rates were monitored with stationary-phase cells. K(m) and Vmax v...

We report in this paper the use of free-radical thiol-ene coupling (TEC) for the introduction of carbohydrate, poly(ethylene glycol), and peptide fragments at the periphery of an alkene functional dendrimer. Four different sugar thiols including glucose, mannose, lactose and sialic acid, two PEGylated thiols and the natural tripeptide glutathione were reacted with a fourth generation alkene fun...

Efficient asymmetric bio-epoxidation of electron-deficient α,β-unsaturated ketones was realized via a tandem reduction-epoxidation-dehydrogenation cascade, which proceeds in a switchable manner to afford either chiral epoxy ketones or allylic epoxy alcohols with up to >99% yield and >99%ee.

Binaphthol-derived chiral ketones 1a-c were synthesized and were shown to serve as active catalysts for asymmetric epoxidation of olefins using Oxone®, although their enantioselectivities were not high. However, very interestingly, the stereochemical outcome of the resulting epoxides implicates that in the epoxidation using 1ac, the planar transition state may be more favorable than the spiro t...

The asymmetric unit of (P)-chloridobis[(S)-(+)-5-(3,5-dioxa-4-phosphacyclohepta[2,1-a:3,4-a']dinaphthalen-4-yl)dibenz[b,f]azepine]iridium(I)-benzene-pentane (1/1/1), [IrCl(C(34)H(22)NO(2)P)(2)]·C(6)H(6)·C(5)H(12), contains two formula units. The two symmetry-independent molecules of the Ir complex have similar conformations and approximate C(2) symmetry, with small deviations arising from sligh...

The rate constants of the C═C epoxidation and the C-H hydroxylation (i.e., allylic C-H bond activation) in the oxidation of cyclohexene by a high-valent iron(IV)-oxo porphyrin π-cation radical complex, [(TMP•+)FeIV(O)(Cl)] (1, TMP = meso-tetramesitylporphyrin dianion), were determined at various temperatures by analyzing the overall rate constants and the products obtained in the cyclohexene ox...

Over 20 new cultures of methane-utilizing microbes, including obligate (types I and III) and facultative methylotrophic bacteria were isolated. In addition to their ability to oxidize methane to methanol, resting cell-suspensions of three distinct types of methane-grown bacteria (Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b [type II, obligate]; Methylococcus capsulatus CRL M1 NRRL B-11219 [type I, obligate]...

The two-electron oxidation of water (2e-WOR) has been studied in the past as a possible method for alternative preparation hydrogen peroxide. Often, fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) is used an anode and FTO itself was found also to be active 2e-WOR. Because one use H2O2 oxygen donor Baeyer–Villiger ketones catalyzed by compounds materials, presently we were interested studying situ formed these reac...