desosamine moiety at the C-5 hydroxyl group and differentiated from each other by the absence or the presence of a hydroxyl group at the C-12 position. The aglycones ofnarbomycin and picromycin were called narbonolide50 (I) and picronolide0 (IV), respectively. Biogenetically, these two substances seemed to be constituted of six propionates and one acetate judging from a similarity of the struct...

Heme biosynthesis in Gram-positive bacteria follows a recently described coproporphyrin-dependent pathway with HemQ catalyzing the decarboxylation of coproheme to heme b. Here we present the first crystal structure of a HemQ (homopentameric coproheme-HemQ from Listeria monocytogenes) at 1.69 Å resolution and the conversion of coproheme to heme b followed by UV-vis and resonance Raman spectrosco...

The aa3 type cytochrome c oxidase consisting of the core subunits I and II only was isolated from the soil bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans and crystallized as complex with a monoclonal antibody Fv fragment. Crystals could be grown in the presence of a number of different nonionic detergents. However, only undecyl-beta-D-maltoside and cyclohexyl-hexyl-beta-D-maltoside yielded well-ordered cry...

The gene encoding cytochrome c nitrite reductase (NrfA) from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 was sequenced and the crystal structure of the enzyme was determined to 2.3-A resolution. In comparison with homologous structures, it presents structural differences mainly located at the regions surrounding the putative substrate inlet and product outlet, and includes a well defined second calc...

A heme model system has been developed in which the heme-propionate is the only proton donating/accepting site, using protoporphyrin IX-monomethyl esters (PPIX(MME)) and N-methylimidazole (MeIm). Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions of these model compounds have been examined in acetonitrile solvent. (PPIX(MME))Fe(III)(MeIm)(2)-propionate (Fe(III)~CO(2)) is readily reduced by the a...

Two novel and convenient routes to obtain enantiomerically enriched trans-β-aryl-δ-hydroxy-γ-lactones 5a-d with potential antifeedant and anticancer activity were developed. In the first method starting from corresponding enantiomers of γ,δ-unsaturated esters 4a-d derived from enzymatically resolved allyl alcohols 1a-d, both enantiomers of hydroxylactones 5a-d were synthesized with high enantio...

Reactions of potassium b-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyaryl)alkylidene]amino}propionates (LHK-LHK) and potassium b-{[(2Z)-(3-hydroxy1-methyl-2butenylidene)]amino}propionate (LHK) with R3SnCl (R = Ph and Bu) and Bu2SnCl2 yielded complexes of composition Ph3SnL H (1), Ph3SnL H (2), Ph3SnL H (3), Bu3SnL H (4), and {[Bu2Sn(L H)]2O}2 (5) and {[ Bu2Sn(L H)]2O}2 (6), respectively. These complexes have been charac...

Analyses of the hexane washes of antennae, forelegs and whole bodies of Helicoverpa zea, Heliothis virescens, and Manduca sexta revealed notable differences in the components of the cuticular coatings of each species. Most striking were the differences between the cuticular coatings of male and female antennae of both H. zea and H. virescens. Novel esters of short-chain acids (C2-C4) and long-c...

The photosynthetic reaction center (RC) from Rhodopseudomonas viridis contains four cytochrome c hemes. They establish the initial part of the electron transfer (ET) chain through the RC. Despite their chemical identity, their midpoint potentials cover an interval of 440 mV. The individual heme midpoint potentials determine the ET kinetics and are therefore tuned by specific interactions with t...