The long-known, but previously unexplored 2,3-dihydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (DHIP) has been shown to be a competent acyl transfer catalyst. Its chiral 2-phenyl derivatives obtainable in two steps from commercially available starting materials have proved to be effective acylation catalysts, giving high levels of enantioselectivity (s = 20-85) in kinetic resolution of secondary benzylic alcohols...

The direct and chemoselective 3'-phosphoramidation, phosphorylation and acylation of nucleosides are described. Upon the discovery of a novel 3'-phosphorylamidation of therapeutic nucleoside analogues with DBU, we explored the mechanism of this rare selectivity through a combination of NMR spectroscopy and computational studies. The NMR and computational findings allowed us to develop a predict...

Introduction Protein palmitoylation was first described more than 20 years ago for the myelin proteolipid protein, but the functional significance of this post-translational modification remains obscure. Progress has been hampered by the lack of specific inhibitors for acylation and because of the difficulty of developing an assay to isolate the palmitoylating enzyme(s). Palmitoylation generall...

We investigate the relationships between acylation defects and structure alterations due to base substitutions in yeast mitochondrial (mt) tRNA(UUR)(Leu). The studied substitutions are equivalent to the A3243G and T3250C human pathogenetic tRNA mutations. Our data show that both mutations can produce tRNA(UUR)(Leu) acylation defects, although to a different extent. For mutant A14G (equivalent t...

The src family tyrosine kinase p59fyn binds to a signaling motif contained in subunits of the TCR known as the immune-receptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM). This is a specific property of p59fyn because two related src family kinases, p60src and p56lck, do not bind to ITAMs. In this study, we identify the residues of p59fyn that are required for binding to ITAMs. We previously demonst...

N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) esters are derivatizing agents that target primary amine groups. However, even a small molar excess of NHS may lead to acylation of hydroxyl-containing amino acids as a side reaction. We report a straightforward method for the selective removal of ester-linked acyl groups after NHS ester-mediated acylation of peptides and proteins. It is based on incubation in a boili...