Here we report the draft genome of Devosia sp. strain 17-2-E-8, isolated from Ontario agricultural soil (Canada) with promising deoxynivalenol biotransformation capabilities. In addition, we report the draft genome of Devosia riboflavina strain IFO13584, used as a control strain in our studies aimed at highlighting unique gene clusters involved in deoxynivalenol epimerization.

An enantioselective, redox-relay Heck alkenylation of trisubstituted allylic alkenol substrates has been developed. This process enables the construction of vicinal stereocenters in high diastereo- and enantioselectivity and allows the formation of enolizable α-carbonyl methyl-substituted stereocenters with no observed epimerization under the reported reaction conditions.

N,N'-Dibenzyl diketiminate copper isopropanolate, (nacnac(Bn)CuOiPr)(2), polymerizes rac- and S,S-lactide in the presence or absence of isopropanol as a chain-transfer reagent with very high activity (k(2) = 32 M(-1) s(-1)), narrow polydispersities and without evidence of side reactions such as transesterification, epimerization or catalyst decomposition.

Epimerization of C5 of an N-hydroxypyrrolidine ring by regioselective oxidation to a nitrone followed by diastereoselective reduction provides a new approach to the synthesis of swainsonine and related compounds. The only protection in the synthesis of the potent mannosidase inhibitor DIM (1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-d-mannitol) was the acetonation of d-mannose.

Post-translational modifications that do not result in a change in mass are particularly difficult to detect by mass spectrometry. For example, isomerization of aspartic acid or epimerization of any chiral residue within a peptide do not lead to mass shifts but can be identified by examination of independently acquired tandem mass spectra or by combination with another technique. For analysis o...