Tandem synthesis of alternating polyesters from renewable resources

The vast majority of commodity materials are obtained from petrochemical feedstocks. These resources will plausibly be depleted within the next 100 years, and the peak in global oil production is estimated to occur within the next few decades. In this regard, biomass represents an abundant carbon-neutral renewable resource for the production of polymers. Here we report a new strategy, based on tandem catalysis, to obtain renewable materials. Commercially available complexes are found to be efficient catalysts for alternating polyesters from the cyclization of dicarboxylic acids followed by alternating copolymerization of the resulting anhydrides with epoxides. This operationally simple method is an attractive strategy for the production of new biodegradable polyesters

A new NMR solution structure of the SL1 HIV-1Lai loop-loop dimmer

Dimerization of genomic RNA is directly related with the event of encapsidation and maturation of the virion. The initiating sequence of the dimerization is a short autocomplementary region in the hairpin loop SL1. We describe here a new solution structure of the RNA dimerization initiation site (DIS) of HIV-1Lai. NMR pulsed field-gradient spin-echo techniques and multidimensional heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy indicate that this structure is formed by two hairpins linked by six Watson–Crick GC base pairs. Hinges between the stems and the loops are stabilized by intra and intermolecular interactions involving the A8, A9 and A16 adenines. The coaxial alignment of the three A-type helices present in the structure is supported by previous crystallography analysis but the A8 and A9 adenines are found in a bulged in position. These data suggest the existence of an equilibrium between bulged in and bulged out conformations in solution

The presence of modified nucleotides is required for cloverleaf folding of a human mitochondrial tRNA.

Direct sequencing of human mitochondrial tRNALysshows the absence of editing and the occurrence of six modified nucleotides (m1A9, m2G10, Psi27, Psi28 and hypermodified nucleotides at positions U34 and A37). This tRNA folds into the expected cloverleaf, as confirmed by structural probing with nucleases. The solution structure of the corresponding in vitro transcript unexpectedly does not fold into a cloverleaf but into an extended bulged hairpin. This non-canonical fold, established according to the reactivity to a large set of chemical and enzymatic probes, includes a 10 bp aminoacyl acceptor stem (the canonical 7 bp and 3 new pairs between residues 8-10 and 65-63), a 13 nt large loop and an anticodon-like domain. It is concluded that modified nucleotides have a predominant role in canonical folding of human mitochondrial tRNALys. Phylogenetic comparisons as well as structural probing of selected in vitro transcribed variants argue in favor of a major contribution of m1A9 in this process

Isoleucylation properties of native human mitochondrial tRNAIle and tRNAIle transcripts. Implications for cardiomyopathy-related point mutations (4269, 4317) in the tRNAIle gene.

A growing number of mutated mitochondrial tRNA genes have been found associated with severe human diseases. To investigate the potential interference of such mutations with the primordial function of tRNAs, i.e. their aminoacylation by cognate aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, a human mitochondrial in vitro aminoacylation system specific for isoleucine has been established. Both native tRNAIleand isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase activity have been recovered from human placental mitochondria and the kinetic parameters of tRNA aminoacylation determined. The effect of pathological point mutations present in the mitochondrial gene encoding tRNAIlehas been tackled by investigating the isoleucylation properties of wild-type and mutated in vitro transcripts. Data show that: (i) modified nucleotides contribute to efficient isoleucylation; (ii) point mutation A4269G in the gene (A-->G at nt 7 in the tRNA), associated with a cardiomyopathy, does not affect aminoacylation significantly; (iii) point mutation A4317G (A-->G at nt 59 in the tRNA), reported in a case of fatal infantile cardiomyopathy, induces a small but significant decrease in isoleucylation. The potential implications of these findings on the understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the expression of pathology are discussed.journal articleresearch support, non-u.s. gov't1998 Marimporte