Practical syntheses of 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-xylonate (D-KDX) and 2-keto-3-deoxy-L-arabinonate (L-KDA) that rely on reaction of the anion of ethyl 2-[(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]-2-(dimethoxy phosphoryl) acetate with enantiopure glyceraldehyde acetonide, followed by global deprotection of the resultant O-silyl-enol esters, have been developed. This has enabled us to confirm that a 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-gluconate aldolase from the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus demonstrates good activity for catalysis of the retro-aldol cleavage of both these enantiomers to afford pyruvate and glycolaldehyde. The stereochemical promiscuity of this aldolase towards these enantiomeric aldol substrates confirms that this organism employs a metabolically promiscuous pathway to catabolise the C5-sugars D-xylose and L-arabinose.

The halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii has been proposed to degrade glucose via the semi-phosphorylative Entner-Doudoroff pathway, involving 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate kinase (KDGK) as key enzyme. So far, neither the enzyme has been characterized nor the encoding gene has been identified. In the genome of H. volcanii, two genes, HVO_0549 (kdgK1) and HVO_A0328 (kdgK2), are annotated encoding putative KDGK-1 and KDGK-2. To identify the physiological role of both kinases, transcriptional regulation analyses of both genes and growth experiments of the respective deletion mutants were performed on different sugars. Further, recombinant KDGK-1 and KDGK-2 were characterized. Together, the data indicate that KDGK-1 represents the functional constitutively expressed KDG kinase in glucose degradation, whereas KDGK-2 is an inducible 2-keto-3-deoxygalactonate kinase likely involved in d-galactose catabolism.

a b s t r a c tAza-conjugate addition of the lithium anion of N-trimethylsilyl-p-methoxybenzylamine to tert-butyl enoate acceptors, in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of enantiopure 1,2-dimethoxy-1,2-diphenylethane and excess trimethylsilyl chloride, affords tert-butyl-N-p-methoxybenzyl-b-amino esters with excellent levels of enantiocontrol. These N-p-methoxybenzyl-b-amino-esters may be deprotected under oxidative conditions via treatment with ceric ammonium nitrate, followed by acid hydrolysis of the resultant imine intermediates, to afford enantiopure b-amino-esters containing hydrogenolytically sensitive functionality.

A Chiral Ligand Mediated Aza-Conjugate Addition Strategy for the Enantioselective Synthesis of -Amino Esters that Contain Hydrogenolytically Sensitive Functionality. -(ARCHER, R. M.; HUTCHBY, M.; WINN, C. L.; FOSSEY, J. S.; BULL*, S. D.; Tetrahedron 71 (2015) 46, 8838-8847, http://dx.