In previous papers, we reported that thiazolidines derived from cysteine methyl ester and aldehydes react with silver carbonate and DBU; the reactions produce transient 1-substituted methyl 2-azadiene-3-carboxylates that act as dienes in the Diels-Alder reaction. 1 When we apply the same procedure to the thiazolidines 1a-d we find that the products are isolable cross-conjugated bis(enamines) 3a-d, the more stable tautomers of the azadienes 2a-d (Scheme 1). This is a new versatile route to enamines of this type.The diester 3a is a known compound that has previously been prepared from methyl -halo-R-aminopropionate hydrohalides by reaction with bases; 2 compounds 3b-d are previously unknown. Other cross-conjugated bis(enamines) of this type have been produced by thermal rearrangement of vinylaziridines. 3 These compounds undergo an interesting photocyclization to 3,4-dihydropyrroles that can be intercepted, as 1,3-dipoles, in cycloaddition reactions with alkenes and alkynes. 2b,3,4 Compound 3a is also reported to react as an electrophile with hydrazines 5 and with primary amines, 6 giving hydrazones and imines of methyl pyruvate as products.In an attempt to cyclize the diester 3a directly to dimethyl pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxylate by using DDQ as an oxidant, a single product was isolated in high yield.Instead of the pyrrole, it proved to be an interesting 1:1 adduct of the diester and DDQ whose structure 4 was established for the compound by X-ray crystallography (Figure 1).The X-ray analysis clearly shows that the C9-C10-N1-C2-C3-C4 and C4-C5-C6-C7-C8-C9 rings are fused cis around the common C4-C9 bond and are furthermore linked by the methylenic bridge C10-C11-C5. The conformation of the two above-mentioned rings is intermediate between E 1 envelope and 1 H 2 half-chair, as shown by the ring puckering parameters 7 Q ) 0.662-The conformation of the bridging ring C4-C5-C11-C10-C9 is very close to 5 T 1 (twisted around the C4-C9 bond), as shown by the puckering parameters Q(2) ) 0.566(4) Å, φ(2) ) 163.3(4)°. The H1 atom is shared in a bifurcated intramolecular hydrogen bond [N1-H1‚‚‚O1: 2.714(4) Å; N1-H1‚‚‚O4: 2.677(5) Å, sum of the valence angles around H1 ) 358.2°]. The methoxycarbonyl group attached to the sp 2 C2 atom is almost coplanar with the plane defined by the C10-N1-C2 atoms, whereas the other methoxycarbonyl group that is attached to the tetrahedric C10 atom is twisted by -16.9(5)°around the C10-C12 single bond. The H5 atom of the hydroxyl group is also involved in a bifurcated † Departamento de Química. ‡ Departamento de Física. (1) (a) Gilchrist, T. L.; Rocha Gonsalves, A. M. d'A.; Pinho e Melo, T. M. V. D. Tetrahedron 1994, 50, 13709-13724. (b) Pinho e Melo, T.