Themed collection Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry: Editor’s Choice Collection

Nitrone-directed, transition metal-catalysed C–H activation reactions enable the design of cascade processes for the efficient assembly of complex, nitrogen-containing molecules.

Peptide nucleic acids (PNA) are nucleic acid mimics which use a pseudo-peptidic backbone to display their nucleobases. This review covers strategies to overcome challenges in synthesis, physical properties and analysis for difficult PNA sequences.

This review elaborates the findings on the structure, biological activity and chemical synthesis of macrocyclic peptide natural products containing histidine bridges including the aciculitins, celogentins and theonellamides.

The merger of organic electrosynthesis with 3d transition-metal catalysis has offered huge opportunities for modern organic synthesis. This review summarizes the key advancements in this direction published in the recent two years.

This review demonstrates advances in Friedel–Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions in a variety of biomolecular chemistry fields.

Bacteria have been long proposed to harbor ancestral forms of the bifunctional terpene synthases found in plants. Here, genome mining led us to identify a bifunctional terpene synthase from Streptomyces albulus that forms syn-abieta-7,13-diene.

Three farnesyl pyrophosphate synthases from frogs have been characterised and shown to convert (2Z,6E)-farnesyl pyrophosphate into bisabolane sesquiterpenes.

CDAP is a useful reagent as an alternative to cyanogen bromide for the chemical ligation of DNA.

Eight different types of fluorinated groups were used to functionalise benzylated bambusuril macrocycles, resulting in a library of eleven anion receptors with high chloride affinities and very different anion transport rates.

Structural variations of carbone catalysts impact efficiency in carbodiimide hydroboration. Acyclic carbodiphosphoranes create strain during HBpin activation, while carbodicarbenes proceed via 1,2-addition, yielding a less reactive hydride donor.

The viscosity effects on the emission of two 1,2-dioxetanes with high aqueous quantum yields provide empirical evidence for a stepwise mechanism with viscosity-dependent pathways that reduce chemiluminescence emission.

Two pairs of racemic xanthone–secoiridoid heterodimers, (±)-swermilactones A (1) and B (2), were isolated from the whole plants of Swertia mileensis.

A new method for peptide fragment coupling employing the Ag(I)-promoted transformation of peptide thioamides is described. This process proceeds via an isoimide-tethered intermediate, which undergoes an O–N acyl transfer to generate the polypeptide.

The reaction mechanism of Ni(0)-catalyzed C–S cross-coupling between benzonitrile and propanethiol has been studied with DFT and validated by microkinetic modeling. The protocol is used to assess its potential usage for building C–Se and C–Te bonds.

The absolute configuration of opantimycin A was determined through total synthesis.

Study of the roles of G14 and divalent metal cofactors in the mechanism of catalysis of the 10–23 DNAzyme.

The binding of pyridine-N-oxide with a calix[4]pyrrole results in the self-assembly of a preorganized supramolecular receptor displaying significant affinity (log K = 3–4) for the binding of tetra-alkylammonium cations in water.

Clicking-on side chains to assess the impact of charges on hybridization properties of PNA.