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Synthesis of the A/D/E-ring core compounds of maoecrystal V was achieved. The key Diels-Alder reactions between tricyclic α-methylene lactones and Kitahara-Danishefsky dienes afforded the spirocyclic core compounds in a regioselective and stereoselective manner.Graphical AbstractSynthesis of the A/D/E-ring core compounds of maoecrystal V was achieved using Diels-Alder reactions between α-methylene lactones and Kitahara-Danishefsky dienes.

Synthesis of assumed natural (12R,13S)-enantiomers of pyriculariol (1) and dihydropyriculariol (2), phytotoxins isolated from rice blast disease fungus, Pyricularia oryzae, was achieved using Wittig reaction or microwave-assisted Stille coupling reaction as the key step. The synthesis revealed that the natural 1and 2are racemates. Foliar application test on a rice leaf indicated that both the salicylaldehyde core and side chain were necessary for phytotoxic activity. The fungus is found to produce optically active phytotoxins when incubated with rotary shaker, but racemic ones when cultured using an aerated jar fermenter.Graphical Abstract

The engulfment and clearance of apoptotic cells by neighboring cells or professional phagocytes is crucial to tissue homeostasis and the regulation of immune responses. The Arf-like GTPase Arl8, which localizes primarily to lysosomes, mediates phagolysosome formation to promote the efficient degradation of apoptotic germ cells in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea, produces a series of salicylaldehyde‐type phytotoxins such as pyriculol, pyricuol, and pyriculariol. Plausible biosynthetic intermediates of these phytotoxins were synthesized in deuterium labeled forms using the Stille coupling reaction as the key step, and subjected to biotransformation by the fungus. Heptatrienylsalicylaldehyde was converted into dihydropyriculol by the fungus by a shaking culture. A new biosynthetic pathway comprising both oxidation and reduction is proposed.

Late endocytic organelles including lysosomes are highly dynamic acidic organelles. Late endosomes and lysosomes directly fuse for content mixing to form hybrid organelles, from which lysosomes are reformed. It is not fully understood how these processes are regulated and maintained. Here we show that the Caenorhabditis elegans ARL-8 GTPase is localized primarily to lysosomes and involved in late endosome-lysosome fusion in the macrophage-like coelomocytes. Loss of arl-8 results in an increase in the number of late endosomal/lysosomal compartments, which are smaller than wild type. In arl-8 mutants, late endosomal compartments containing endocytosed macromolecules fail to fuse with lysosomal compartments enriched in the aspartic protease ASP-1. Furthermore, loss of arl-8 strongly suppresses formation of enlarged late endosome-lysosome hybrid organelles caused by mutations of cup-5, which is the orthologue of human mucolipin-1. These findings suggest that ARL-8 mediates delivery of endocytosed macromolecules to lysosomes by facilitating late endosome-lysosome fusion.

Late endosomes and lysosomes directly fuse for content mixing to form hybrid organelles. In the present study, we show that the Caenorhabditis elegansARL-8 GTPase is localized primarily to lysosomes and involved in late endosome-lysosome fusion in the macrophage-like coelomocytes.

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.