Douglas H. Nakahata

Gold‐Catalyzed C–S Aryl‐Group Transfer in Zinc Finger Proteins

Reaction of the Au-C N chelate [Au(bnpy)Cl2 ] with the full-length zinc finger (ZnF; ZnCys3 His) of HIV nucleocapsid protein NCp7 results in C-S aryl transfer from the AuIII organometallic species to a cysteine of the ZnF. The reaction is general and occurs even for finger 3 of the transcription factor Sp1, containing a ZnCys2 His2 coordination sphere. This reaction is the first demonstration of group transfer from a coordination compound to biologically important zinc fingers, and is especially noteworthy for the ZnCys2 His2 transcription factors. The work expands the corpus of organometallic species which can efficiently modify biomolecules through C-atom transfer. The electronic features of the gold compound leading to this unexpected reaction were explored by X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Synthesis and crystal structure of di­chlorido­(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2N,N′)gold(III) hexa­fluorido­phosphate

The gold(III) atom in the title complex has a square-planar coordination environment defined by two Cl atoms and a chelating phenanthroline ligand.

N,N′,N′′ versus N,N′,O imine-containing coordination motifs: ligand-directed synthesis of mononuclear and binuclear CuII compounds

It is shown that tridentate imine ligands can control the nuclearity of copper(II) complexes based on the donor atoms present in the ligand. While the N,N′,N′′-donating imine ligand led to a mononuclear compound, the N,N′,O-donating imine ligand produced a binuclear metal complex.