Abstract New sulfonated tetrahydrosalen‐type ligands and their water‐soluble palladium(II) complexes have been synthesized. The palladium(II) complexes catalyze the Sonogashira coupling (23 examples) of various aryl halides (including chloroarenes) with terminal alkynes, with good to excellent conversions under mild conditions (80 °C, air, no Cu I cocatalyst) in aqueous–organic mixtures and turnover frequencies of up to 2790 h −1 . Under optimized reaction conditions to minimize environmental contamination, diphenylacetylenes can be isolated in 76–98 % yield. The aqueous catalyst solution can be recycled four times with decreasing activity; however, yields between 93 and 98 % can still be achieved with extended reaction times. Several water‐insoluble products can be isolated in excellent yield by simple filtration and purification by washing with water; this method is used, for the first time, for this type of CC coupling procedure.
The fluidity of Synechocystis membranes was adjusted in vivo by temperature acclimation, addition of fluidizer agent benzyl alcohol, or catalytic lipid hydrogenation specific to plasma membranes. The reduced membrane physical order in thylakoids obtained by either downshifting growth temperature or administration of benzyl alcohol was paralleled with enhanced thermosensitivity of the photosynthetic membrane. Simultaneously, the stress-sensing system leading to the cellular heat shock (HS) response also has been altered. There was a close correlation between thylakoid fluidity levels, monitored by steady-state 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene anisotropy, and threshold temperatures required for maximal activation of all of the HS-inducible genes investigated, including dnaK , groESL , cpn60 , and hsp17 . The causal relationship between the pre-existing thylakoid physical order and temperature set point of both the transcriptional activation and the de novo protein synthesis was the most striking for the 17-kDa HS protein (HSP17) associated mostly with the thylakoid membranes. These findings together with the fact that the in vivo modulation of lipid saturation within cytoplasmic membrane had no effect on HS response suggest that thylakoid acts as a cellular thermometer where thermal stress is sensed and transduced into a cellular signal leading to the activation of HS genes.
A boost for fuel cells: Recent results suggest that formic acid is a convenient hydrogen-storage material: its decomposition yields CO-free hydrogen while the co-produced carbon dioxide can be hydrogenated back to formic acid. The hydrogen generated in this way is suitable for fuel cell applications.
