(C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The commercial production of glycerol has increased considerably for several years, because of its rising inevitable formation as a by-product of biodiesel. For the effective utilization of glycerol, a new AZD6094 supplier synthesis of glycerol carbonate (4-hydroxymethyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxolane) that is used as solvents and raw material of plastics from glycerol was explored. By combined the selenium-catalyzed carbonylation of slightly excess of glycerol

with carbon monoxide and potassium carbonate under 0.1 MPa at 20 degrees C for 4 h in DMF with the oxidation of resulting selenocarbonate salt with molecular oxygen (0.1 MPa, 20 degrees C) for 2 h, glycerol carbonate was obtained in good yields (83-84%). Selleckchem GS-7977 However, sodium hydride to form sodium alkoxide in situ lowered the yield of glycerol carbonate. Use of triethylamine, 1-methylpyrrolidine, and DBU as bases gave poor results. Furthermore, styrene carbonate was obtained in excellent yield (90%) under similar reaction conditions. The catalytic synthesis of glycerol carbonate was also brought about in the mixed gas atmosphere (carbon monoxide: oxygen = 3:1, 0.1 MPa, 20 degrees C). Glycerol carbonate and styrene carbonate were obtained in reasonable yields (197% and 119%, based on selenium used). (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 21:541-545, 2010; View

this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hc.20640″
“One of the properties of bacteria is their capacity to acquire large fragments of genomic DNA from other bacteria

or to loose important parts of their own genome. Such fragments include genomic islands (GIs); nine GIs are present in Brucella, including genomic island 3 (GI-3), present in B. abortus, B. melitensis and B. ovis. The GI-3 have 29 open reading frames (ORFs) most of them with unknown function. Within the GI-3, the ORFs BAB1_0267 encodes a hypothetical protein sharing a SH3 domain and BAB1_270 a zinc-dependent metallopeptidase. We have obtained deletion mutants for BAB1_0267 and BAB1_0270 ORFs present within GI-3, which have been named the Delta 0267 and Delta 0270, respectively; in both cases the mutation did not affect the growth of bacteria. MAPK inhibitor Both mutants were evaluated with respect to their growth rates, their ability to invade and replicate in the non-professional and professional phagocytes, HeLa and J774.A1 cells, respectively. Their persistence in the spleens of mice was also evaluated. The mutants efficiently invaded HeLa and J774.A1 cells but both mutants showed a decreased intracellular survival in macrophages and HeLa cells 72 and 96 h post-infection, respectively, and were non-detected in J774.A1 cells 120 h post infection. With respect to in vivo persistence Delta 0267 was detected through the fourth week while Delta 0270 decreased at 7 days disappearing the second week.