Inducing a pH-dependent conformational response by competitive binding to Zn²⁺ of a series of chiral ligands of disparate basicity.

ABSTRACT: Molecules that change shape in response to environmental conditions are central to biological molecular communication devices and their synthetic chemical analogues. Here we report a molecular system in which a series of chiral anionic ligands of differing basicity are selectively protonated according to the pH of the medium. A cationic circular dichroism (CD) reporter complex responds to anion binding by selecting one of two alternative enantiomeric conformations. Exploiting the principle that less basic anions have, in general, weaker electrostatic interactions than more basic anions, a set of three chiral acids with large (>5 unit) pK _a differences and differing configurations were sequentially deprotonated in acetonitrile by addition of base, allowing the most basic a

SUBMITTER: Wootten MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8864710 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature