Reviews & Analysis

Although the natural lasso peptide microcin J25 remains an elusive target for total chemical synthesis itself, this topologically non-trivial building block has now been used to construct a range of interlocked molecular architectures including rotaxanes, catenanes and daisy chains.

Self-organization — ubiquitous in living systems — occurs out-of-equilibrium, with dissipation of energy and matter. Researchers have now shown that slow proton dissipation switches the assembly of DNA-based fibres to a growth mechanism that heals their gaps, yielding tight nanocable architectures.

The precisely ordered helical structures of biomacromolecules have long-inspired chemists to create synthetic helical polymers. Now, a new step-growth approach has enabled facile synthesis of helical polymers through the highly efficient sulfur(vi) fluoride exchange click chemistry.

Carbon–carbon single bonds are generally among the least reactive chemical bonds. While olefin metathesis reactions are well established, direct metathesis of C–C single bonds is rare. Now, a C–C single bond metathesis reaction has been developed, forming cross-biaryl products from unstrained homo-biaryl compounds.

A new class of interwoven metal–organic containers, including one with a cubic architecture, twelve crossing points and a large internal volume, has now been reported. Interconversion between different self-assembled structures can be triggered by simply exchanging the associated anions.

The origin and evolution of translational machinery — which produces a specific peptide from an RNA sequence — is a major unsolved puzzle in prebiotic chemistry. Now, the coupling of amino acids directed by RNA templates in the absence of a ribosome provides clues on how this protein synthesis process might have started.

Among the tens of thousands of reported hybrid organic–inorganic crystals, only a small fraction of them are known to form a stable liquid upon heating. Now, a family of hybrid perovskites is shown to melt and, upon cooling, form glasses with a compelling combination of properties.

Recycling polymers to their monomers would enable a circular polymer economy, but this can be challenging, especially for materials with all-carbon backbones. Now, by lowering the strain of cyclooctene through ring fusion, recyclable polymers with useful physical properties can be made by an olefin-metathesis-based route.

Energy transfer from one molecule to another over a distance of nanometres is a fundamental process of widespread relevance. Now, scanning probe techniques have been used to include an intermediary third molecule and to watch how energy flows through it.

Excited anion states provide doorways for molecular electron capture. Now, two-dimensional photoelectron spectroscopy of cluster anions has been shown to be a powerful tool for revealing the role of the local environment in facilitating the process.

Thirty years ago the assembly of molecular ‘tectons’ into organic networks with large chambers using directional non-covalent interactions — hydrogen bonds — provided a blueprint for the synthesis of porous functional materials through crystal engineering.

Designing membrane proteins that function as ion channels is challenging. Now, peptides that self-assemble into water-soluble α-helical barrels have been repurposed to form ion channels in membranes by lining the interior with polar residues and the exterior with hydrophobic ones.

Nucleic acids can adopt G-quadruplex folds whose cellular roles remain poorly defined. Synthesis of new probes has now enabled the identification of human proteins that interact with G-quadruplexes. This could provide new clues to decipher the function of these curious folds.

All-carbon quaternary centres are challenging targets in organic synthesis. Now, the development of a zinc-catalysed desymmetrization method enables the synthesis of chiral alcohols with all-carbon quaternary centres by the selective reduction of symmetrical α,α-disubstituted malonates.

Chirality is fundamental to chemistry, molecular biology and photonics, but chirality itself is not often in the spotlight. Lewis E. MacKenzie and Patrycja Stachelek report on the 2021 Chiral Materials meeting, which explored how chirality manifests in functional materials, and how it can lead to new technological applications.

Phage display enables screening of billions of peptides comprised mainly of natural amino acids. Now, a method to attach and encode a range of structurally diverse compounds has been reported. This method can expand the chemical space covered by phage display peptide libraries.