Abstract
A bis(resorcinarene) substituted 2,2′-bipyridine was found to bind weakly to small esters like ethyl acetate whereas more bulky esters were not recognized by this hemicarcerand. This size selective molecular recognition could be controlled by a negative cooperative allosteric effect: coordination of a triscarbonyl rhenium chloride fragment to the bipyridine causes a conformational rearrangement that orientates the resorcinarene moieties in different directions so that they cannot act cooperatively in the binding of the substrate.
Highlights
Nature uses allosteric effects in a very elegant manner to control numerous biochemical pathways [1]
The idea is to employ cooperative effects in the selective association of more than one substrate to different binding sites of a single receptor. This causes conformational rearrangements that switch on or off a function that is inherently embedded in the different parts of the molecule but which need to be specially arranged in space in order to act in an optimized cooperative fashion
Some time ago we were able to report on a heterotropic positive cooperative allosteric analogue (1) [3] of some well known hemicarcerands [4,5] (Scheme 1)
Summary
Nature uses allosteric effects in a very elegant manner to control numerous biochemical pathways [1]. Their recognition behaviour towards non-polar substrates could be dramatically changed upon coordination of a late transition metal ion such as silver(I) as an effector or modulator to a central 2,2′-bipyridine.
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