The hydrogenosomes and mitosomes are specialized mitochondrion-related organelles found in various anaerobic or oxygen-limited eukaryotes. Typical hydrogenosomes support anaerobic ATP production, converting substrates such as pyruvate into products including acetate, carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen. Substrate-level phosphorylation supplies ATP, while hydrogenase disposes of reducing equivalents as hydrogen; oxygen is not the terminal acceptor of a conventional respiratory chain in this pathway.[ref]
Hydrogenosome, a cytoplasmic organelle of the anaerobic flagellate Tritrichomonas foetus, and its role in pyruvate metabolism by Donald G. Lindmark and Miklós Müller. Abstract and biochemical characterization of hydrogenosomal pyruvate metabolism
The mitosomes retain selected essential metabolic functions but do not generate ATP by oxidative phosphorylation. In Giardia, their role includes iron-sulfur cluster assembly and protein maturation, demonstrated using organelle markers and biochemical reconstitution.[ref]
Mitochondrial remnant organelles of Giardia function in iron-sulphur protein maturation by Jorge Tovar and others. Abstract: localization and iron-sulfur protein maturation
Their functions are lineage-dependent: Entamoeba histolytica mitosomes compartmentalize a sulfate activation pathway.[ref]Mitosomes in Entamoeba histolytica contain a sulfate activation pathway by Fumika Mi-ichi and others. Abstract and Results: mitosome fractionation, protein localization and activated sulfate products
Thus neither organelle class should be described simply as a nonfunctional mitochondrion. Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 B1 a iii Solution 2026-10-20
The activated aromatic pi system polarizes bromine and attacks its electrophilic end while Br–Br cleaves. This makes a C–Br bond at C1 or C3 and gives a Wheland intermediate. Donation from phenolic oxygen stabilizes contributors with positive charge at its attached ring carbon. acetate or bromide then removes the proton from the attacked carbon; the C–H bond electrons restore the aromatic pi system. Repetition at the other activated ortho site gives the dibrominated product.
Each step replaces C–H by C–Br and restores aromaticity. No radical initiator or benzylic abstraction is needed, and no Lewis acid catalyst should be invented for this already activated phenolic substrate. The overall substitution balance is .
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 B4 b Solution 2026-10-20
The alkene attacks electrophilic mercury(II), with acetate departure as appropriate, to give a bridged mercurinium ion between the ring carbon and the exocyclic methylene. That bridge is polarized: the more substituted ring carbon can better stabilize developing positive charge than the terminal CH2 carbon. water attacks the ring carbon, opening the mercury bridge there, and deprotonation gives the tertiary alcohol with an exocyclic CH2–HgOAc substituent.
Subsequent sodium-borohydride demercuration replaces the terminal C–Hg bond by C–H. Thus the original exocyclic CH2 becomes Me, and the new OH remains on the substituted ring carbon. The result is Markovnikov hydration of the exocyclic alkene. There is no need for a freely equilibrating tertiary carbocation, and no rearrangement of the carbohydrate carbon skeleton or cleavage of the methyl acetal is required. The question does not require the mercury-stage facial selection or a detailed demercuration mechanism.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B3 c Solution 2026-10-20
E, with the axial anomeric acetate, hydrolyses faster. The tert-butyl substituent strongly favours the chair in which it is equatorial, so the two substrates cannot freely interchange axial and equatorial acetate simply by an inexpensive ring inversion. protonation activates the anomeric acetoxy leaving group. As its C–O bond cleaves to release acetic acid, a lone pair on the endocyclic oxygen donates into the developing anomeric orbital, producing an oxocarbenium ion. water attacks that carbon, and deprotonation gives the cyclic hemiacetal. Attack from either face accounts for the unspecified anomeric configuration of OH in the product.
The axial C–OAc bond in E can adopt antiperiplanar geometry relative to an endocyclic oxygen lone pair. This favourable interaction assists departure in the ionization transition state. The corresponding bond in F is poorly aligned in its preferred chair; achieving comparable overlap requires an unfavourable chair change, placing tert-butyl axial, or substantial ring distortion. The distinction is stereoelectronic control of acetal hydrolysis, rather than merely counting steric crowding in the products.
An axial acetal can itself receive ground-state stabilization from the anomeric effect, so “axial means unstable” is not an adequate rate argument. What matters is the relative Gibbs energy of activation for the departing bond and the geometry of lone-pair assistance. Conformationally locked model acetals experimentally demonstrate faster acid-catalysed cleavage of the axially oriented isomer, although their numerical rate ratios should not be transferred to these different substrates.[ref]
Stereoelectronic control of the hydrolysis of a conformationally locked acetal by Anthony J. Kirby and Robert J. Martin. 1983, abstract and pp. 1627–1632, acid-catalysed axial/equatorial comparison
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B4 a ii Solution 2026-10-20
Both permitted alternatives follow the same condensation–activation–migration sequence. sodium acetate liberates a useful concentration of hydroxylamine from its hydrochloride while providing a buffered medium. nitrogen of NH2OH attacks the ketone carbonyl; proton transfer gives a carbinolamine. protonation of its carbon-derived OH and loss of water, with nitrogen lone-pair donation, then gives the oxime after deprotonation. The two C=N geometries can be separated.
For the B-to-D route, oxime O-tosylation begins when oxime oxygen attacks sulfur of tosyl chloride and chloride leaves; triethylamine accepts the released proton. The resulting O-tosyl oxime has an excellent leaving group. The bond, anti to N–OTs, migrates to nitrogen while N–O cleaves, giving a ring-expanded nitrilium ion. Its local connectivity is , with the existing scaffold still joining the two paths. water attacks the nitrilium carbon . proton transfers and imidic-acid/amide tautomerization produce D, with nitrogen inserted on the aromatic side of the old carbonyl.
For the C-to-E route, the same O-tosylation activates the other oxime geometry. Now the anti bond is ; its migration gives , and aqueous trapping produces E, with nitrogen inserted on the spiro-junction side. Each Beckmann rearrangement expands the ketone's six-membered ring to a seven-membered lactam. The original carbonyl carbon remains the amide carbonyl carbon; nitrogen is the inserted atom. In this mechanism the ketone oxygen is lost during oxime condensation, the oxime oxygen leaves with the sulfonate group, and water supplies the new amide oxygen.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 B6 a iii Solution 2026-10-20
platinum is in group 10, so subtracting its oxidation state gives for Pt(II) and for Pt(IV). Adding two electrons from each coordinated donor gives the local valence electron counting resultsEach acetate in the depicted structure is monodentate, binding through one oxygen. The 16-electron count of the square-planar complex is normal for a low-spin late-metal centre; it is not a missing ligand inferred from the 18-electron rule.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 B6 a i Solution 2026-10-20
ammonia and cyclohexylamine are neutral donors, whereas each coordinated chloride and acetate has charge . Charge balance therefore gives Pt(II) in cisplatin and Pt(IV) in satraplatin:The two acetate groups count once each; their carbonyl and alkoxy oxygen atoms do not make each ligand doubly charged.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 B6 b i Solution 2026-10-20
ammonia and cyclohexylamine are sigma-donor ligands; chloride and acetate are sigma- and pi-donor ligands. The nitrogen lone pair of each amine points toward the metal and forms the donor interaction. These saturated amines have no low-lying conjugated acceptor system that would make them conventional pi-acceptor ligands.
chloride uses a lone pair for sigma donation and has additional occupied orbitals perpendicular to the bond that can donate with pi symmetry. An oxygen-bound acetate similarly has occupied oxygen-centred orbitals available for sigma and pi donation, although its carboxylate resonance in chemistry changes their energies and distribution. Neither should be classified as a pi acceptor merely because its bonding can be drawn with multiple bonds or resonance in chemistry contributors. None of these four is a standard sigma-donor/pi-acceptor ligand.