Rapid analysis of solvent effects on enamine formation by fluorescence: how might enzymes facilitate enamine chemistry with primary amines?

In order to determine factors that facilitate the use of primary amines in biological chemistry, solvent effects on enamine formation with glycine were studied. Solvent effects were rapidly analyzed by monitoring the increase in fluorescence resulting from the reaction between a fluorogenic maleimide and in situ-generated enamine of acetone. These studies suggest that in addition to a simple hydrophobic microenvironment, a microenvironment that also affords for hydrogen bond formation facilitates enamine-based reactions involving primary amines.