Hello everyone,
I'm a master's student in Biology and I'm facing a problem understanding the difference between the 2 reactions. I'm not specialized in chemistry or organic chemistry and have the basic knowledge.
In an experiment one of my predecessors did, he used NaBH4 to react with Dihydrouridine (see file), and the modification occurs on the base (not the sugar), causing either a cycle opening or a reduction of the carbonyl group (I don't even know if both are correct, so do tell me about these reactions please). This was the positive control because once this step is done, he uses the newly-produced compound to react with NH2-Rhodamine (how can it attack the new compound ?).
What's more, the negative control is a reaction using KOH, so OH-, which seems to cause a cycle opening too... So, how can it be that these 2 reactions that are opening the cycles react in different ways when labelling with Rhodamine-NH2 ?
Thanks in advance for every answer !!