When an elongating RNA polymerase encounters DNA damage on the template strand of a transcribed gene it can either be arrested by or be transcribed through the lesion. Lesions that arrest RNA polymerases are thought to be subject to transcription-coupled repair, whereas that damage that is bypassed can cause miscoding, resulting in mutations in the transcript (transcriptional mutagenesis). We have developed a technique using a plasmid-based luciferase reporter assay to determine the extent to which a particular type of DNA base modification is capable of causing transcriptional mutagenesis in vivo. The system uses Escherichia coli strains with different DNA repair backgrounds and is designed to detect phenotypic changes caused by transcriptional mutageneis under nongrowth conditions. In addition, this method is capable of indicating the extent to which a particular DNA repair enzyme (or pathway) suppresses the occurrence of transcriptional mutagenesis. Thus, this technique provides a tool with which the effects of various genes on non-replication-dependent pathways resulting in the generation of mutant proteins can be gauged.

Naturally occurring azasugar and homologous compounds have been the object of numerous synthetic efforts because these classes of compounds have interesting bioloical activities and the flexibility for the synthesis of chiral alkaloid comounds. As part of a program directed toward the preparation of glycosidase inhibitors, we prepared bicyclic perhydrooxazino- and oxazolopyridine from aminoalcohols and epoxyaldehyde as a common synthetic intermediate.

Wondonins A and B, aromatic alkaloids of an unprecedented skeletal class have been isolated form and association of the sponges Poecillastra wondoensis and Jaspis sp. In addition, four novel bromotyrosine-derived metabolites, psammaplins $A_1$ and $A_2$, aplysinellins A and B, have been isolated from the tropical sponge Aplysinella rhax. The structures of these compounds have been determined on the basis of combined chemical and spectral analyses. The new compounds exhibited significant cytotoxicity and antiangiogenic activity as well as inhibitory activities against farnesyl protein transferase and leucine aminopeptidase. In addition to these compounds, several bioactive metabolites have been isolated from sponges of Korean and tropical waters.