β C-S lyases (β-CSLs; EC 4.4.1.8) are enzymes catalyzing the dissociation of β carbon-sulfur bonds of cysteine S-conjugates to produce odorant metabolites with a free thiol group. These enzymes are increasingly studied for their role in flavor generation in a variety of food products, whether these processes occur directly in plants, by microbial β-CSLs during fermentation, or in the mouth under the action of the oral microbiota. Microbial β-CSLs react with sulfur aroma precursors present in beverages, vegetables, fruits, or aromatic herbs like hop but also potentially with some precursors formed through Maillard reactions in cooked foods such as meat or coffee. β-CSLs from microorganisms like yeasts and lactic acid bacteria have been studied for their role in the release of polyfunctional thiols in wine and beer during fermentation. In addition, β-CSLs from microorganisms of the human oral cavity were shown to metabolize similar precursors and to produce aroma in the mouth with an impact on retro-olfaction. This review summarizes the current knowledge on β-CSLs involved in flavor generation with a focus on enzymes from microbial species present either in the fermentative processes or in the oral cavity. This paper highlights the importance of this enzyme family in the food continuum, from production to consumption, and offers new perspectives concerning the utilization of β-CSLs as a flavor enhancer.

Reaction of phenyl acetic acid derivatives with thiosemicarbazide in the presence of POCl3 afforded 5-(4-bromobenzyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-amine 1 and 5-(3-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole -2-amine 2. Acylation of the amino group of oxadiazoles 1 and 2 with some acid chlorides such as methyl 4-(chlorocarbonyl) benzoate, 3-nitrobenzoyl chloride, 4-methoxy-benzoyl chloride, 4-isobutylbenzoyl chloride and chloroacetyl chloride yielded the acylated compounds 3-8. Cyclization of acetamides 7 and 8 by reaction with ammonium thiocyanate gave the thiazolidinones 9 and 10. Coupling of chloroacetamide 7 with two mercaptothiazoles gave coupled heterocyclic derivatives 11 and 12. Coupling of amino-oxadiazole 1 with N-Boc-glycine and N-Boc-phenylalanine lead to the formation of 16 and 17 respectively. All compounds were screened for their antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhi where compounds 3, 4, 10, 11 and 15 showed significant activity. Structures of the new synthesized compounds were confirmed using the spectral analysis such as IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR and mass spectrometry.

In recent years, InAs nanowires have been demonstrated with the excellent electron mobility as well as highly efficient near-infrared and visible photoresponse at room temperature. However, due to the presence of a large amount of surface states that originate from the unstable native oxide, the fabricated nanowire transistors are always operated in the depletion mode with degraded electron mobility, which is not energy-efficient. In this work, instead of the conventional inorganic sulfur or alkanethiol surface passivation, we employ aromatic thiolate (ArS(-))-based molecular monolayers with controllable molecular design and electron density for the surface modification of InAs nanowires (i.e., device channels) by simple wet chemistry. More importantly, besides reliably improving the device performances by enhancing the electron mobility and the current on-off ratio through surface state passivation, the device threshold voltage (VTh) can also be modulated by varying the para-substituent of the monolayers such that the molecule bearing electron-withdrawing groups would significantly shift the VTh towards the positive region for the enhancement mode device operation, in which the effect has been quantified by density functional theory calculations. These findings reveal explicitly the efficient modulation of the InAs nanowires\' electronic transport properties via ArS(-)-based molecular monolayers, which further elucidates the technological potency of this ArS(-) surface treatment for future nanoelectronic device fabrication and circuit integration.