Figure 1. Hydrolysis of an ester consists of water adding to the ester bond and displacing an alcohol (R-OH), forming a carboxylic acid. The red boxes show the original water molecule. The blue hatch ...

A central mechanism by which mammalian cells relay signals is through the formation and hydrolysis of phosphate esters on tyrosine, serine and threonine residues in signal-transduction proteins.

A challenge for chemists is trying to selectivity react one of two identical functional groups on the same molecule. For example, a diester with a long carbon chain in between the two ester groups ...