That property, plus some bulky substituents, guide nucleophiles such as Grignard reagents to preferentially attack this unusually electrophilic nitrogen. A single attack on an imine can lead to ...

These compounds are therefore electrophilic — attracted to areas of negative charge, such as those in nucleophilic molecules (Y −). Ketones and imines are thus prone to attack by nucleophiles.

In this study, the researchers adapted T-REX to be compatible with zebrafish (a technique they named Z-REX), and used it to systematically investigate the interactions of the electrophilic ...