One aspect of the present invention relates to ligands for transition metals. A second aspect of the present invention relates to the use of catalysts comprising these ligands in various transition-metal-catalyzed carbon-heteroatom and carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions. The subject methods provide improvements in many features of the transition-metal-catalyzed reactions, including the range of suitable substrates, number of catalyst turnovers, reaction conditions, and efficiency. For example, improvements have been realized in transition metal-catalyzed: aryl amination reactions; aryl amidation reactions; Suzuki couplings; and Sonogashira couplings. In certain embodiments, the invention relates to catalysts and methods of using them that operate in aqueous solvent systems.