Kinetic Analysis of the Hydrolysis of Pentose-1-phosphates through Apparent Nucleoside Phosphorolysis Equilibrium Shifts*

Abstract

Herein, we report an addition to the toolbox for the monitoring and quantification of the hydrolytic decay of pentose-1-phosphates, which are known to be elusive and difficult to quantify. This communication describes how apparent equilibrium shifts of a nucleoside phosphorolysis reaction can be employed to calculate hydrolytic loss of pentose-1-phosphates based on the measurement of post-hydrolysis equilibrium concentrations of a nucleoside and a nucleobase. To demonstrate this approach, we assessed the stability of the relatively stable ribose-1-phosphate at 98 °C and found half-lives of 1.8-11.7 h depending on the medium pH. This approach can be extended to other sugar phosphates and related reaction systems to quantify the stability of UV-inactive and hard-to-detect reaction products and intermediates.

Keywords: UV spectroscopy; decay; phosphate; ribose; sugar phosphate.