Chemie von a-Aminonitrilen. Aldomerisierung von Glycolaldehyd-phosphat zu racemischen Hexose-2,4,6-triphosphaten und (in Gegenwart von Formaldehyd) racemischen Pentose-2,4-diphosphaten: rac-Allose-2,4,6-triphosphat und rac-Ribose-2,4-diphosphat sind die Reaktionshauptprodukte

Chemistry of α-Aminonitriles. Aldomerisation of Glycolaldehyde Phosphate to rac-Hexose 2,4,6-Triphosphates and (in Presence of Formaldehyde) rac-Pentose 2,4-Diphosphates: rac-Allose 2,4,6-Triphosphate and rac-Ribose 2,4-Diphosphate Are the Main Reaction Products Glyclaldehyde phosphate aldomerizes in aqueous NaOH solution to a product mixture containing the racemates of the two diastereoisomeric tetrose 2,4-diphosphates and eight hexose 2,4,6-triphosphates. At room temperature in the absence of air and after 7 days, a solution 0.08M in glycolaldehyde phosphate (=formylmethyl dihydrogenphosphate)and 2M in NaOH gives products, in up to 80% yield, with a tetrose/hexose derivative ratio of ca 1:10 and with rac-allose, 2,4,6-triphosphate comprising up to 50% of the mixture of sugar phosphates. When the reaction is run under the same conditions but in the presence of 0.5 mol-equiv. of formaldehyde, sugar phosphates are formed in up to 45% yield, with pentose 2,4-diphosphates now predominating over hexose triphosphates by a ration f 3:1 rac-Ribose 2,4-diphosphate is found to be the major component, the ratios am ribose, arabinose, lyxose, and xylose 2,4-diphosphates being 52:14:23:11 in a representative experiment. The pentose diphosphates are constitutionally stable under the reaction conditions (observed for 23 weeks), but the diastereoisomeric ratios slowly change with time (tc 22:34:30:14 after 23 weeks), showing that ribose 2,4-diphosphate is not the thermodynamically favored diastereoisomer. The observed product distributions in both the pentose and the hexose series (after 1 week) reveal an aldolization mode that is preferentially erythro in the product-determining step (the reaction of glycolaldehyde phosphate as its enolate with glycerinaldehyde 2-phosphate and tetrose 2,4-diphosphate, respectively). An attempt is made to rationalize both this fact and the kinetic predominance of ribose 2,4-diphosphate in the pentose series and allose 2,4,6-triphosphate in the hexose series. Their configuration along the C-chain can be interpreted as corresponding to a minimum number of 1-5 repulsions in the packing of phosphate and OH substituents and minimal steric interaction between substituents at the reaction centers in the transition state of the product-determining step. The aldomerization of glycolaldehyde phosphate in the presence of formaldehyde is a variant of the formose reaction, It avoids the formation of complex formose product mixtures, largely as a consequence of the fact that aldoses which are phosphorylated at the C(2)