Separation of isomeric and nonisomeric monoribonucleotides by isocratic ion pair high performance liquid chromatography

A simple, isocratic, high performance liquid chromatographic procedure is described for the first time for the separation of nine monoribonucleotides using the ion-pairing technique. An aqueous mobile phase containing 100 mM KH₂PO₄ and 12.5 mM tetramethylammonium hydroxide as the solvophobic ion, pH 3.9, was used with a reverse phase RP-18 column. The nine monoribonucleotides studied were separated and eluted in the following order: cytidine-5′ -phosphate, uridine-5′ -phosphate, cytidine-3′ -phosphate, guanosine-5′ -phosphate, uridine-3′ -phosphate, uridine-2′ -phosphate, adenosine-5′ -phosphate, guanosine-3′ -phosphate, and adenosine-3′ -phosphate. Generally the 5′ nucleotides eluted faster than the 3′ and the order of elution within each series was: cytidine, uridine, guanosine, and adenosine. The only nucleotide where three isomers were studied was uridine, and the 2′ eluted later than the 3′. Baseline separation was attained for a mixture containing four 3′ nucleotides and uridine-2′ -phosphate. When the four 5′ nucleotides were chromatographed, baseline separation was also obtained except between cytidine-5′ -phosphate and uridine-5′ -phosphate. The coefficient of variation of the retention characteristics, which reflected day-to-day variation, averaged 6.4%.