Nucleoside diphosphates, glycosyl esters

The sugar nucleotides (an uninformative name that has been used for glycosyl nucleotides, or more strictly, glycosyl esters of nucleoside di- or mono-phosphates) were discussed in this Series12 in 1973. Since then, accumulation of new data about these derivatives has continued, and now, about 35 representatives of this class are known to participate in the biosynthesis of polysaccharide chains of bacterial polymers (for a survey, see Ref. 13). These include glycosyl esters of uridine 5 -diphosphate (UDP), thymidine 5 -diphosphate (dTDP), guanosine 5 -diphosphate (GDP), cytidine 5 -diphosphate (CDP), cytidine 5 -monophosphate (CMP), and adenosine 5 -diphosphate (ADP). 

These compounds are glycosyl esters of nucleoside mono- or diphosphates. A number have been found in cells, but only two have so far been considered in the present context. The preparation of uridine diphosphate glucose" (48) is possible independent of its further transformation (see Table... 

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