Transition phosphate monoesters

Other workers have concluded that, for the solvolysis of phosphate monoesters, the bonding between nucleophile and mecaphosphate is not far developed in the transition state and... 

The involvement of monomeric metaphosphate in the phosphoryl transfer from phosphate monoesters, and of pentaco-ordinate intermediates from phosphotriesters represent two extremes in the mechanistics of the phosphoryl transfer process. Between the extremes are the (S 2)p processes involving transition states having various bond orders, but no true... 

The mechanism of phosphate ester hydrolysis by hydroxide is shown in Figure 1 for a phosphodiester substrate. A SN2 mechanism with a trigonal-bipyramidal transition state is generally accepted for the uncatalyzed cleavage of phosphodiesters and phosphotriesters by nucleophilic attack at phosphorus. In uncatalyzed phosphate monoester hydrolysis, a SN1 mechanism with formation of a (POj) intermediate competes with the SN2 mechanism. For alkyl phosphates, nucleophilic attack at the carbon atom is also relevant. In contrast, all enzymatic cleavage reactions of mono-, di-, and triesters seem to follow an SN2... 

Solvolysis studies of meta- and para-substituted phenyl phosphates (240) in anhydrous Bu OH and in Am OH have revealed that generally reactions of dianions are much faster in alcohols than in water. For example, the dianion of p-nitrophenyl phosphate (240 X = 4-NO2) reacts 7500- and 8750-fold faster in Bu OH and Am OH, respectively, than in water." The results of a theoretical study of the reactivity of phosphate monoester anions in aqueous solution do not support the generally accepted view that Brpnsted coefficients fhg = —1.23 and jSnuc = 0.13 determined more than 30 years ago for the uncatalysed reaction of water and a monophosphate dianion (241) represent conclusive evidence for the dissociative mechanism. It is suggested that, instead, the observed LFERs could correspond to a late transition state in the associative mechanism." ... 

Methyl-p-nitrophenyl phosphate coordinated to the two metal centers in 37 undergoes hydrolysis by a two-step addition-elimination mechanism [73]. The free phosphate hydrolyzes by a concerted mechanism. In both phosphate monoester and diester hydrolysis, the two Co(m) centers in 32 and 37 stabilize the five-coordinate phosphate species (transition state or intermediate) by bringing the phosphate and nucleophile together. This stabilization leads to a change in mechanism from dissociative to concerted for a phosphate monoester hydrolysis [96] and from concerted to stepwise for phosphate diester hydrolysis [73]. 

Grzyska PK, Czyryca PG, Purcell J, Hengge AC. Transition state 42. differences in hydrolysis reactions of alkyl versus aryl phosphate monoester monoanions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003 125 13106-13111. 

Other phosphoryl transfer mechanisms are an associative, two-step mechanism (An + Dn) and a concerted mechanism (ANDN) with no intermediate. The AN+DN mechanism is an addition-elimination pathway in which a stable pentacoordinate intermediate, called a phosphorane, is formed. This mechanism occurs in some reactions of phosphate triesters and diesters, and has been speculated to occur in enzymatic reactions of monoesters. In the concerted ANDN mechanism, bond formation to the nucleophile and bond fission to the leaving group both occur in the transition state. This transition state could be loose or tight, depending upon the synchronicity between nucleophilic attack and leaving group departure. The concerted mechanism of Fig. 2 is drawn to indicate a loose transition state, typical of phosphate monoester reactions. 

Purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) catalyze the hydrolysis of phosphate monoesters with mildly acidic pH optima (5-7) utilizing a binuclear metal center containing a ferric ion and a divalent metal ion. PAPs are also characterized by their purple color, the result of a tyrosine (Tyr) to Fe3+ charge transfer transition at about 560nm.113 All known mammalian PAPs are monomeric and have a binuclear Fe3+-Fe2+ center, whereas the kidney bean and soybean enzymes are dimeric and have an Fe3 + -Zn2+ center in each subunit. The X-ray structures for kidney bean PAP114 and the PAP115 from rat bone reveal that despite a sequence similarity of only 18%, they share very similar catalytic sites. The structure of the kidney bean PAP shows the two metal ions at a distance of 3.1 A, with a monodentate bridging Asp-164. These and other residues involved in metal coordination can be seen in Fig. 21. 

Taken together, the data indicate direct phosphoryl transfer to a metal-bound water molecule without a phosphoenzyme intermediate. A Bronsted analysis found a value of (j of -0.3 for V/K,137 similar to the value for the uncatalyzed hydrolysis of phosphate monoester monoanions, which could be indicative of charge neutralization on the leaving group in the transition state via protonation. 

On the other hand, phosphorane intermediates are not expected to be involved in the hydrolysis of phosphate monoesters, so the effective observed catalysis by the carboxyl group of salicyl phosphate 3.21 [51] (Scheme 2.26) is presumed to be concerted vith nucleophilic attack. (The hydrolysis reaction involves the less abundant tautomer 3.22 of the dianion 3.21, and the acceleration is >10 -fold relative to the expected rate for the pH-independent hydrolysis of the phosphate monoester dianion of a phenol of pK 8.52.) However, this system differs from the methoxy-methyl acetals discussed above, in that there is a clear distinction between neutral nucleophiles, which react through an extended transition structure similar to 3.16 in Scheme 2.23, and anions, which do not react at a significant rate, presumably because of electrostatic repulsion. This distinction is well-established for the dianions of phosphate monoesters with good leaving groups (p-nitrophenyl [52] and... 

Jencks, Skoog, and Herschlag have carried out hallmark studies of the nature of the transition state in the phosphoryl group transfer reaction, including phosphate monoester hydrolysis. 

The reactive species under acidic conditions is the neutral ester. This reaction is believed to proceed by transfer of the proton from the sulfuryl group to the leaving group, as in reactions of phosphate monoester monoanions. A reduced value for d a solvent deuterium isotope effect of 2.43 " are consistent with proton transfer to the leaving group in the transition state. The intermediacy of free SO3 in the acid hydrolysis is sometimes assumed, but has not been proven. 

In the next section, we cite information that shows that substitution reactions of reactive phosphate monoesters occur with inversion of relative configuration at phosphorus. That stereochemical outcome is consistent with this interpretation since both nucleophile and leaving group must bond to phosphorus at the same time. The small degree of bond-making and the large extent of bond-breaking in the transition state is consistent with a... 

Fig. 2. The dissociative and associative mechanistic extremes, and the concerted pathway for phosphoryl transfer. The concerted pathway is drawn to indicate the dissociative transition state, which is typical of phosphate monoester reactions, but in principle could have a transition state at any point between the mechanistic extremes. The sum of the bond orders to the nucleophile and leaving group is less than in the substrate in a dissociative transition state and is greater in an associative transition state.

Uncatalyzed Reactions of Phosphate Monoesters. Phosphate monoesters in physiologically relevant pH ranges exist as either the monoanion or dianion. A large body of evidence indicates that uncatalyzed phosphoryl transfer reactions of both ionic forms takes place by loose transition states that are characterized by extensive bond cleavage to the leaving group and a small degree of bond formation to the nucleophile (for reviews of the evidence, see References (3,4)). Despite loose transition states, these reactions are concerted, and free metaphosphate is not formed in protic solvents (5). 

The AP-catalyzed phosphate monoester hydrolysis proceeds through a loose transition state with a >10 -fold rate enhancement relative to the rate of the uncatalyzed reaction, whereas phosphate diester and phosphonate monoester hydrolysis proceeds through a tighter, associative transition states with 10 and 10 °-fold rate enhancements, respectively. According to transition state theory, enzymatic rate enhancements arise from preferential stabilization of the transition state relative to the ground state. Consequently, the specificity of an enzyme for a particular reaction depends on its ability to recognize and stabilize... 

Functionalized cyclomaltohexaose have been synthesized to attempt to stabilize the trigonal bipyramidal transition state for an in-line displacement at the P atom of a phosphate monoester. The cyclomaltohexaose incorporates three symmetrically disposed ammonium groups on the top of the hydrophobic cavity and the remaining hydroxy groups are methylated. ... 

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