Sugar phosphates

Sugar phosphates (sugars that have added or substituted phosphate groups) are often used in biological systems to store or transfer energy. They also form the backbone for DNA and RNA (DNA having two sugar molecules, and RNA having just one). Sugar phosphate backbone geometry is altered in the vicinity of the modified nucleotides. Sugar phosphates may be divided into two groups - those that are acid-labile (aldose 1-phosphates) and those that are not. Consequently, too low a pH was to be avoided during the elution of glucose 1-phosphate and ribose 1-phosphate. On the other hand, in order to minimise the alterations to sugar moieties by enolisation, it was thought advisable not to let the pH rise above 9 at any stage.

Examples include:

The sugar-phosphate backbone has electronic structure and the electron delocalisation complicates its theoretical description. Some part of the electronic density is delocalised over the whole backbone and the extent of the delocalisation is affected by backbone conformation due to hyper-conjugation effects. Hyper-conjugation arises from donor-acceptor interactions of localised orbitals in 1,3 positions.

The phosphodiester backbone of DNA and RNA consists of pairs of deoxyribose or ribose sugars linked by phosphates at the respective 3' and 5' positions. The backbone is negatively charged and hydrophilic, which allows strong interactions with water.Sugar-phosphate backbone forms the structural framework of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA.

Sugar phosphates are defined as carbohydrates to which a phosphate group is bound by an ester or an either linkage, depending on whether it involves an alcoholic or a hemiacetalic hydroxyl, respectively. Solubility, acid hydrolysis rates, acid strengths, and ability to act as sugar group donors are the knowledge of physical and chemical properties required for the analysis of both types of sugar phosphates. The photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle is closely associated with sugar phosphates, and sugar phosphates are one of the key molecules in metabolism, oxidative pentose phosphate pathways, gluconeogenesis, important intermediates in glycolysis. Sugar phosphates are not only involved in metabolic regulation and signaling but also involved in the synthesis of other phosphate compounds.

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