Hi everybody

 

I have a question relating to the stability of sugar phosphates, particularly in aqueous solution

 

I recently enquired about purchasing small quantities of sucrose6phosphate, glucose6phosphate & trelahose6phosphate (the latter being particularly resistant to oxidation as it has no reducing function). All of these come as alkaline dipotassium salts. The vendor recommends storage / transport at -20 C. Would this be citing overkill policy?

 

Infact I don't really understand why sugar phosphates cannot sit in a pH buffered solution at room temp for years and never hydrolyse into the separate sugar and phosphate. With out the presence of a biological contamination, such as phosphatases, the what inherent properties of sugar phosphates make them 'unstable' (if there are any) and which specific mechanisms might cause diegredation, and how?

 

Thanks, looking forward to your thoughts

Bruce

Think of the isomers that sugars generate.

 

(Glucose-6-phoshate ---> fructose-6-phosphate)

 

I would think this makes the molecule somewhat less stable, but not overwhelmingly unstable, just enough to cause a potential tranistion. -20 C is enough to

 

prevent this, I guess.

 

~EE

Many monophosphate esters have a pH rate maximum near 4 for non enzymatic hydrolysis. Hydrolysis at 100 °C is pretty rapid, but obviously much slower at room temperature. At pH 7, it is even slower, but it is still not zero. Also microbial degradation is a problem, unless you are working with sterile solutions.

Edited August 7, 201510 yr by BabcockHall