Hydrolysis of phosphotriesters: determination of transition states in parallel reactions by heavy-atom isotope effects. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The remote label method was used to measure primary and secondary (18)O isotope effects in the alkaline hydrolysis of O,O-diethylphosphorylcholine iodide (DEPC) and the primary (18)O effect in the alkaline hydrolysis of O,O-diethyl-m-nitrobenzyl phosphate (DEmNBP). Both the leaving group of interest (choline or m-nitrobenzyl alcohol) and ethanol can be ejected during hydrolysis due to the similarity of their pK values. The heavy-atom isotope effects were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Parallel reaction and incomplete labeling corrections were made for both systems. DEPC has a primary (18)O isotope effect of 1.041 +/- 0.003 and a secondary (18)O isotope effect of 1.033 +/- 0.002. The primary (18)O isotope effect for DEmNBP was 1.052 +/- 0.003. These large effects suggest a highly associative transition state in which the nucleophile approaches very close to the phosphorus atom to eject the leaving group. The large values are also indicative of a large compression, or general movement, on the reaction coordinate.

published proceedings

  • J Am Chem Soc

author list (cited authors)

  • Anderson, M. A., Shim, H., Raushel, F. M., & Cleland, W. W.

citation count

  • 47

complete list of authors

  • Anderson, MA||Shim, H||Raushel, FM||Cleland, WW

publication date

  • September 2001