Background cAMP and cGMP have been known for a long time to be important second messengers in living cells, whereas other cyclic nucleotides like cCMP or cUMP have only been on the fringes of scientific interest. Recently, our group has discovered that bacterial adenylyl cyclase toxins produce a number of different cyclic nucleoside 5'-monophosphates (cNMPs) apart from cAMP, and the interest in...

Difluorinated cyclohexene diols (prepared from trifluoroethanol) can be elaborated to racemic analogues of phosphorylated sugars via regioselective protection and phosphorylation of the exposed C-1 hydroxyl group. Cis-diol protection was achieved using stannylene methodology, though the regioselectivity depended on the orientation of the methyl group at C-5. UpJohn dihydroxylation is effective ...

Novel, highly positively charged tripodal polyamines with appended heterocyclic moieties revealed an intriguing panel of protonation species within the biologically relevant range. Studied compounds bind nucleotide monophosphates by mostly electrostatic interactions but only the imidazole analogue showed selectivity toward UMP in respect to other nucleotides. Strong binding of all the studied c...

Pyrimidine (deoxy)nucleoside triphosphates are required in mitochondria for the synthesis of DNA and the various types of RNA present in these organelles. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, these nucleotides are synthesized outside the mitochondrial matrix and must therefore be transported across the permeability barrier of the mitochondrial inner membrane. However, no protein has ever been found to ...

Mononucleotide conformations are important in understanding the structural aspects of nucleic acids and polynucleotides. In order to study the influence of stacking interactions between adjacent bases in a polynucleotide on the preferred conformations of mononucleotides, conformational energy calculations have been carried out on dinucleoside monophosphate fragments. Four base sequences-d(ApT),...

In leaf tissue, carbon enters starch via the gluconeogenesis pathway where d-glycerate 3-phosphate formed from CO(2) fixation is converted into hexose monophosphates within the chloroplast stroma. In starch-containing sink organs, evidence has been obtained indicating that the flow of carbon into starch follows a different pathway whereby hexose monophosphates formed from sucrose are transporte...