Facile Enzymatic Synthesis of Phosphorylated Ketopentoses

An efficient and convenient platform for the facile synthesis of phosphorylated ketoses is described. All. eight phosphorylated ketopentoses were produced using this platform starting from two common and inexpensive aldoses (D-xylose and L-arabinose) in more than 84% isolated yield (gram scale). In this method, reversible conversions (isomerization or epimerization) were accurately controlled toward the formation of desired ketose phosphates by targeted phosphorylation reactions catalyzed by substrate-specific kinases. The byproducts were selectively removed by silver nitrate precipitation avoiding the tedious and time-consuming separation of sugar phosphate from adenosine phosphates (ATP and ADP). Moreover, the described strategy can be expanded for the synthesis of other sugar phosphates.