MINERAL INDUCED FORMATION OF SUGAR PHOSPHATES .15. CHEMISTRY OF ALPHA-AMINONITRILE FROM THE ZURICH GROUP

Glycolaldehyde phosphate, sorbed from highly dilute, weakly alkaline s olution into the interlayer of common expanding sheet structure metal hydroxide minerals, condenses extensively to racemic aldotetrose-2,4-d iphosphates and aldohexose-2,4,6-triphosphates. The reaction proceeds mainly through racemic erythrose-2,4-phosphate, and terminates with a large fraction of racemic altrose-2,4,6-phosphate. In the absence of a n inductive mineral phase, no detectable homogeneous reaction takes pl ace in the concentration- and pH range used. The reactant glycolaldehy de phosphate is practically completely sorbed within an hour from solu tions with concentrations as low as 50 mu m; the half-time for convers ion to hexose phosphates is of the order of two days at room temperatu re and pH 9.5. Total production of sugar phosphates in the mineral int erlayer is largely independent of the glycolaldehyde phosphate concent ration in the external solution, but is determined by the total amount of GAP offered for sorption up to the capacity of the mineral. In the presence of equimolar amounts of rac-glyceraldehyde-2-phosphate, but under otherwise similar conditions, aldopentose-2,4,-diphosphates also form, but only as a small fraction of the hexose-2,4,6-phosphates.