A convenient route to keto-glycosyl phosphates

The reagent combination, ruthenium dioxide/sodium periodate/benzyltriethyl ammonium chloride in dichloromethane/aqueous bicarbonate buffer simultaneou sly oxidises alcohol functions in the sugar ring and glycosyl H-phosphonate s to yield keto-glycosyl phosphates. These can be coupled to the respective nucleoside diphosphates to render biosynthetically relevant sugar metaboli tes and derivatives thereof, useful for further investigation of the polysa ccharide biosynthesis in bacteria and plants. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.