Condensation of glycylglycine to oligoglycines with trimetaphosphate in aqueous solution. II: catalytic effect of magnesium ion.

The previously reported condensation reaction of glycylglycine with trimetaphosphate (Yamanaka et al., 1988) was reinvestigated and shown to be catalyzed by magnesium ion. Aqueous solutions containing glycylglycine (0.5 M), trimetaphosphate (0.5 M) and magnesium chloride (0.5 M) were incubated at 38 degrees C at pH 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. After incubation for ten days at pH 5, the maximum yields of tetraglycine and hexaglycine as condensation products were found to be about 12 and 1.4%, respectively. This result indicated the presence of a considerable catalytic effect of magnesium ion compared with the maximum yield of about 2% for tetraglycine and approximately 0% for hexaglycine in the absence of magnesium ion.