Glycerol nucleoside triphosphates: synthesis and polymerase substrate activities.

[Structure: see text] The synthesis of (S)-glycerol nucleoside triphosphates (gNTPs) and the analysis of their substrate activities for enzymatic polymerization is described. NTPs with simplified carbohydrate backbones such as the tNTPs (alpha-L-threose-NTPs) are polymerase substrates and offer the potential to create non-natural aptamer sequences with simplified backbones through enzymatic means. The acyclic (S)-GNA was modeled after the shortened alpha-threofuranosyl backbone. Here we describe the synthesis of (S)-glycerol NTPs and initial enzymatic testing of this further simplified nucleic acid backbone.