Fundamentals of phosphate transfer.

Historically, the chemistry of phosphate transfer-a class of reactions fundamental to the chemistry of Life-has been discussed almost exclusively in terms of the nucleophile and the leaving group. Reactivity always depends significantly on both factors; but recent results for reactions of phosphate triesters have shown that it can also depend strongly on the nature of the nonleaving or "spectator" groups. The extreme stabilities of fully ionised mono- and dialkyl phosphate esters can be seen as extensions of the same effect, with one or two triester OR groups replaced by O(-). Our chosen lead reaction is hydrolysis-phosphate transfer to water: because water is the medium in which biological chemistry takes place; because the half-life of a system in water is an accepted basic index of stability; and because the typical mechanisms of hydrolysis, with solvent H2O providing specific molecules to act as nucleophiles and as general acids or bases, are models for reactions involving better nucleophiles and stronger general species catalysts. Not least those available in enzyme active sites. Alkyl monoester dianions compete with alkyl diester monoanions for the slowest estimated rates of spontaneous hydrolysis. High stability at physiological pH is a vital factor in the biological roles of organic phosphates, but a significant limitation for experimental investigations. Almost all kinetic measurements of phosphate transfer reactions involving mono- and diesters have been followed by UV-visible spectroscopy using activated systems, conveniently compounds with good leaving groups. (A "good leaving group" OR* is electron-withdrawing, and can be displaced to generate an anion R*O(-) in water near pH 7.) Reactivities at normal temperatures of P-O-alkyl derivatives-better models for typical biological substrates-have typically had to be estimated: by extended extrapolation from linear free energy relationships, or from rate measurements at high temperatures. Calculation is free from these limitations, able to handle very slow reactions as readily as very fast ones, and capable of predicting rate constants with levels of accuracy acceptable to the experimentalist. We present an updated overview of phosphate transfer, with particular reference to the mechanisms of the reactions of alkyl derivatives and triesters. The intention is to present a holistic (not comprehensive!) overview of the reactivity of typical phosphate esters, in terms familiar to the working chemist, at a level sufficient to support informed predictions of reactivity for structures of interest.