Prolinyl Phosphoramidates of Nucleotides with Increased Reactivity

Nucleoside monophosphates (NMPs) are the subunits of RNA. They are incorporated into growing complementary strands when sequences are copied in enzyme‐free reactions using organic leaving groups at the phosphates. Amino acids are rarely considered as leaving groups, but proline can act as a leaving group when N‐linked to NMPs, so that prolinyl NMPs hydrolyze in aqueous buffer at 37 °C, with half‐life times as short as 2.4 h, and they act as monomers in enzyme‐free primer extension. Still, their level of reactivity is insufficient for practical purposes, requiring months for some extensions. Herein we report the synthesis of eight substituted prolinyl AMPs together with seven related compounds and the results of a study of their reactivity. A δ‐carboxy prolinyl NMP was found to be converted with a half‐life time of just 11 min in magnesium‐free buffer, and a δ‐isopropyl prolinyl NMP was shown to react sevenfold faster than its prolinyl counterpart in enzyme‐free genetic copying of RNA. Our results indicate that both anchimeric and steric effects can be employed to increase the reactivity of aminoacidyl nucleotides, i.e. compounds that combine two fundamental classes of biomolecules in one functional entity. Prolinyl nucleotides with increased reactivity were created by introducing additional substituents to the prolinyl ring. Both alkyl and carboxyl groups increase the rate of nucleotide release and enzyme‐free genetic copying, demonstrating how powerful prolines are as leaving groups.