Gas chromatography of sugar phosphates and sugar nucleotides

Glucose 6-phosphate, various aldose 1-phosphates, and their corresponding sugar nucleotides have been converted into trimethylsilyl ethers and gas chromatographed. Glucose 6-phosphate separates into α- and β-isomers and can be recovered intact on a preparative scale from the column effluent after spontaneous hydrolysis of the ether linkages. The aldose 1-phosphates and sugar nucleotides are not recoverable intact from the column but lose phosphoric acid and nucleoside diphosphate, respectively, to yield the TMS ether of the sugar anhydride. Since the anhydride patterns are reproducibly characteristic, mixtures of nucleotides can be easily separated and their sugar components identified.