Ion-exchange paper chromatography of nucleoside diphosphate sugars and related nucleotides

A new method especially adapted for the characterization of nucleoside diphosphate sugars in mixtures containing nucleoside mono-, di-, and tri-phosphates is described. It is based on ion-exchange chromatography using papers impregnated with polyethyleneimine (PEI). Nucleoside diphosphate sugars are separated from related compounds in 40 to 50 min. Good separations of the four common ribo- and deoxyribo-nucleoside monophosphate are achieved in about 4 hr. Thus homologous compounds are readily separated by this procedure which differ in the purine or pyrimidine component or which differ in the number of moles of phosphate present in the molecule.