Proceedings Article | 10 February 2004
KEYWORDS: Crystals, Analog electronics, Carbon, Nitrogen, X-rays, Solids, Chemical analysis, Molecules, Crystallography, Crystal optics
Urazole (1,2,4-triazolidine-3,5-dione) (1), 4-methylurazole (12), and its carbon analog, 4,4-dimethylpyrazolidine-3,5-dione (18), react with 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2-deoxy-D-erythro-pentose; 6) in an aqueous solution at room temperature in a regioselective manner (a single substitution on a hydrazidic nitrogen, no reaction on the imide nitrogen) to give a mixture of four nucleosides. These are α and β pyranosides (p) and α and β furanosides (f). The α p forms in a stereoselective manner. A crystalline precipitate is formed in each of the above reactions, which is an exclusive enantiospecific product, 1R, 2R α p. 1 with 2-deoxy-L-ribose (10) gives a precipitate with the exclusive 1S, 2S α p stereochemistry. With 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-deoxy-D-arabino-hexose; 7) the reaction with 1 is stereospecific, since only one isomer, β p, forms in the solution. Causes of enhanced reactivity of 1 with sugars were also studied. It was found that cyclic hydrazide analogs of 1, such as 12 and 18, are reactive, but open-chain analogs, 1,2,-diacetylhydrazine (21) and 1,2-dicarbethoxyhydrazine (22), are not. Although this reactivity assessment was done qualitatively and under restrictive reaction conditions, it still may be valuable for understanding α -effect of hydrazide nucleophiles. The prebiotic significance of our results is discussed.
