Glycerol 2-phosphate is the conjugate base of
phosphoric ester of
glycerol
Glycerol () is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting, viscous liquid. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known as glycerides. It is also widely used as a sweetener in the food industry and as a humectant in pha ...
. It is commonly known as β-glycerophosphate or BGP. Unlike
glycerol 1-phosphate and
glycerol 3-phosphate
''sn''-Glycerol 3-phosphate is the organic ion with the formula HOCH2CH(OH)CH2OPO32-. It is one of two stereoisomers of the ester of dibasic phosphoric acid (HOPO32-) and glycerol. It is a component of bacterial and eukaryotic glycerophospholi ...
, this isomer is not chiral. It is also less common.
Applications
β-Glycerophosphate is an inhibitor of the
enzyme
An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
serine/threonine phosphatase. It is often used in combination with other phosphatase/protease inhibitors for broad spectrum inhibition.
Although previously presumed to be non-transportable and reliant on extracellular phosphatases such as
alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) for utilization, recent research indicates that ''
Escherichia coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...
'' can use β-Glycerophosphate as a sole phosphorus source in the absence of PhoA, relying on the Ugp transporter system encoded by the ugpBAECQ operon.
β-Glycerophosphate is also used to drive osteogenic
differentiation of
bone marrow stem cells ''
in vitro
''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...
''.
β-Glycerophosphate is used to buffer
M17 media for ''
Lactococcus
''Lactococcus'', from Latin 'lac', meaning "milk", and Ancient Greek κόκκος (''kókkos''), meaning "sphere", is a genus of lactic acid bacteria that were formerly included in the genus ''Streptococcus'' Group N1. They are known as homoferme ...
''
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
in
recombinant protein expression.
Formation
Glycerol 2-phosphate (G2P) can be formed through abiotic phosphorylation under prebiotic conditions, as demonstrated in laboratory simulations of early Earth environments.
In the presence of urea and heat, glycerol and phosphate undergo regioselective phosphorylation, favoring the 2-position to yield G2P.
This process suggests a plausible prebiotic pathway for the synthesis of key metabolic intermediates like G2P, which may have contributed to the origin of biological phospholipid synthesis prior to enzymatic catalysis.
Notes
Organophosphates
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