View article

Phosphate ester hydrolysis has challenged biologists and chemists for many years. While attention has focused on phosphate mono-and diesters since these have the best understood biological properties, phosphate triesters are also biologically relevant. The significance of phosphotriesters in biology ranges from their essential role in the adaptive response in E. coli''] to their use as prodrugs for nucleoside analog pharmaceuticals.['. 31 Derivatives of phosphate triesters are used as insecticides and are potent biological warfare agents. This class of compounds includes sarin. isopropyl (methyl) phosphonotluoridate, which was recently used in a deadly bombing in a Japanese subway.["] Although there are phosphotriesterases in nature. their natural substrates are not known.[51