Preparative-scale enzymic synthesis of D-[14C]ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate

A procedure is described to prepare uniformly labelled D-[14C]ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate enzymically from uniformly labelled D-[14C]glucose through the coupled reactions catalysed by hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1), glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.49), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.44) and 5-phosphoribulokinase (EC 2.7.1.19). All reagents utilized in the method are commercially available. The procedure is a reliable preparative-scale method for synthesizing the dibarium salt of D-[14C]ribulose 1,5-biphosphate with a specific radioactivity up to 7 mCi/mmol and a purity near 90%. The final product was free of other 14C-labelled sugars, sugar phosphate esters, Pi and nucleotides.