Hydrolysis and isomerization of the internucleosidic phosphodiester bonds of polyuridylic acid: kinetics and mechanism

The pH–rate profiles for the hydrolysis of the 3′,5′-phosphodiester bonds of poly(U) and their isomerization to the 2′,5′-bonds have been determined by following the progress of the reactions by enzymatic digestion with RNAase A and subsequent RP HPLC. The kinetics observed are compared with those of the hydrolysis and interconversion of uridylyl(3′,5′)uridine and uridylyl(2′,5′)uridine.