Design and synthesis of 4-azido-phosphatidylinositol as a potential probe for metabolic engineering of glycosylphosphatidylinositol on cells.

A diacyl phosphatidylinositol (PI) derivative with an azide linked to its inositol C4-position was effectively synthesized in 19 steps for the longest linear sequence and in a ca . 1% overall yield from 1,2-distearoyl- sn -glycerol and D-glucose. This compound was designed as a biosynthetic precursor of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors. Its azide would enable further modification to introduce other molecular tags by biocompatible click reaction. Therefore, it can be a useful probe for metabolic engineering of cell surface GPI anchors and GPI-anchored proteins.