Synthesis of new fluorescently labeled glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors

Abstract The borondipyrromethene (BODIPY) labeled new glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) molecules were synthesized as cellular probes to study the chemical basis of microdomain organization of GPI-anchored proteins and cholesterol in plasma membrane. The synthesis enabled by a new stereo-selective glycosylation of myo - d -inositol acceptor led to the preparation of optically pure glucosaminyl-(1-6)-α-phosphatidyl- myo - d -inositol and its unnatural stereoisomer.