Deoxynucleoside 5′-triphosphate analogues in which the β,γ-bridging oxygen has been replaced with a CXY group are useful chemical probes to investigate DNA polymerase catalytic and base selection mechanisms. A limitation of such probes has been that conventional synthetic methods generate a mixture of diastereomers when the bridging carbon substitution is non-equivalent (X ≠ Y). We report here a general solution to this long-standing problem with four examples of individual β,γ-CXY dNTP diastereomers: (S)- and (R)-β,γ-CHCl dGTP (12a-1, 12a-2) and (S)- and (R)-β,γ-CHF dGTP (12b-1, 12b-2). Central to their preparation was conversion of the achiral parent bisphosphonic acids to P,C-dimorpholinamide derivatives (7) of their (R)-mandelic acid monoesters (6), which provided access to the individual diastereomers 7a-1, 7a-2, 7b-1, and 7b-2 by preparative HPLC. Selective acidic hydrolysis of the P-N bond then afforded the “ portal ” diastereomers 10, which were readily coupled to morpholine-activated dGMP. Removal of the chiral auxiliary by H2 (Pd/C) afforded the four individual diastereomeric nucleotides (12), which were characterized by 31P, 1H and 19F NMR, and by MS. After treatment with Chelex®-100 to remove traces of paramagnetic ions, at pH ~10 the diastereomer pairs 12a and 12b exhibit discrete Pα and Pβ
31P resonances. The more upfield Pα and more downfield Pβ resonances (and also the more upfield 19F NMR resonance in 12b) are assigned to the (R) configuration at the Pβ-CHX-Pγ carbons, based on the absolute configurations of the individual diastereomers as determined by X-ray crystallographic structures of their ternary complexes with DNA-pol β.