Nucleotides are organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules within all life-forms on Earth. Nucleotides are obtained in the diet and are also synthesized from common nutrients by the liver.
Purine is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound that consists of two rings fused together. It is water-soluble. Purine also gives its name to the wider class of molecules, purines, which include substituted purines and their tautomers. They are the most widely occurring nitrogen-containing heterocycles in nature.
Inosine is a nucleoside that is formed when hypoxanthine is attached to a ribose ring (also known as a ribofuranose) via a β-N9-glycosidic bond. It was discovered in 1965 in analysis of RNA transferase. Inosine is commonly found in tRNAs and is essential for proper translation of the genetic code in wobble base pairs.
In biochemistry, a ribonucleotide is a nucleotide containing ribose as its pentose component. It is considered a molecular precursor of nucleic acids. Nucleotides are the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA. Ribonucleotides themselves are basic monomeric building blocks for RNA. Deoxyribonucleotides, formed by reducing ribonucleotides with the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), are essential building blocks for DNA. There are several differences between DNA deoxyribonucleotides and RNA ribonucleotides. Successive nucleotides are linked together via phosphodiester bonds.
Inosinic acid or inosine monophosphate (IMP) is a nucleotide. Widely used as a flavor enhancer, it is typically obtained from chicken byproducts or other meat industry waste. Inosinic acid is important in metabolism. It is the ribonucleotide of hypoxanthine and the first nucleotide formed during the synthesis of purine nucleotides. It can also be formed by the deamination of adenosine monophosphate by AMP deaminase. It can be hydrolysed to inosine.
A nucleotidase is a hydrolytic enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of a nucleotide into a nucleoside and a phosphate.
Nucleic acid metabolism is a collective term that refers to the variety of chemical reactions by which nucleic acids are either synthesized or degraded. Nucleic acids are polymers made up of a variety of monomers called nucleotides. Nucleotide synthesis is an anabolic mechanism generally involving the chemical reaction of phosphate, pentose sugar, and a nitrogenous base. Degradation of nucleic acids is a catabolic reaction and the resulting parts of the nucleotides or nucleobases can be salvaged to recreate new nucleotides. Both synthesis and degradation reactions require multiple enzymes to facilitate the event. Defects or deficiencies in these enzymes can lead to a variety of diseases.
Purine metabolism refers to the metabolic pathways to synthesize and break down purines that are present in many organisms.
Xanthosine monophosphate (xanthylate) is an intermediate in purine metabolism. It is a ribonucleoside monophosphate. It is formed from IMP via the action of IMP dehydrogenase, and it forms GMP via the action of GMP synthase. Also, XMP can be released from XTP by enzyme deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase containing (d)XTPase activity.
Guanosine monophosphate synthetase, also known as GMPS is an enzyme that converts xanthosine monophosphate to guanosine monophosphate.
GMP reductase EC 1.7.1.7 is an enzyme that catalyzes the irreversible and NADPH-dependent reductive deamination of GMP into IMP.
Adenylosuccinate is an intermediate in the interconversion of purine nucleotides inosine monophosphate (IMP) and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). The enzyme adenylosuccinate synthase carries out the reaction by the addition of aspartate to IMP and requires the input of energy from a phosphoanhydride bond in the form of guanosine triphosphate (GTP). GTP is used instead of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), so the reaction is not dependent on its products.
Bifunctional purine biosynthesis protein PURH is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ATIC gene.
Xanthosine 5'-triphosphate (XTP) is a nucleotide that is not produced by - and has no known function in - living cells. Uses of XTP are, in general, limited to experimental procedures on enzymes that bind other nucleotides. Deamination of purine bases can result in accumulation of such nucleotides as ITP, dITP, XTP, and dXTP.
In enzymology, a nucleoside-triphosphate diphosphatase (EC 3.6.1.19) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
In enzymology, an adenosine-phosphate deaminase (EC 3.5.4.17) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
Inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ITPA gene, by the rdgB gene in bacteria E.coli and the HAM1 gene in yeast S. cerevisiae; the protein is also encoded by some RNA viruses of the Potyviridae family. Two transcript variants encoding two different isoforms have been found for this gene. Also, at least two other transcript variants have been identified which are probably regulatory rather than protein-coding.
Inosine-5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a purine biosynthetic enzyme that catalyzes the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent oxidation of inosine monophosphate (IMP) to xanthosine monophosphate (XMP), the first committed and rate-limiting step towards the de novo biosynthesis of guanine nucleotides from IMP. IMPDH is a regulator of the intracellular guanine nucleotide pool, and is therefore important for DNA and RNA synthesis, signal transduction, energy transfer, glycoprotein synthesis, as well as other process that are involved in cellular proliferation.
Xanthosine is a nucleoside derived from xanthine and ribose. It is the biosynthetic precursor to 7-methylxanthosine by the action of 7-methylxanthosine synthase. 7-Methylxanthosine in turn is the precursor to theobromine, which in turn is the precursor to caffeine, the alkaloid in coffee and tea.
Inosine triphosphate (ITP) is an intermediate in the purine metabolism pathway, seen in the synthesis of ATP and GTP. It comprises an inosine nucleotide containing three phosphate groups esterified to the sugar moiety.
