In vitro assessment of salvage pathways for pyrimidine bases in rat liver and brain.

In this paper we extend our previous observation on the mobilization of the ribose moiety from guanosine to xanthine catalyzed by rat liver extracts (Giorgelli et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1335 (1997) 16-22). The data show that in rat liver and brain extracts the activated ribose, stemming from inosine and guanosine phosphorolysis as ribose 1-phosphate, can be used to salvage uracil to uracil nucleotides. Uridine is an intermediate. The salvage process occurs even in the presence of excess inorganic phosphate suggesting that uridine phosphorylase may function in vivo as an anabolic enzyme. Ribose 5-phosphate cannot substitute for inosine, guanosine or ribose 1-phosphate as ribose donor. When inorganic phosphate was substituted with arsenate, hindering the formation of ribose 1-phosphate, no ribose transfer could be observed. A similar pathway occurs at the deoxy level. The deoxyribose moiety of deoxyinosine can be used to salvage thymine to thymine nucleotides, again in the presence of excess inorganic phosphate. Our results introduce a novel aspect of the salvage pathway, in which ribose 1-phosphate seems to play a pivotal role.

Recycling of alpha-D-ribose 1-phosphate for nucleoside interconversion.

Mobilization of the ribose moiety and of the amino group of guanosine may be realized in rat liver extract by the concerted action of purine nucleoside phosphorylase and guanase. Ribose 1-phosphate formed from guanosine through the action of purine nucleoside phosphorylase acts as ribose donor in the synthesis of xanthosine catalyzed by the same enzyme. The presence of guanase, which irreversibly converts guanine to xanthine, affects the overall process of guanosine transformation. As a result of this purine pathway, guanosine is converted into xanthosine, thus overcoming the lack of guanosine deaminase in mammals. Furthermore, in rat liver extract the activated ribose moiety stemming from the catabolism of purine nucleosides can be transferred to uracil and, in the presence of ATP, used for the synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides; therefore, purine nucleosides can act as ribose donors for the salvage of pyrimidine bases.

Occurrence of inosine kinase as a distinct enzyme in Spirulina platensis.

Among a series of purine nucleosides, inosine was found to be phosphorylated at the highest rate by crude extracts of the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis. The inosine phosphorylating activity could be separated from hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase. This result shows that IMP formation may occur via the direct phosphorylation of inosine at its 5'-position, rather than via inosine phosphorolysis, followed by hypoxanthine phosphoribosylation, and provides unequivocal evidence for the occurrence of inosine kinase in nature.

The bifunctional cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase: regulation of the phosphotransferase and nucleotidase activities.

The cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase specific for IMP, GMP, and their deoxyderivatives has been purified approximately 1000 times from calf thymus. The enzyme, in the presence of a suitable nucleoside, can act as a phosphotransferase, catalyzing the transfer of the phosphate moiety from a nucleoside monophosphate donor to a nucleoside acceptor, thus operating as an interconverting activity. This phosphorylating activity has drawn the attention of several research groups because the cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase represents the only cellular enzyme able to phosphorylate inosine and guanosine analogs, which are not substrates of known cellular nucleoside kinases. In this paper, we report the kinetic parameters of the bifunctional enzyme and its response to variations in adenylate energy charge. The results seem to indicate that in the presence of physiological concentrations of ATP and phosphate, the enzyme behaves mainly as a phosphotransferase, its activity being dependent only on the availability of a suitable nucleoside.