Nucleotide salvage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A salvage pathway is a pathway in which nucleotides (purine and pyrimidine) are synthesized from intermediates in the degradative pathway for nucleotides.

Salvage pathways are used to recover bases and nucleosides that are formed during degradation of RNA and DNA.

The salvaged bases and nucleosides can then be converted back into nucleotides.

The salvage pathway requires two key substrates:

• Thymidine, a substrate whose enzyme is called Thymidine Kinase, and
• Hypoxathine, a substrate whose enzyme is called Hypoxanthine/Guanine Phosphoribosyl Transferase (hgprt) whose deficiency causes Lesch-Nyhan syndrome

[edit] See also

• Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase

[edit] External links

• "Enzymes in the methionine salvage pathway: structure and function" at brandeis.edu