Overview
Purine biosynthesis occurs via two key pathways:
De Novo synthesis
- The base, itself, is synthesized from scratch
- from such components as: ATP, key amino acids, N10-formyltetrahydrofolate, CO2).
- Then attached to the activated (phosphorylated) ribose (sugar) to form the desired nucleotide.
Salvage pathway
- The base is reattached to the phosphorylated ribose (ribose phosphate) to form the nucleotide.
Nucleoside vs. Nucleotide
- A nucleoside is a BASE + SUGAR
- A nucleotide is a BASE + SUGAR + PHOSPHATE