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Purine Ring
    * Purine Ring
    • N9 (from glutamine hydrolysis) (with the ribose-5-phosphate attached).
    • C4, C5, N7 (from Glycine)
    • C8 (from THF)
    • N3 (from glutamine hydrolysis)
    • C6 (from CO2)
    • N1 (from Aspartate)
    • C2 (from THF)
    • Double bonds between C8 and N7, C4 and C5, and C2 and N3.
    • C6 carbon is double-bonded to oxygen.
  • The bases are: adenine and guanine
  • The ribonucleosides (meaning the sugars + bases) are: adenosine and guanosine
  • The ribonucleotides (meaning the sugars + bases + 5'-monophosphates) are: adenylate (AMP) and guanylate (GMP)
  • The diphosphates are: adenosine diphosphate ADP and guanosine diphosphate GDP
  • The triphosphates are: adenosine triphosphate ATP and guanosine triphosphate GTP
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Purine Ring

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