Purine metabolism in vertebrate blood cells

Abstract

1. 1. Nucleated red blood cells from birds, reptiles and amphibians were shown to have little or no capacity to incorporate [ 14C]glycine into adenine and guanine. [ 14C]4-Amino-5-imidazole carboxamide was incorporated into these purines indicating that part of the purine biosynthetic pathway is functional in the nucleated cells. 2. 2. Mature mammalian red cells and other cells with a limited ability for purine synthesis de novo rely on the purine phosphoribosyltransferases for the utilization of performed purines to satisfy their requirements for these compounds. Hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.6) was shown to be present in all vertebrate red cells indicating that nucleated red cells may also utilize this mechanism.