Pathways of purine ribonucleotide biosynthesis in the adult worm Metastrongylus apri (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea) from pig lung.

The pathways of purine ribonucleotide synthesis and interconversion that are operative in the intact adult pig lung worm Metastrongylus apri were identified by radioisotope tracing. The rate of [14C]glycine incorporation into purines was low but sufficient to demonstrate synthesis de novo. Radioactively labelled adenine, hypoxanthine and guanine were readily taken up and converted to the corresponding mononucleotides. Most of the AMP and GMP formed were phosphorylated to the triphosphates. These two nucleotides were interconvertable by pathways in which IMP is an intermediate. Adenosine was converted to nucleotides by direct phosphorylation as well as via formation of hypoxanthine. The rate of synthesis of adenine nucleotides from hypoxanthine was 5-7 times that of guanine nucleotides; conversion of IMP to AMP and to xanthosine 5'-monophosphate were the rate-limiting steps.