Functioning of Purine Salvage Pathways in Escherichia Coli K-12

The increasing amount of data on purine and purine nucleoside metabolism in animals, microorganisms and plants suggest an important role of the purine salvage pathways in cellular metabolism: (i) in the reutilization of breakdown products of nucleic acids, (ii) in the interconversion of nucleotides and (iii) in the utilization of purine analogues in chemotherapy. It is known that not all tissues (cells) are dependent to the same extent on purine salvage pathways, and that they differ greatly with respect to enzymes involved and how the different reactions are regulated.