Synthesis of Deoxyribose in Animal Tissues

Abstract

POSSIBLE routes for the synthesis of ribose and deoxyribose may be either by degradation of a higher carbon compound, such as a hexose, or by condensation of two lower carbon compounds, for example, a triose combining with a compound containing two carbon atoms. As regards the first possibility, Dickens¹, Cohen and Scott², and Horecker, Smyrniotis and Seegmiller³ have produced evidence that ribose-5-phosphate is an intermediary in the direct oxidation of glucose-6-phosphate by enzymes present in yeast, and more recently similar results have been obtained using extracts of animal tissues⁴. It is uncertain as yet to what extent this pathway is responsible for the synthesis of pentoses in tissues, and there is little evidence to suggest that it is applicable to deoxyribose. Evidence for the second possibility—the condensation of a triose with a two-carbon compound—has been produced by Racker⁵, who demonstrated that bacterial extracts formed deoxyribose phosphate in the presence of glyceraldehyde phosphate and acetaldehyde.