The recruitment of the furanosidic scaffold of ribose as the crucial step for nucleotides and then for nucleic acids synthesis is presented. Based on the view that the selection of molecules to be used for relevant metabolic purposes must favor structurally well-defined molecules, the inadequacy of ribose as a preferential precursor for nucleotides synthesis is discussed. The low reliability of ribose in its furanosidic hemiacetal form must have played ab initio against the choice of d-ribose for the generation of d-ribose-5-phosphate, the fundamental precursor of the ribose moiety of nucleotides. The latter, which is instead generated through the ‘pentose phosphate pathway’ is strictly linked to the affordable and reliable pyranosidic structure of d-glucose.
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Cover Image
Cover Image
The second messenger 3′,5′-cyclic nucleoside adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) plays a key role in signal transduction across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In this issue Klausen and colleagues (1733–1748) provide an overview about the optogenetic tools and biosensors used to explore the subcellular organization of cAMP signalling. The cover image depicts time projection (colour represents time) of a head-tethered transgenic mouse sperm expressing the photo-activated adenylate cyclase bPAC. Image courtesy of Dagmar Wachten.
The furanosidic scaffold of d-ribose: a milestone for cell life
Antonella Del-Corso, Mario Cappiello, Roberta Moschini, Francesco Balestri, Umberto Mura, Piero Luigi Ipata; The furanosidic scaffold of d-ribose: a milestone for cell life. Biochem Soc Trans 20 December 2019; 47 (6): 1931–1940. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20190749
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