Regulation of de novo purine synthesis in chick liver slices. Role of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate availability and of salvage purine nucleotide synthesis.

The differences between the uricotelic chick and the ureotelic rat, in the regulation of purine synthesis de novo, were studied in intact liver tissue. Chick liver, in comparison with rat liver, was found to contain a high activity of purine synthesis de novo, a high content and availability of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PP-rib-P), comparable activity of PP-rib-P synthetase, and low activity of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) and of adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT). The results suggest that the intensive activity of the pathway of purine synthesis de novo in the chick liver is mediated by the high PP-rib-P concentration, which may be due at least in part to the relative partial deficiency of HGPRT.