Nucleotide salvage

Nucleotide salvage pathways are used to recover bases and nucleosides that are formed during degradation of RNA and DNA.

[1] A number of other biologically-important substances, like methionine and nicotinate, have their own salvage pathways to recycle parts of the molecule.

Phosphoribosyltransferases add activated ribose-5-phosphate (Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate, PRPP) to bases, creating nucleoside monophosphates.

HGPRT is an important enzyme in Purine pathway metabolism and[2] its deficiency is implicated in Lesch–Nyhan syndrome.

[6] Salvage pathways also exist for ceramide, cobalamin, cell wall components, and tetrahydrobiopterin in various organisms.