Purine Uptake and Utilization by the Avian Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Lophurae

University of California Riverside, 1971-01-01. Hardcover. Good. 1971 University of California Riverside (Riverside, California), 8 1/2 x 11 inches tall green faux leather hardcover, no dust jacket (as issued), gilt lettering to front cover and spine, printed only on the recto side of each leaf, ix, 76 pp. Slight to moderate soiling, rubbing and edgewear to covers, with very slight bumping to tips. Otherwise, apart from very slight age toning, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - of this scarce master's thesis. ~WW~ [2.5P] Plasmodium lophurae cannot carry out extensive de novo purine biosynthesis, and depends upon the host erythrocyte for a supply of preformed purines. Exogenous purines taken up by the parasitized erythrocyte may constitute a major source of preformed purines for parasite nucleotide biosynthesis. The uptake of exogenous radioactive purine compounds and their incorporation into nucleic acids by duck erythrocytes parasitized with P. lophurae, uninfected erythrocytes, and erythrocyte-free parasites were studied. P. lophurae was found to have a remarkable ability, both intracellularly and extracellularly, to take up and utilize certain exogenous purines such as adenosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine. Incorporation studies indicated that this species has a functional purine salvage pathway by which inosine, hypoxanthine, and adenosine can be converted to both adenine and guanine nucleotides.