A new enzymatic method of selective phosphorylation of nucleosides

The phosphorylation of inosine in the 5'-position to produce inosine-5'-monophosphate (5'-IMP) was studied in a number of microorganisms from our culture collection using pyrophosphate (PPi) as the phosphate source. Although many of the microorganisms screened were able to phosphorylate inosine, phosphotransferase activity specific to the 5'-position was found to be distributed among the bacteria belonging to the family Enterobacteriacea. Morganella morganii NCIMB10466 was selected for further study of 5'-IMP production. When hi. morganii intact cells were taken approximately 0.2 mg/ml wet weight, 6.02 mg/ml (11.4 mM) of 5'-IMP were synthesized from 10 mg/ml (37.3 mM) of inosine and 250 mg/ml (560.0 mM) of tetrasodium pyrophosphate decahydrate in 9 h. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.