Purine metabolism in Neisseria meningitidis. 2. Utilization of exogenous adenosine, guanosine and inosine.

Whole cells of Neisseria meningitidis are found to utilize exogenous radioactive adenosine with labelling of the adenine, adenosine 5′-monophosphate, adenosine 5′-diphosphate and adenosine 5′-triphosphate pools. Extracts from N. meningitidis were found to have activities corresponding to adenosine nucleosidase (EC 3.2.2.7). No activities corresponding to purinenucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1), adenosine kinase (EC 2.7.1.20) or adenosine deaminase (EC 3.5.4.4) could be demonstrated. Radioactive guanosine or inosine were not found to be utilized by whole cells. A hydrolytic breakdown of guanosine or inosine to guanine and ribose, respectively hypoxanthine and ribose could not be demonstrated in crude extracts. Likewise, the search for activities corresponding to a guanosine kinase or to inosine kinase (EC 2.7.1.73) was altogether negative.