Guanosine monophosphate 2026-11-05
Guanosine monophosphate, conventionally GMP in biochemical contexts, is the 5′-monophosphate of guanosine. It combines the nucleobase guanine, the sugar ribose and one phosphate group, making it a purine ribonucleotide. The named position matters: it specifies where the phosphate is attached.[ref]
The related names encode different chemical distinctions. Guanine is the base; guanosine adds the ribose; guanosine monophosphate adds phosphate. Cyclic guanosine monophosphate instead has a cyclic phosphate linkage, while guanosine diphosphate and guanosine triphosphate contain two and three phosphate groups. Similar abbreviations do not make them interchangeable molecular signals.
GMP is a substrate in nucleotide metabolism. Guanylate kinase catalyzes
The phosphate inventory is conserved: . In an idealized closed mixture initially containing of ATP and of GMP, at most can proceed through the forward reaction before GMP is exhausted, absent other reactions. This is a stoichiometric upper bound rather than an equilibrium prediction.[ref]
The yeast study isolated and characterized the guanylate kinase gene using sequence information from the enzyme. It connects a chemically defined substrate to an experimentally identifiable molecular catalyst; it does not mean that a gene sequence alone measures the amount of GMP present in a cell.[ref]
Guanylate kinase 2026-11-05
Guanylate kinase is an enzyme that transfers a phosphoryl group from ATP to guanosine monophosphate, producing ADP and guanosine diphosphate:
Its official classification is EC 2.7.4.8. The enzyme can also use the corresponding deoxy-nucleotide acceptor and deoxy-ATP donor.[ref]
A constructed mixture containing ATP and guanosine monophosphate, initially without products, permits at most of each product through the forward reaction. At least ATP remains if no other reactions consume it. Per turnover, the phosphate inventory is conserved: .
This ceiling concerns stoichiometry. Reversible chemical equilibrium, substrate concentrations and assay conditions determine the actual conversion; the inventory alone does not specify an enzyme rate.
In 1992, M. Konrad isolated and characterized the yeast GUK1 gene encoding guanylate kinase, connecting a chemically defined activity with a molecularly identifiable catalyst.[ref] The kinase reaction should also be distinguished from guanylate cyclase, which converts GTP to a cyclic nucleotide rather than transferring ATP's terminal phosphoryl group to GMP.
GUK1 2026-11-05
GUK1 is the symbol for a gene encoding guanylate kinase. In the human annotation, GUK1 is the protein-coding gene named guanylate kinase 1, identified by NCBI GeneID2987. The gene is a DNA locus; the encoded enzyme catalyses chemistry after its expression.[ref]
The enzyme transfers a phosphoryl group between ATP and guanosine monophosphate, giving ADP and guanosine diphosphate. A compact biochemical notation is
Phosphorus bookkeeping gives . The equation describes the protein's activity, not a chemical reaction performed directly by the DNA.
A 1992 study cloned and characterized the yeast gene for guanylate kinase, connecting an inherited sequence with a measured enzyme activity.[ref] The organism must be stated when identifying a gene: the same functional symbol in yeast and humans does not mean that both organisms carry one identical DNA sequence. Likewise, a change in transcript abundance is not by itself a measurement of catalytic rate.
M. Konrad 2026-11-05
M. Konrad authored a 1992 study isolating and characterizing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene for guanylate kinase. The enzyme transfers a terminal phosphoryl group from ATP to guanosine monophosphate, producing ADP and guanosine diphosphate in a reversible reaction.[ref]
Disrupting the gene caused recessive lethality, supporting its necessity for vegetative growth under the tested conditions. Inducible gene expression also produced large quantities of guanylate kinase in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli.[ref]
These interventions addressed complementary questions. Loss of function tested whether the native system could grow without the gene's contribution; increased expression made the protein available for biochemical measurements. The ability to express a protein abundantly does not by itself establish that the corresponding gene is essential.