Subreddit: r/FoodScience
User: u/magicmushroom21
Original Post:
Do living animals contain inosinate?
It's extremely hard to find information on this. Is inosinate a product of enzymatically broken down ATP or is it already present in living animals?
My Response:
5’-inosinates (I will differentiate these from other inosinates, which are not taste active but there a few others such as 2’ and 3’ positioned inosinates) are the product of death and decomposition. They form when ATP has been exhausted into AMP after losing phosphates. This occurs because dead flesh no longer has the ability to generate new ATP, so all processes that require it continue to extract energy until only one phosphate remains.
Once all that is left is AMP and it reaches a certain concentration threshold, then AMP deaminase will act on the AMP pool and convert it to inosine monophosphate, or inosinate. The delicate balance here is that 5’-nucleotidase needs to be either deactivated or slower than the deaminase, otherwise all the inosinates will be dephosphorylated and converted to inosine.
However, biochemically both adenine and guanine phosphates are constructed from inosinate. It’s involved in a +11 enzyme pathway, so it’s unlikely that inosinate gathers in any significant concentration - the living pool of inosinate would simply be converted to AMP or GMP anyway during purine biosynthesis and metabolism.
Inosinate will also be regularly converted to inosine diphosphate and triphosphate, which will be another pathway that depletes endogenous inosinate stores. Additional competing pathways convert guanylate directly to xanthylate rather than using inosinate as an intermediate.
Are you working on a new food or beverage product? Interested in working with me and my team to get started?
Click on the button below to get in touch and set up a meeting today!