This gene encodes a phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase that plays a central role in the synthesis of purines and pyrimidines. The encoded protein catalyzes the synthesis of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate from ATP and D-ribose 5-phosphate. Alternate splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Mar 2010]
Forensic Context
A study in multiple species including *Homo sapiens*, *Drosophila melanogaster*, *Caenorhabditis elegans*, *Saccharomyces cerevisiae*, *Bacillus subtilis*, and *Escherichia coli* demonstrated that mRNA secondary structure stability, measured by minimum and mean folding free energy (ΔGmin and ΔGmean), positively correlates with protein compactness, measured by solvent accessibility (ACC), with stronger correlations in prokaryotes and in predicted ordered protein regions [Guilhem Faure et al. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkw671].