What is Cytidine Monophosphate?

Cytidine monophosphate is nucleotide and can be written as C₉H₁₄N₃O₈P and these nucleotides comprises of 3 parts; phosphate group, sugar of 5C and a nucleobase.

Sugar can be either ribose or deoxyribose. DNA is made from the deoxyribose sugar and RNA from ribose sugar. The components of nucleic acids are the nucleotides.

The nucleic acid backbone is formed from phosphate and the sugar molecule and the synthesis takes place in 5’-3’ direction, although the two strands run in the opposite direction, so that they can bond with each other due to complementary bases.

Nucleotides can be linear as well as in cyclic form, where the phosphate group is bounded to the hydroxyl group of sugar. Phosphate group and nucleotide forms nucleoside.

Thus, to the sugar molecule, when a single phosphate group is attached it is called as nucleoside monophosphate and when two phosphate groups, it is called as nucleoside diphosphate and similarly when 3, it is called as nucleoside triphosphate.

Nucleoside can be deoxyribonucleoside or ribonucleoside. On the basis of pentose sugar, thus ribonucleoside consists of ribose sugar with nucleoside and these nucleosides can be adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.

Similarly, deoxyribonucleoside may have nucleosides like adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, in which adenine pairs with thymine and cytosine with guanine.

Pyrimidine and purine are two types of nucleoside where pyrimidine is single stranded and purine is double stranded.

Cytidine Monophosphate Structure

Cytidine monophosphate is an organic compound which contains ribose sugar, phosphate group, and nucleosides. As cytidine is bound to the ribose sugar, it is a pyrimidine base, with one phosphate molecule attached to the nucleobases.

Cytidine Monophosphate Synthesis

Through de-novo synthesis, CMP can be generated. Pyrimidine like cytosine can be formed through various steps. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase forms carbamoyl phosphate which gets transformed to carbamoyl aspartate and then to dihydroorotate which will further be oxidized to orotate, which interacts with PRPP to form orotidine-5- monophosphate, which is transformed into pyrimidine.

For the synthesis of uridine mono phosphate, from OMP carbon dioxide is removed by OMP decarboxylase. Uridine mono phosphate is phosphorylated to form Uridine di phosphate and similarly triphosphate, which when aminated forms cytidine triphosphate by CTP synthetase.

Cytidine monophosphate is formed when CTP is disintegrated. Breakdown of further CMP results in formation of cytosine and end-products like ammonia, CO₂ and Beta-alanine.

Through salvage pathway cytosine can be re-obtained. Through deamination, cytosine is transformed to uracil and then to uridine with uridine phosphorylase and further with the help of nucleoside kinase, uridine is transformed to UMP.

Cytidine Monophosphate Function

Monomer of RNA is cytidine monophosphate, where CMP is reduced to deoxycytidine monophosphate and phosphorylated to form cytidine diphosphate by CMP kinase and when again phosphorylated it produces cytidine triphosphate.