Degradation of adenine‐ and hypoxanthine‐nucleotide in the muscle of chill‐stored trawled cod (gadus callarias)

The muscle of trawled cod contains little adenosine 5′‐triphosphate and much inosine 5′‐monophosphate at death. The adenosine 5′‐triphosphate remaining in the muscle is rapidly converted to inosine 5′‐monophosphate during chill storage. This is dephosphorylated to inosine, which is itself cleaved to hypoxanthine and either ribose or ribose 1‐phosphate. The stoicheiometry and nature of the reactions liberating the free base, ribose and the isomeric ribose phosphates are discussed in relation to their technological implications.