Nucleotide salvage - Wikipedia Substrates. The nucleotide salvage pathway requires distinct substrates: Pyrimidines. Uridine phosphorylase or pyrimidine-nucleoside phosphorylase substitutes the anomeric-carbon-bonded phosphate of ribose 1-phosphate for the free base uracil, forming the nucleoside uridine. Uridine kinase (aka uridine–cytidine kinase) can then phosphorylate the 5’-carbon of this nucleoside …