Isolation of a novel protein, P12-from adult Drosophila melanogaster that inhibits deoxyribonucleoside and protein kinase activities and activates 3'-5'- exonuclease activity.

We have previously found that Drosophila melanogaster only has one deoxyribonucleoside kinase, Dm-dNK, however, capable to phosphorylate all four natural deoxyribonucleosides. Dm-dNK was originally isolated from an embryonic cell line. We wanted to study the expression of Dm-dNK during development from embryonic cells to adult flies and found declining Dm-dNK activity during development and no activity in adult flies. Surprisingly, the extract from adult flies exhibited a strong inhibitory effect on deoxyribonucloside kinase activity. The dNK-inhibitor was precipitable with ammonium sulfate, and was purified to a high degree by gel-filtration as indicated by LC-MS/MS analysis. Since the inhibitor eluted from G-200 gel-filtration with a size of 10-13 kDa, we named it P12. We tested the purified fraction for specificity towards various enzymes and found that both mammalian and bacterial dNKs were inhibited, whereas there was no effect on hexokinase and pyruvate kinases and acidic phosphatase. However, when tested against cyclin B-dependent kinase, we found a strong inhibitory effect. Both with human Cdk1/CycB and S. pombe Cdc2/B-type cyclin the purified fraction from Superdex 200 that inhibited Dm-dNK, also inhibited the two protein kinases to the same degree. Furthermore, testing P12 in a DNA polymerase based assay we found that the 3'-5'-exonuclease part of the DNA polymerase (Klenow polymerase) was activated.

Structural basis for the changed substrate specificity of Drosophila melanogaster deoxyribonucleoside kinase mutant N64D.

The Drosophila melanogaster deoxyribonucleoside kinase (Dm-dNK) double mutant N45D/N64D was identified during a previous directed evolution study. This mutant enzyme had a decreased activity towards the natural substrates and decreased feedback inhibition with dTTP, whereas the activity with 3'-modified nucleoside analogs like 3'-azidothymidine (AZT) was nearly unchanged. Here, we identify the mutation N64D as being responsible for these changes. Furthermore, we crystallized the mutant enzyme in the presence of one of its substrates, thymidine, and the feedback inhibitor, dTTP. The introduction of the charged Asp residue appears to destabilize the LID region (residues 167-176) of the enzyme by electrostatic repulsion and no hydrogen bond to the 3'-OH is made in the substrate complex by Glu172 of the LID region. This provides a binding space for more bulky 3'-substituents like the azido group in AZT but influences negatively the interactions between Dm-dNK, substrates and feedback inhibitors based on deoxyribose. The detailed picture of the structure-function relationship provides an improved background for future development of novel mutant suicide genes for Dm-dNK-mediated gene therapy.

Effect of valine 106 on structure-function relation of cytosolic human thymidine kinase. Kinetic properties and oligomerization pattern of nine substitution mutants of V106.

Information on the regulation and structure-function relation of enzymes involved in DNA precursor synthesis is pivotal, as defects in several of these enzymes have been found to cause depletion or deletion of mitochondrial DNA resulting in severe diseases. Here, the effect of amino acid 106 on the enzymatic properties of the cell-cycle-regulated human cytosolic thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is investigated. On the basis of the previously observed profound differences between recombinant TK1 with Val106 (V106WT) and Met106 (V106M) in catalytic activity and oligomerization pattern, we designed and characterized nine mutants of amino acid 106 differing in size, conformation and polarity. According to their oligomerization pattern and thymidine kinetics, the TK1 mutants can be divided into two groups. Group I (V106A, V106I and V106T) behaves like V106WT, in that pre-assay exposure to ATP induces reversible transition from a dimer with low catalytic activity to a tetramer with high catalytic activity. Group II (V106G, V106H, V106K, V106L and V106Q) behaves like V106M in that they are permanently high activity tetramers, irrespective of ATP exposure. We conclude that size and conformation of amino acid 106 are more important than polarity for the catalytic activity and oligomerization of TK1. The role of amino acid 106 and the sequence surrounding it for dimer-tetramer transition was confirmed by cloning the putative interface fragment of human TK1 and investigating its oligomerization pattern.

Genetic organization of the Vibrio harveyi DnaA gene region and analysis of the function of the V. harveyi DnaA protein in Escherichia coli.

The Vibrionaceae family is distantly related to Enterobacteriaceae within the group of bacteria possessing the Dam methylase system. We have cloned, sequenced, and analyzed the dnaA gene region of Vibrio harveyi and found that although the organization of the V. harveyi dnaA region differs from that of Escherichia coli, the expression of both genes is autoregulated and ATP-DnaA binds cooperatively to ATP-DnaA boxes in the dnaA promoter region. The DnaA proteins of V. harveyi and E. coli are interchangeable and function nearly identically in controlling dnaA transcription and the initiation of chromosomal DNA replication despite the evolutionary distance between these bacteria.