Abstract
Thymidine kinases (TKs) appear to be almost ubiquitous and are found in nearly all prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and several viruses. They are the key enzymes in thymidine salvage and activation of several anti-cancer and antiviral drugs. We show that bacterial TKs can be subdivided into 2 groups. The TKs from Gram-positive bacteria are more closely related to the eukaryotic TK1 enzymes than are TKs from Gram-negative bacteria.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Bacteria / enzymology*
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Evolution, Molecular
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Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
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Humans
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Models, Molecular
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Nucleosides / chemistry
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Open Reading Frames
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Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / biosynthesis*
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Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / chemistry
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Phylogeny
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Pyrimidines / chemistry
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Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
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Species Specificity
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Thymidine Kinase / biosynthesis*
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Thymidine Kinase / chemistry
Substances
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Nucleosides
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Pyrimidines
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Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor)
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deoxyribonucleoside kinases
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Thymidine Kinase