title: Thymidine kinases in archaea.
abstract: Twenty-six fully sequenced archaeal genomes were searched for genes coding for putative deoxyribonucleoside kinases (dNKs). We identified only 5 human-like thymidine kinase 1 genes (TK1s) and none for non-TK1 kinases. Four TK1s were identified in the Euryarchaea and one was found in the Crenarchaea, while none was found in Nanoarchaeum. The identified TK1s have high identity to Gram-positive bacteria TK1s. The TK1s from archaea, Gram-positive bacteria and eukaryotes share the same common ancestor, while the TK1s from Gram-negative bacteria belong to a less-related subgroup. It seems that a functional deoxyribonucleoside salvage pathway is not crucial for the archaeal cell.
authors.affiliation: Cell and Organism Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Clausen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matakos
authors.forename: M P B
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Sandrini
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piskur
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001105:Archaea / Q000201:enzymology*; D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / Q000737:chemistry; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor); C020018:deoxyribonucleoside kinases; D013937:Thymidine Kinase