title: Evidence of an intact N-terminal translocation sequence of human mitochondrial adenylate kinase 4.
abstract: Adenylate kinases are abundant nucleoside monophosphate kinases, which catalyze the phosphorylation of AMP by using ATP or GTP as phosphate donors. A previously cloned cDNA was named adenylate kinase 4 (AK4) based on its sequence similarity with known AKs but with no confirmed AK enzyme activity. In the present study the AK4 cDNA was expressed in Escherichia coli and the substrate specificity and kinetic properties of the recombinant protein were characterized. The enzyme catalyzed the phosphorylation of AMP, dAMP, CMP and dCMP with ATP or GTP as phosphate donors and AK4 also phosphorylated AMP with UTP as phosphate donor. The kinetic parameters of the enzyme were determined for AMP and dAMP with ATP as phosphate donor and for AMP with GTP as phosphate donor. AK4 showed its highest efficiency when phosphorylating AMP with GTP and a slightly lower efficiency for the phosphorylation of AMP with ATP. Among the three reactions for which kinetics were performed, dAMP was the poorest substrate. The AK4 mitochondrial localization was confirmed by expression of AK4 as a fusion protein with GFP in HeLa cells. The mitochondrial import sequence was shown to be located within the first N-terminal 11 amino acid residues, very close to the ATP-binding region of the enzyme. Import analysis suggested that the mitochondrial import sequence was not cleaved and thus the enzyme retained its activity upon entering the mitochondria. Site directed mutagenesis of amino acids Lys 4 and Arg 7 showed that these two residues were essential for mitochondrial import.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute, F68, S-141 86 Huddinge, Sweden. Christakis.Panayiotou@ki.se
authors.forename: Christakis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Panayiotou
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Solaroli
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karlsson
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000263:Adenylate Kinase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D051379:Mice; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000201:enzymology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D021381:Protein Transport; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D000263:Adenylate Kinase