home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ************************************
- * Thymidylate synthase active site *
- ************************************
-
- Thymidylate synthase (EC 2.1.1.45) [1,2] catalyzes the reductive methylation
- of dUMP to dTMP with concomitant conversion of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate
- to dihydrofolate. Thymidylate synthase plays an essential role in DNA
- synthesis and is an important target for certain chemotherapeutic drugs.
-
- Thymidylate synthase is an enzyme of about 30 to 35 Kd in most species except
- in protozoan where it exists as a bifunctional enzyme that includes a
- dihydrofolate reductase domain.
-
- A cysteine residue is involved in the catalytic mechanism (it covalently binds
- the 5,6-dihydro-dUMP intermediate). The sequence around the active site of
- this enzyme is well conserved from phages to vertebrates.
-
- -Consensus pattern: L-x-P-C-[HAV]-x(3)-[QM]-[FYW]-x-V
- [C is the active site residue]
- -Sequences known to belong to this class detected by the pattern: ALL.
- -Other sequence(s) detected in SWISS-PROT: NONE.
-
- -Note: the residue which follows the active site cysteine is an His in all
- sequences, except in that of phage phi-3T where it is Val and in Lactococcus
- lactis where it is Ala.
-
- -Last update: May 1991 / Pattern and text revised.
-
- [ 1] Benkovic S.J.
- Annu. Rev. Biochem. 49:227-251(1980).
- [ 2] Ross P., O'Gara F., Condon S.
- Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 56:2156-2163(1990).
-