A novel nuclear-localized protein with special adenylate kinase properties from Caenorhabditis elegans

Zhai, Ruitong; Meng, Geng; Zhao, Yanmei; Liu, Bin; Zhang, Genfa; Zheng, Xiaofeng

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2006.05.074

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Volume 580, Issue 16 , Pages 3811-3817, 10 July 2006

A novel nuclear-localized protein with special adenylate kinase properties from Caenorhabditis elegans

Edited by Ulrike Kutay

Ruitong Zhai
- National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
- R.T. Zhai and G. Meng contributed equally to this work.
Geng Meng
- National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- R.T. Zhai and G. Meng contributed equally to this work.
Yanmei Zhao
- National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Bin Liu
- National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Genfa Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiaofeng Zheng
- National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Corresponding author. Fax: +86 10 62765913.

Received 21 April 2006; received in revised form 29 May 2006; accepted 31 May 2006. published online 12 June 2006.

Abstract

The adrenal gland protein AD-004 like protein (ADLP) from Caenorhabditis elegans was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Enzyme assays showed that ADLP has special adenylate kinase (AK) properties, with ATP and dATP as the preferred phosphate donors. In contrast to all other AK isoforms, AMP and dAMP were the preferred substrates of ADLP; CMP, TMP and shikimate acid were also good substrates. Subcellular localization studies showed a predominant nuclear localization for this protein, which is different from AK1–AK5, but similar to that of human AK6. These results suggest that ADLP is more likely a member of the AK6 family. Furthermore, RNAi experiments targeting ADLP were conducted and showed that RNAi treatment resulted in the suppression of worm growth.

Keywords: AD-004 like protein, Adenylate kinase activity, Nuclear localization, RNAi, Caenorhabditis elegans