Structural characterization of CA1462, the Candida albicans thiamine pyrophosphokinase.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In search of new antifungal targets of potential interest for pharmaceutical companies, we initiated a comparative genomics study to identify the most promising protein-coding genes in fungal genomes. One criterion was the protein sequence conservation between reference pathogenic genomes. A second criterion was that the corresponding gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae should be essential. Since thiamine pyrophosphate is an essential product involved in a variety of metabolic pathways, proteins responsible for its production satisfied these two criteria.

Results

We report the enzymatic characterization and the crystallographic structure of the Candida albicans Thiamine pyrophosphokinase. The protein was co-crystallized with thiamine or thiamine-PNP.

Conclusion

SUBMITTER: Santini S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2515308 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature