Metabolic functions of microbial nucleoside diphosphate kinases

This article summarizes research from our laboratory on two aspects of the biochemistry of nucleoside diphosphate kinase from Escherichia coli--first, its interactions with several T4 bacteriophage-coded enzymes, as part of a multienzyme complex for deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate biosynthesis. We identify some of the specific interactions and discuss whether the complex is linked physically or functionally with the T4 DNA replication machinery, or replisome. Second, we discuss phenotypes of an E. coli mutant strain carrying a targeted deletion of ndk, the structural gene for nucleoside diphosphate kinase. How do bacteria lacking this essential housekeeping enzyme synthesize nucleoside triphosphates? In view of the specific interactions of nucleoside diphosphate kinase with T4 enzymes of DNA metabolism, how does T4 multiply after infection of this host? Finally, the ndk disruption strain has highly biased nucleoside triphosphate pools, including elevations of the CTP and dCTP pools of 7- and 23-fold, respectively. Accompanied by these biased nucleotide pools is a strong mutator phenotype. What is the biochemical basis for the pool abnormalities and what are the mutagenic mechanisms? We conclude with brief references to related work in other laboratories.