Synthetic genes for human muscle-type adenylate kinase in Escherichia coli

An artificial gene coding for the human muscle-type cytosolic adenylate kinase (hAK1) was chemically synthesized and directly expressed in Escherichia coli under the control of trp promoter. The DNA duplex of 596 bp was designed and constructed from 40 oligonucleotide fragments of typically 30 nucleotides in length. Twelve unique restriction sites were fairly evenly spaced in the synthetic gene to facilitate site-specific mutagenesis at any part of this recombinant protein. The genes for mutant hAK1 (Tyr 95----Phe 95, Y95F hAK1; Arg 97----Ala 97, R97A hAK1) were constructed by cassette mutagenesis and utilized restriction sites incorporated in the hAK1 gene. The recombinant hAK1 was purified to homogeneity by a two-step chromatographic procedure with a good yield, and showed the same adenylate kinase activity as that of authentic hAK1. Preliminary kinetic studies show that the enzymatic activity (Vmax app,cor/Et) of Y95F hAK1 was slightly greater than that of recombinant hAK1, whereas R97A hAK1 still possessed approximately 4% of recombinant hAK1 activity. These results suggest that the Arg-97 residue is important but not essential for catalytic activity, and that Tyr-95 can be replaced by phenylalanine without substantial effects on the enzymatic activity. Moreover, preliminary estimates of the apparent kinetic parameters suggest that these residues are not required for MgATP binding, and therefore they do not appear to be part of the MgATP binding site.