Several Polyphosphate Kinase 2 Enzymes Catalyse the Production of Adenosine 5'-Polyphosphates

Polyphosphate kinases (PPKs) are involved in many metabolic processes; enzymes of the second family (PPK2) are responsible for nucleotide synthesis fuelled by the consumption of inorganic polyphosphate. They catalyse the phosphorylation of nucleotides with various numbers of phosphate residues, such as monophosphates or diphosphates. Hence, these enzymes are promising candidates for cofactor regeneration systems. Besides adenosine 5'-triphosphate, PPK2s also catalyse the synthesis of highly phosphorylated nucleotides in vitro, as shown here for adenosine 5'-tetraphosphate and adenosine 5'-pentaphosphate. These unusually phosphorylated adenosine 5'-polyphosphates add up to 50 % of the whole adenosine nucleotides in the assay. The two new products were chemically synthesised to serve as standards and compared with the two enzymatically produced compounds by high-performance ion chromatography and ³¹ P NMR analysis. This study shows that PPK2s are highly suitable for biocatalytic synthesis of different phosphorylated nucleotides.