A new class of adenylate kinase in methanogens is related to uridylate kinase.

The protein derived from the Methanocaldococcus jannaschii MJ0458 gene is annotated as a δ-1-pyrroline 5-carboxylate synthetase and is predicted to be related to aspartokinase and uridylate kinase. Analysis of the predicted protein sequence indicated that it is a unique kinase with few similarities to either uridylate or adenylate kinase. Here, we report that the MJ0458 gene product is a second type of archaeal adenylate kinase, AdkB. This enzyme is different from the established archaeal-specific adenylate kinase in both sequence and predicted tertiary structure.