Investigation of the Substrate Recognition of Drosophila melanogaster Nucleoside Kinase by Site Directed Mutagenesis

The deoxyribonucleoside kinase of Drosophila melanogaster (Dm‐dNK) has a broad substrate specificity and a higher catalytic rate than other known deoxyribonucleoside kinases. Therefore it is a natural candidate for possible use as a suicide gene in combined gene/chemotherapy of cancer. We have performed site directed mutagenesis and tested different truncated forms of the enzyme in order to increase the affinity for ganciclovir.