Deoxyribonucleoside kinases: two enzyme families catalyze the same reaction

Mammals have four deoxyribonucleoside kinases, the cytoplasmic (TK1) and mitochondrial (TK2) thymidine kinases, and the deoxycytidine (dCK) and deoxyguanosine (dGK) kinases, which salvage the precursors for nucleic acids synthesis. In addition to the native deoxyribonucleoside substrates, the kinases can phosphorylate and thereby activate a variety of anti-cancer and antiviral prodrugs. Recently, the crystal structure of human TK1 has been solved and has revealed that enzymes with fundamentally different origins and folds catalyze similar, crucial cellular reactions.