Evidence for N-Terminal Myristoylation of Tetrahymena Arginine Kinase Using Peptide Mass Fingerprinting Analysis

Phosphagen kinases from five groups of eukaryotic protists (Choanomonada, Alveolate, Stramenopiles, Haptophyta, and Cryptophyta): Diverse enzyme activities and phylogenetic relationship with metazoan enzymes

Among 28 groups of eukaryotes, apart from Metazoa, phosphagen kinase (PKs) is distributed in only a few protist groups, including the Choanomonada with the closest affinity to metazoans. To clarify the origin of metazoan PKs, we performed a database search and focused on 11 sequences of PK homologs from five groups of protists: the Choanomonada, Alveolata, Haptophyta, Stramenopiles, and Cryptophyta. The recombinant enzymes were prepared to determine their substrate specificity. Emiliania (Haptophyta), Anophryoides, Pseudocohnilembus, Vitrella and Chromera (Alveolata), and Monosiga (Choanomonada) all contained a gene for arginine kinase (AK). In contrast, Aphanomyces, Albugo and Ectocarpus (Stramenopiles), and Guillardia (Cryptophyta) possessed a gene for taurocyamine kinase (TK). The Guillardia TK enzyme exhibited rather strong substrate inhibition toward taurocyamine, which was analyzed using the most likely kinetic model. This was the first report of substrate inhibition in a TK. Together with the research results from other groups, the AK, TK, or creatine kinase (CK) activities have been observed sporadically in at least six groups of protists. However, it is not clear the three enzyme activities were emerged early in the evolution and divergence of protist groups, or some of enzyme activities were introduced to the protists by horizontal gene transfer. In addition, we found that seven protist enzymes examined in this study possess a myristoylation signaling sequence at the N-terminus. The amino-acid sequence around the guanidine-specificity region and the key residue at 89^th position of the protist AK and CK were homologous to those of the metazoan enzymes, but those for protist TKs were different indicating that the latter evolved independently.