Phylogenetic and disruption analyses of aspartate kinase of

Nishida, Hiromi*; Narumi, Issei

The radioresistant bacterium is evolutionarily closely related to the themophilic bacterium . These bacteria have a single gene encoding an aspartate kinase (AK). has an aminoadipate pathway for lysine biosynthesis, which does not use AK. Phylogenetic analysis showed that AK had different protein structure and different evolutionary history from AK. Disruption analysis of AK indicated that AK was not used for lysine biosynthesis but for threonine and methionine biosyntheses. Thus these two AKs have different evolutionary origins, but their functions are not different.