Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a Cold-Adapted Shikimate Kinase from the Psychrophilic Bacterium 34H.

Most cold-adapted enzymes possess higher K and k values than those of their mesophilic counterparts to maximize the reaction rate. This characteristic is often ascribed to a high structural flexibility and improved dynamics in the active site. However, this may be less convincing to cold-adapted metabolic enzymes, which work at substrate concentrations near K.