Overexpression, purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic studies of a hyperthermophilic adenylosuccinate synthetase from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3.

Adenylosuccinate synthetase (AdSS) is a ubiquitous enzyme that catalyzes the first committed step in the conversion of inosine monophosphate (IMP) to adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in the purine-biosynthetic pathway. Although AdSS from the vast majority of organisms is 430-457 amino acids in length, AdSS sequences isolated from thermophilic archaea are 90-120 amino acids shorter. In this study, crystallographic studies of a short AdSS sequence from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 (PhAdSS) were performed in order to reveal the unusual structure of AdSS from thermophilic archaea.