Identification and characterization of 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate kinase and 2-keto-3-deoxygalactonate kinase in the haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii.

The halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii has been proposed to degrade glucose via the semi-phosphorylative Entner-Doudoroff pathway, involving 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate kinase (KDGK) as key enzyme. So far, neither the enzyme has been characterized nor the encoding gene has been identified. In the genome of H.

Syntheses of 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-xylonate and 2-keto-3-deoxy-L-arabinonate as stereochemical probes for demonstrating the metabolic promiscuity of Sulfolobus solfataricus towards D-xylose and L-arabinose.

Practical syntheses of 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-xylonate (D-KDX) and 2-keto-3-deoxy-L-arabinonate (L-KDA) that rely on reaction of the anion of ethyl 2-[(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]-2-(dimethoxy phosphoryl) acetate with enantiopure glyceraldehyde acetonide, followed by global deprotection of the resultant O-silyl-enol esters, have been developed. This has enabled us to confirm that a 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-gluconate aldolase from the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus demonstrates good activity for catalysis of the retro-aldol cleavage of both these enantiomers to afford pyruvate and glycolaldehyde. The stereochemical promiscuity of this aldolase towards these enantiomeric aldol substrates confirms that this organism employs a metabolically promiscuous pathway to catabolise the C5-sugars D-xylose and L-arabinose.