Arginine kinase from the beetle Cissites cephalotes (Olivier). Molecular cloning, phylogenetic analysis and enzymatic properties.

Here, we report the PCR amplification and cloning of a cDNA for arginine kinase (AK) from the beetle Cissites cephalotes (Olivier). The cDNA is 1210bp and has an open reading frame of 1125bp and 5' and 3'-untranslated regions of 30 and 55bp, respectively. The open reading frame encodes a 374 amino acid protein with most of the residues considered necessary for AK function: five residues predicted to interact with the substrate arginine (S77, Y82, E239, C285 and E328), and five residues predicted to interact with the substrate ADP (R138, R140, R243, R294 and R323).