page_title: Kinase
section_title: Thymidine kinase
hierarchical_section_title: Kinase / Other kinases / Thymidine kinase
caption_attribution_description: English: made with chemsketch
context_page_description: In biochemistry, a kinase is an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of phosphate groups from high-energy, phosphate-donating molecules to specific substrates. This process is known as phosphorylation, where the substrate gains a phosphate group and the high-energy ATP molecule donates a phosphate group. This transesterification produces a phosphorylated substrate and ADP. Conversely, it is referred to as dephosphorylation when the phosphorylated substrate donates a phosphate group and ADP gains a phosphate group. These two processes, phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, occur four times during glycolysis.
  Kinases are part of the larger family of phosphotransferases. Kinases should not be confused with phosphorylases, which catalyze the addition of inorganic phosphate groups to an acceptor, nor with phosphatases, which remove phosphate groups. The phosphorylation state of a molecule, whether it be a protein, lipid or carbohydrate, can affect its activity, reactivity and its ability to bind other molecules.
context_section_description: Thymidine kinase is one of the many nucleoside kinases that are responsible for nucleoside phosphorylation. It phosphorylates thymidine to create thymidine monophosphate (dTMP). This kinase uses an ATP molecule to supply the phosphate to thymidine, as shown below. This transfer of a phosphate from one nucleotide to another by thymidine kinase, as well as other nucleoside and nucleotide kinases, functions to help control the level of each of the different nucleotides.
  After creation of the dTMP molecule, another kinase, thymidylate kinase, can act upon dTMP to create the diphosphate form, dTDP. Nucleoside diphosphate kinase catalyzes production of thymidine triphosphate, dTTP, which is used in DNA synthesis. Because of this, thymidine kinase activity is closely correlated with the cell cycle and used as a tumor marker in clinical chemistry. Therefore, it can sometime be used to predict patient prognosis. Patients with mutations in the thymidine kinase gene may have a certain type of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a disease that leads to death in early childhood.
caption: Overall reaction catalysed by thymidine kinase.
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