Engineering of a single conserved amino acid residue of herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase allows a predominant shift from pyrimidine to purine nucleoside phosphorylation.

Abstract excerpt

Studies of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) thymidine (dThd) kinase (TK) crystal structures show that purine and pyrimidine bases occupy distinct positions in the active site but approximately the same geometric plane. The presence of a bulky side chain, such as tyrosine at position 167, would not be sterically favorable for pyrimidine or pyrimidine nucleoside analogue binding, whereas purine nucleoside...

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