The Shewanella woodyi galactokinase pool phosphorylates glucose at the 6-position

Galactokinases are a class of enzymes which belong to the GHMP (galactokinase, homoserine kinase, mevalonate kinase, and phosphomevalonate kinase) superfamily and catalyse the phosphorylation of galactose in the first step of the Leloir pathway. Here we report the discovery of three enzymes from Shewanella woodyi which have been classified as galactokinases based on sequence similarity. However, each of these enzymes show little to no significant activity towards galactose and instead exhibit a strong preference for glucose. Furthermore, in contrast to the usual galactose-1-phosphate product of the galactokinase-catalysed reaction, these enzymes produce glucose-6-phosphate. This radical change in enzyme functionality is postulated to be linked to the mutation of a glycine residue which is conserved in all other sequenced galactokinases.