Thymidylate synthase (EC 2.1.1.45) [1,2] catalyzes the reductive methylation
of dUMP to dTMP with concomitant conversion of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate
to dihydrofolate. Thymidylate synthase plays an essential role in DNA
synthesis and is an important target for certain chemotherapeutic drugs.
Thymidylate synthase is an enzyme of about 30 to 35 Kd in most species except
in protozoan and plants where it exists as a bifunctional enzyme that includes
a dihydrofolate reductase domain.
A cysteine residue is involved in the catalytic mechanism (it covalently binds
the 5,6-dihydro-dUMP intermediate). The sequence around the active site of
this enzyme is conserved from phages to vertebrates.
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