Glycerol kinase

glycerol kinase
glycerol kinase dimer, E.Coli
Identifiers
EC no.	2.7.1.30
Databases
IntEnz	IntEnz view
BRENDA	BRENDA entry
ExPASy	NiceZyme view
KEGG	KEGG entry
MetaCyc	metabolic pathway
PRIAM	profile
PDB structures	RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Search PMC articles PubMed articles NCBI proteins

Glycerol kinase, encoded by the gene GK, is a phosphotransferase enzyme involved in triglycerides and glycerophospholipids synthesis.

Glycerol kinase catalyzes the transfer of a phosphate from ATP to glycerol thus forming glycerol 3-phosphate:

ATP + glycerol <=> ADP + sn-glycerol 3-phosphate

Adipocytes lack glycerol kinase so they cannot metabolize the glycerol produced during triacyl glycerol degradation. This glycerol is instead shuttled to the liver via the blood where it is:

• Phosphorylated by glycerol kinase to glycerol 3-phosphate.
• Converted from glycerol 3-phosphate to dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) via glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. DHAP can participate in glycolysis or gluconeogenesis.

This protein may use the morpheein model of allosteric regulation.^[1]

Glycerol Kinase (alternative name, ATP:glycerol 3-phosphotransferase or Glycerokinase) adopts a ribonuclease H-like fold consisting of an alpha-beta 2-layer sandwich of CATH family 3.30.420.40. As of March 2010^[update], there were 20 structures of this protein in the PDB, most of which are homodimeric.

• Glycerol
• Kinase

• Glycerol+Kinase at the U.S. National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)