Deoxyguanosine Kinase (DGUOK)

In mammalian cells, the phosphorylation of purine deoxyribonucleosides is mediated predominantly by two deoxyribonucleoside kinases, cytosolic deoxycytidine kinase and mitochondrial deoxyguanosine kinase.

DGUOK is responsible for phosphorylation of purine deoxyribonucleosides in the mitochondrial matrix. In addition, this protein phosphorylates several purine deoxyribonucleoside analogs used in the treatment of lymphoproliferative disorders, and this phosphorylation is critical for the effectiveness of the analogs. Alternative splice variants encoding different protein isoforms have been described for this gene.The presumed mitochondrial translocation signal would be removed by cleavage at a putative mitochondrial peptidase cleavage site to give a mature protein size of 28 kD.