Abstract
This study describes the comparative analysis of two insect recombinant aminotransferases, Aedes aegypti 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) transaminase/alanine glyoxylate aminotransferase (Ae-HKT/AGT) and Drosophila melanogaster serine pyruvate aminotransferase (Dm-Spat), which share 52% identity in their amino acid sequences. Both enzymes showed AGT activity. In addition, Ae-HKT/AGT is also able to catalyze the transamination of 3-HK or kynurenine with glyoxylate, pyruvate or oxaloacetate as the amino acceptor. Kinetic analysis and other data suggest that Ae-HKT/AGT plays a critical role in mosquito tryptophan catabolism by detoxifying 3-HK and that Dm-Spat is primarily involved in glyoxylate detoxification.
