Glycerol kinase of African trypanosomes possesses an intrinsic phosphatase activity.
Balogun, E.O., Inaoka, D.K., Shiba, T., Tokuoka, S.M., Tokumasu, F., Sakamoto, K., Kido, Y., Michels, P.A.M., Watanabe, Y.I., Harada, S., Kita, K.(2017) Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 1861: 2830-2842
- PubMed: 28778484 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2017.07.028
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
5AZI, 5AZJ - PubMed Abstract: 
In general, glycerol kinases (GKs) are transferases that catalyze phospho group transfer from ATP to glycerol, and the mechanism was suggested to be random bi-bi. The reverse reaction i.e. phospho transfer from glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) to ADP is only physiologically feasible by the African trypanosome GK. In contrast to other GKs the mechanism of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense glycerol kinase (TbgGK) was shown to be in an ordered fashion, and proceeding via autophosphorylation. From the unique reaction mechanism of TbgGK, we envisaged its potential to possess phosphatase activity in addition to being a kinase.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biomedical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 2222, Nigeria. Electronic address: balogun1@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp.