HKDC1

Hexokinase domain containing 1 (HKDC1) is an enzyme which in humans is encoded by the HKDC1 gene on chromosome 10. It is a recently discovered hexokinase isoform that likely phosphorylates glucose in maternal metabolism during pregnancy.

==Structure== The HKDC1 gene is oriented in a head-to-tail arrangement next to the HK1 gene on chromosome 10. This arrangement, along with its amino acid sequence similarity to HK1, suggests that HKDC1 and HK1 derived from the same precursor via a tandem gene duplication event. The similarity between HKDC1 and HK1 may have obscured its discovery in earlier screens for vertebrate hexokinases. Unlike the HK2 pseudogene, HKDC1 contains an intact open reading frame of 917 residues. It is conserved across animal species, indicating that it encodes a functional protein. Moreover, the encoded protein contains conserved glucose-binding sites in its N- and C-terminal domains as well as an ATP-binding site in its C-terminal domain, indicating that its C-terminal is capable of hexokinase activity.