Deoxynucleoside kinases exist as heterodimeric pairs specific for deoxyadenosine/deoxyguanosine kinase (dAK/dGK) and deoxyadenosine/deoxycytidine kinase (dAK/dCK). The aspartic acid-84 in dGK was mutated to alanine, asparagine and glutamic acid by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutation resulted in a drastic decease in dGK activity compared to the unmodified cloned enzyme while it increased production of dAK activity. The mutated dak/dgk genes, which synthesize tandem deoxyadenosine/deoxyguanosine kinase, were inserted back to the Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactococcus lactis by electroporation to determine the effect of site-directed mutation of he enzymes on the microbial growth. However, no significant change was observed in cell growth and lactic acid production between wild type and mutant lactic acid bacteria.