In order to study the mutational inactivation of deoxycytidine kinase
(Dck) in a rat model for acute myeloid leukemia we have cloned the com
plete coding region of the rat Dck gene. Using primers chosen from the
human Dck cDNA sequence, we obtained a rat-specific probe via PCR and
used it to isolate two clones from a rat lymphocyte cDNA library. The
ORF showed 89.7 and 92.2% nucleotide identity with the human and mous
e Dck, respectively, and encodes a 260-amino-acid protein, that is 91.
9 and 94.6% homologous to human and mouse Dck, respectively. Northern
blot analysis of rat tissues revealed high expression of a 4.1-kb Dck
transcript in the thymus, whereas spleen, liver and lung samples showe
d weak expression of the gene. This tissue-specific expression pattern
was confirmed by cDNA-PCR analysis.