PROTEIN-KINASES IN NORMAL AND TRANSFORMED MELANOCYTES

Aberrant function of protein kinases has been implicated in the develo pment of melanoma. In an effort to define the molecular events involve d in initiation and progression of this malignancy, we used RT-PCR to identify protein kinases in both normal and transformed melanocytes. C ollectively, we identified seven clones corresponding to previously ch aracterized protein kinases (JAK-1, TYKO2, AXL/UFO, IGF1-R, KDR and FE R) as well as the recently identified MLK-3/PTK1 protein kinase. North ern analysis was used to determine the expression pattern of each prot ein kinase in both normal melanocytes and a variety of melanoma cell l ines. Relatively abundant levels of UFO/AXL and KDR mRNAs were observe d in a subset of the melanoma cell lines whereas most of the remaining protein kinases were expressed at similar levels in both normal and t ransformed melanocytes.