THE IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPRESSION OF PFTAIRE-1, ANOVEL CDK FAMILY MEMBER, SUGGEST ITS FUNCTION IN THE MOUSE TESTIS ANDNERVUS SYSTEM

We have isolated a murine cDNA encoding for a novel putative Cdk-relat ed protein kinase, which has been named Pftaire-1, by screening a test is cDNA library for new serine/threonine kinases, Pftaire-1 showed 50% and 49% amino acid identity with Cdk5 and Pctaire-3, respectively, an d contains the eleven subdomains characteristic of the protein kinases . By northern blot analysis we detected two transcripts of approximate ly 5.5 and 4.9 kb in size. These transcripts were expressed at low lev el in all murine tissues tested, except in the brain, testis and embry o, where high expression was detected. Cellular localization of the mR NAs by in situ hybridization analysis shows that Pftaire-1 is expresse d in late pachytene spermatocytes in the testis and in post mitotic ne uronal cells bath in the brain and the embryo, suggesting a role of Pf taire-1 both in the process of meiosis as well as neuron differentiati on and/or function. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.