J. Schultz et al., Molecular characterization of a cDNA encoding functional human CLK4 kinaseand localization to chromosome 4q35, GENOMICS, 71(3), 2001, pp. 368-370
Phosphorylated serine- and arginine-rich (SR) proteins play an important ro
le in the formation of spliceosomes, possibly controlling the regulation of
alternative splicing. Enzymes that phosphorylate the SR proteins belong to
the family of CDC2/CDC28-like kinases (CLK). Employing nucleotide sequence
comparison of human expressed sequence tag sequences to the murine counter
part, we identified, cloned, and recombinantly expressed the human ortholog
ue to the murine CLK4 cDNA. When fused to glutathione S-transferase, the ca
talytically active human CLK4 is able to autophosphorylate and to phosphory
late myelin basic protein, but not histone H2B as a substrate. Inspection o
f mRNA accumulation demonstrated gene expression in all human tissues, with
the most prominent abundance in liver, kidney, brain, and heart. Using flu
orescence in situ hybridization, the human CLK4 cDNA was localized to band
q35 on chromosome 4. (C) 2001 Academic Press.