Wee1(+)-like gene in human cells.
The wee1+ gene is a mitotic inhibitor controlling the G2 to M transition of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and encodes a protein kinase with both serine- and tyrosine-phosphorylating activities. We have cloned a human gene (WEE1Hu) similar to wee1+ by transcomplementation of a yeast mutant. WEE1Hu encodes a protein homologous to the S. pombe wee1+ and mik1+ (a functionally redundant sibling of wee1+) kinases and effectively rescues a wee1 mutation. We report here that overexpression of WEE1Hu in fission yeast generates very elongated cells as a result of inhibition of the G2-M transition in the cell cycle. In addition, we detected a 3-kilobase-long WEE1Hu messenger RNA in all the human cell lines we examined. We conclude that a wee1(+)-like gene exists and is expressed in human cells.
Igarashi
M
M
Department of Molecular Genetics, Osaka University, Japan.
Nagata
A
A
Jinno
S
S
Suto
K
K
Okayama
H
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014162:Transfection
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011494:Protein Kinases