Two novel transmembrane protein tyrosine kinases expressed during Caenorhabditis elegans hypodermal development.
We describe our characterization of kin-15 and kin-16, a tandem pair of homologous Caenorhabditis elegans genes encoding transmembrane protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) with an unusual structure: the predicted extracellular domain of each putative gene product is only about 50 amino acids, and there are no potential autophosphorylation sites in the C-terminal domain. Using lacZ fusions, we found that kin-15 and kin-16 both appear to be expressed during postembryonic development in the large hypodermal syncytium (hyp7) around the time that specific hypodermal cells fuse with hyp7. kin-15 and kin-16 were positioned on the genetic and physical maps, but extrachromosomal arrays containing wild-type kin-15 and/or kin-16 genes were unable to complement candidate lethal mutations. The results suggest that kin-15 and kin-16 may be specifically involved in cell-cell interactions regulating cell fusions that generate the hypodermis during postembryonic development.
Morgan
W R
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Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544.
Greenwald
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000201:enzymology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D015698:Genomic Library; D007814:Larva; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism
D003062:Codon; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D001616:beta-Galactosidase