title: Identification of mouse ULK1, a novel protein kinase structurally related to C. elegans UNC-51.
abstract: A novel protein kinase related to the C. elegans serine/threonine kinase UNC-51 was cloned from mouse. The UNC-51-Like Kinase (ULK)1 is encoded by a cDNA of 1051 amino acids with calculated MW of 113 kDa. Comparison of the ULK1 and UNC-51 shows the highest conservation in the amino-terminal kinase domain, which is followed by a proline/serine-rich (PS) domain and a conserved carboxyl-terminal (C) domain. ULK1 mRNA is expressed in various tissues, and is mapped to mouse chromosome 5F and rat chromosome 12q16.3, by fluorescent in situ hybridization. HA-tagged ULK1 is expressed as a protein of approximately 150 kDa in COS7 cells and is auto-phosphorylated in vitro in its PS domain. We propose that ULK1, UNC-51 and a yeast protein kinase Apg1p comprise a novel subfamily of protein kinase, which is structurally conserved among eukaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Helix Research Institute, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuroyanagi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuroiwa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tokumitsu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomoda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shirasawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000071189:Autophagy-Related Protein-1 Homolog; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011494:Protein Kinases; C112443:UNC-51 protein, C elegans; D000071189:Autophagy-Related Protein-1 Homolog; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; C112444:Ulk1 protein, mouse