| Abstract |
Mutations in aurora of Drosophila and related Saccharomyces cerevisiae IPL1 protein kinases are known to cause abnormal chromosome segregation. We earlier isolated a cDNA encoding a novel human protein kinase Aik which shares high amino acid identity with the Aurora/Ipl1 protein kinase family. In the present study, a second human cDNA highly homologous to aurora/IPL1 (Aik2) was identified and the nucleotide sequence was determined (gene symbol STK12). The C-terminal kinase domain of the STK12 encoded protein shares high amino acid sequence identity with those of mouse STK-1 (90%), rat AIM-1 (90%), human Aik (69%), mouse IAK1/Ayk1 (69%), Xenopus pEg2 (68%), Drosophila Aurora (62%), and yeast Ipl1 (45%), whereas the N-terminal domain of the STK12 protein shares little homology with those of Aurora/Ipl1 family members except for AIM-1 and STK-1. Northern blotting analyses revealed that STK12 expression was high in thymus, while low level expression was detected in small intestine, testis, colon, spleen, and brain. The STK12 protein content in HeLa cells is low in S phase, but it accumulates during M phase. STK12 was mapped to human chromosome 17p13.1 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The chromosome location of STK12 was further defined using a radiation hybrid panel (Stanford G3), that showed a linkage with marker WI-7901 (LOD Score 7.83) located between D17S938 and D17S786.
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