Subject: Novel kinase: PKC Delta
We have identified a Drosophila Protein Kinase C Delta gene (PKCd) by
analysis of the public genome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis implies that
this is an ortholog of the PKC delta/PKC tau group of mammals, with closest
homology to PKC delta. The prediction was made using a HMM search for
kinase domains in the Drosophila genome, followed by genewise predictions
using close homologs. It is complete at the C-terminus but is missing about
142 AAs at the N-terminus, by comparison with mammalian homologs. The
missing N-terminus is conserved between PKCd and PKCt but similar sequences
cannot be found in any available Drosophila sequences. The genomic sequence
contains 97 AA of upstream open reading frame, but has no initiator
methionine and no clear homology to PKC genes.
This gene shares a small overlap (114 nt) with predicted gene CG10524,
which has no other PKC homology, and may be a misprediction. PKCd contains
a large (13.3kb) intron which contains another predicted gene, CG11245;
this intron occurs in the middle of a C1 domain on PKCd, so the two genes
are unlikely to be alternative splice forms of each other. CG11245 is not
supported by ESTs and has only poor homology to known proteins.
No ESTs are known from this gene, indicating selective expression in space
or time.
Fly orthologs of all mammalian PKC subfamilies can now be determined: PKC
alpha/beta/gamma are orthologous to inaC and Pkc53E; PKC epsilon/eta are
orthologous to Pkc98E; PKC iota/zeta are orthologous to CG10261 and PKC
delta/zeta are orthologous to this PKCd
\-Gerard Manning.