Four eukaryotic-type protein serine/threonine kinases from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) were cloned and sequenced. To explore evolutionary relationships between these and other protein kinases, the distribution of protein serine/threonine kinase genes in prokaryotes was examined with the TFASTA program. Genes of this type were detected in only a few species of prokaryotes and their distribution was uneven ; Streptomyces, Mycobacterium , Synechocystis and Myxococcus each contained more than three such genes. Homology analyses by GAP and Rdf2 programs suggested that some kinases from one species were closely related, whilst others were only remotely related. This was confirmed by examining phylogenetic trees constructed by the neighbour-joining and other methods. For each species, analysis of the coding regions indicated that the GMC content of protein kinase genes was similar to that of other genes. Considered with the fact that in phylogenetic trees the amino acid sequences of STPK from Aquifex aeolicus and some other eukaryotic-type protein kinases in prokaryotes form a cluster with protein kinases from eukaryotes, this suggests that the eukaryotic-type protein kinases were present originally in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, but that most of these genes have been lost during the evolutionary process in prokaryotes because they are not needed. This conclusion is supported by the observation that the prokaryotes retaining several of these kinases undergo complicated morphological and/or biochemical differentiation.

We identified and characterized the gene encoding a new eukaryotic-type protein kinase from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) M145. PkaD, consisting of 598 amino acid residues, contained the catalytic domain of eukaryotic protein kinases in the N-terminal region. A hydrophobicity plot indicated the presence of a putative transmembrane spanning sequence downstream of the catalytic domain, suggesting that PkaD is a transmembrane protein kinase. The recombinant PkaD was found to be phosphorylated at the threonine and tyrosine residues. In S. coelicolor A3(2), pkaD was transcribed as a monocistronic mRNA, and it was expressed constitutively throughout the life cycle. Disruption of chromosomal pkaD resulted in a significant loss of actinorhodin production. This result implies the involvement of pkaD in the regulation of secondary metabolism.