PSK, a Novel STE20-like Kinase Derived from Prostatic Carcinoma That Activates the c-Jun N-terminal Kinase Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Pathway and Regulates Actin Cytoskeletal Organization

Abstract

1-349) did not localize to this compartment or induce a decrease in stress fibers demonstrating a requirement for the C terminus. Kinase-defective PSK (K57A) was unable to reduce stress fibers. PSK is the first member of the STE20 family lacking a Cdc42/Rac binding domain that has been shown to regulate both the c-Jun N-terminal kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and the actin cytoskeleton.

Comparative studies of a new subfamily of human Ste20-like kinases: homodimerization, subcellular localization, and selective activation of MKK3 and p38

“…The human KFC-B expression pattern we identified varies considerably from that reported for rTAO1, which was exclusively expressed in the rat testes and brain only (Hutchison et al, 1998). The expression profile for hKFC-C follows those reported for rTAO2 and PSK (Moore et al, 2000) much more closely with highest levels in both the testes and brain. We find it very noteworthy that these highly related kinases appear to have such significant variation in expression profiles, especially the hKFC-A kinase and its levels in hematopoietic tissues in contrast to that for the other two kinases.…”

“…The N-terminal kinase domain (1-320) of baculovirus-expressed rTAO2 was found to activate primarily MKK3 and to a lesser extent, MKK6 and MKK4 (Chen et al, 1999). By contrast, overexpression of PSK, which shares the N-terminal 1-744 amino acids of hKFC-C, was found to activate JNK (Moore et al, 2000). Our own studies of chicken KFC A showed that it has a significant potential to activate JNK, only if the C-terminal regulatory domain is deleted (Yustein et al, 2000).…”

“…These kinases appear to be splice variants of one another. It also appears that a recently identified kinase, PSK (GenBankt Accession #AF061943) (Moore et al, 2000), is also a splice variant of hKFC-C and rTAO2. Analysis of the sequences revealed that the kinase domains (spanning approximately 270 amino acids) are 80% identical and greater than 90% similar.…”

“…The sequence of hKFC-B, an orthologue of rat TAO1, has never been reported before. The hKFC-C's sequence is also new, with only the first 744 amino acids being identical to that of human prostate-specific kinase (PSK) (Moore et al, 2000), and the remaining 306 amino acids completely divergent. Likely, these are products of alternative splicing.…”

Protein kinase WNK3 increases cell survival in a caspase-3-dependent pathway

“…From this construct, a KpnI-NotI fragment was cloned into pEGFP-C1 (Clontech). pcDNA3-procaspase-3 (Tewari et al, 1995), Hsp70-YFP, Hsp70-YFP-SBD mut and Hsp70-YFP-ATPase mut (Kim et al, 2002), and pCMV-Flag-ERK2 (Moore et al, 2000) were as described. All constructs or fragments were verified by automated DNA sequencing.…”