Human members of the eukaryotic protein kinase family

Mitch Kostich¹ , Jessie English², Vincent Madison³, Ferdous Gheyas⁴, Luquan Wang¹, Ping Qiu¹, Jonathan Greene¹ and Thomas M Laz¹

¹Discovery Technology, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA

²Tumor Biology, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA

³Structural Chemistry, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA

⁴Biostatistics, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA

author email corresponding author email

Genome Biology 2002, 3:research0043.1-0043.12doi:10.1186/gb-2002-3-9-research0043


Published:	22 August 2002

Subject areas: Evolution, Genome studies, Bioinformatics

Abstract

Background

Eukaryotic protein kinases (EPKs) constitute one of the largest recognized protein families represented in the human genome. EPKs, which are similar to each other in sequence, structure and biochemical properties, are important players in virtually every signaling pathway involved in normal development and disease. Near completion of projects to sequence the human genome and transcriptome provide an opportunity to identify and perform sequence analysis on a nearly complete set of human EPKs.

Results

Publicly available genetic sequence data were searched for human sequences that potentially represent EPK family members. After removal of duplicates, splice variants and pseudogenes, this search yielded 510 sequences with recognizable similarity to the EPK family. Protein sequences of putative EPK catalytic domains identified in the search were aligned, and a phonogram was constructed based on the alignment. Representative sequence records in GenBank were identified, and derived information about gene mapping and nomenclature was summarized.

Conclusions

This work represents a nearly comprehensive census and early bioinformatics overview of the EPKs encoded in the human genome. Evaluation of the sequence relationships between these proteins contributes contextual information that enhances understanding of individual family members. This curation of human EPK sequences provides tools and a framework for the further characterization of this important class of enzymes.