The endothelial-specific receptor tyrosine kinase, tek, is a member of a new subfamily of receptors.
We have cloned a 4.2-kb murine cDNA encoding the Tek receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), which is expressed in endothelial cells and their progenitors. The 1122-residue protein contains an extracellular domain comprising three fibronectin type III repeats fused to two immunoglobulin-like loops that are in turn separated by three epidermal growth factor-like repeats. The association of these different structural motifs and their characteristic arrangement in the Tek extracellular domain has been reported for only one other RTK, Tie, an endothelial-specific RTK of human origin. We show here that Tek and Tie are encoded by distinct genes and that, together, these receptors define a new subfamily of RTKs. In addition, we demonstrate that the tek cDNA, when introduced into COS cells, encodes a product of 140 kDa and that this protein and/or tek transcripts are detectable in highly vascularized embryonic tissues and in some, but not all, cell lines of endothelial origin.[1]References
- The endothelial-specific receptor tyrosine kinase, tek, is a member of a new subfamily of receptors. Dumont, D.J., Gradwohl, G.J., Fong, G.H., Auerbach, R., Breitman, M.L. Oncogene (1993) [Pubmed]
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