Rek, a gene expressed in retina and brain, encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase of the Axl/ Tyro3 family.
Rek (retina-expressed kinase) has been identified as a putative novel receptor-type tyrosine kinase of the Axl/ Tyro3 family with a potential role in neural cell development. rek clones were isolated from a chick embryonic brain cDNA library with a DNA probe obtained by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction of mRNA from Müller glia-like cells cultured from chick embryonic retina. Sequence analysis indicated that Rek is a protein of 873 amino acids with an extracellular region composed of two immunoglobulin-like domains followed by two fibronectin type III domains with eight predicted N-glycosylation sites. Two consensus src homology 2 domain binding sites are present in the cytoplasmic domain, suggesting that Rek activates several signal transduction pathways. Northern analysis of rek mRNA revealed a 5.5-kilobase transcript in chick brain, retina, and kidney and in primary cultures of retinal Müller glia-like cells. Rek protein was identified by immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting as a 140-kDa protein expressed in the chick retina at embryonic days 6-13, which corresponded to the major period of neuronal and glial differentiation. Transfection of rek cDNA into COS cells resulted in transient expression of a putative precursor of 106 kDa that autophosphorylated in immune complex protein kinase assays. Overexpression of rek cDNA in mouse NIH3T3 fibroblasts resulted in activation of the 140-kDa rek kinase and induction of morphologically transformed foci. These properties indicated that Rek has oncogenic potential when overexpressed, but its normal function is likely to be related to cell-cell recognition events governing the differentiation or proliferation of neural cells.[1]References
- Rek, a gene expressed in retina and brain, encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase of the Axl/Tyro3 family. Biscardi, J.S., Denhez, F., Buehler, G.F., Chesnutt, D.A., Baragona, S.C., O'Bryan, J.P., Der, C.J., Fiordalisi, J.J., Fults, D.W., Maness, P.F. J. Biol. Chem. (1996) [Pubmed]
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