Identification and cellular localization of human PFTAIRE1.

We isolated a novel member of putative Cdc2-related serine/threonine protein kinases from a Hela cell cDNA library. The cDNA encodes a protein of 469 amino acids, sharing 95% identities with the mouse PFTAIRE1 throughout the entire protein sequence. This gene was designated human PFTAIRE1. The gene was located at human chromosome 7q21.13 with radiation hybrid polyermase chain reaction (RH-PCR) analysis. By Northern blotting analysis, an approximately 6 kb transcript is detected with varied levels of expression of the hPFTAIRE1 in 16 human tissues. The hPFTAIRE1 was highly expressed in brain, pancreas, kidney, heart, testis and ovary. The transcript was also detected at lower level in other tissues, except in spleen and thymus where the transcript was hardly detected. The protein was fused to the C-terminus of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) and ectopically expressed in Hela cells. The florescence microscope results indicated that the hPFTAIRE1 exhibits cytoplasmic distribution.