Identification of a new endothelial cell growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase.

A new growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) gene (designated KDR) has been cloned from a human endothelial cell cDNA library. The gene was identified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and degenerate oligonucleotide primers complementary to conserved tyrosine kinase domains that flank the insert domain, characteristic of known type III RTKs [e.g. platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGF-R), colony-stimulating-1 receptor (CSF-1-R), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGF-R) and ckit]. The DNA product from PCR was then used as a probe to isolate larger DNA segments encoding the receptor from the cDNA library. The predicted amino acid sequence contained multiple characteristics (i.e. an ATP-binding site, a membrane-spanning region, split tyrosine kinase regions) typical of a type III receptor tyrosine kinase. The KDR gene is expressed as a 7.0 kb transcript, and is localized to human chromosome 4.