Diacylglycerol kinase η1 is a high affinity isozyme for diacylglycerol.

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) η plays important roles in various patho-physiological events such as oncogenesis. In this study, we performed an enzymological characterization of DGKη splice variant 1 (DGKη1). The Km value for diacylglycerol was 0.14 mol%. Intriguingly, the Km value of DGKη1 for diacylglycerol was at least 9-fold lower than those of other DGK isozymes including DGKα, indicating that DGKη1 is a high affinity isozyme for diacylglycerol. Therefore, DGKη1 is a unique DGK isozyme, which may function at particular membrane sites where only low concentrations of diacylglycerol are supplied.