Molecular cloning and sequencing of the cytostatic G protein-activated protein kinase PAK I.

The serine/threonine protein kinase PAK I (p2l-activated protein kinase), a ubiquitous multipotential protein kinase of 58-60 kDa, has been shown to have cytostatic properties. Data from our laboratory show that PAK I is highly active in oocytes and quiescent and serum-starved cells, and injection of active PAK I into one blastomere of two-cell frog embryos inhibits cleavage of the injected blastomere. To clone the cDNA encoding PAK I, purified peptides from rabbit PAK I were sequenced, degenerate oligonucleotides were used to isolate PAK I clones from a rabbit spleen library, and the 5'-terminus was obtained by polymerase chain reaction. The entire cDNA sequence extends over 4471 nucleotides, with an open reading frame for a protein of 524 residues and a 3'-noncoding region of 2826 nucleotides. Clones with the same open reading frame but with 3'-noncoding regions of 1055 and 2478 nucleotides were isolated, suggesting the generation of different transcripts by alternative termination of transcription. The amino acid sequence of PAK I shows high homology to the p2l-activated protein kinases from human placenta and rat brain and to yeast STE20. PAK I is activated by Cdc42(GTP). The PAK enzymes have been proposed to regulate the stress-activated protein kinase (also known as the Jun kinase) signaling pathway (Coso, O. A., Chiariello, M., Yu, J.-C., Teramoto, H., Crespo, P., Xu, N., Miki, T., and Gutkind, J. S. (1995) Cell 81, 1137-1146; Minden, A., Lin, A., Claret, F.-X., Abo, A., and Karin, M. (1995) Cell 81, 1147-1157).