A novel human STE20-related protein kinase, HGK, that specifically activates the c-Jun N-terminal kinase signaling pathway.

The yeast serine/threonine kinase STE20 activates a signaling cascade that includes STE11 (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase), STE7 (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase), and FUS3/KSS1 (mitogen-activated protein kinase) in response to signals from both Cdc42 and the heterotrimeric G proteins associated with transmembrane pheromone receptors. Using degenerate polymerase chain reaction, we have isolated a human cDNA encoding a protein kinase homologous to STE20. This protein kinase, designated HPK/GCK-like kinase (HGK), has nucleotide sequences that encode an open reading frame of 1165 amino acids with 11 kinase subdomains. HGK was a serine/threonine protein kinase that specifically activated the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway when transfected into 293T cells, but it did not stimulate either the extracellular signal-regulated kinase or p38 kinase pathway. HGK also increased AP-1-mediated transcriptional activity in vivo. HGK-induced JNK activation was inhibited by the dominant-negative MKK4 and MKK7 mutants. The dominant-negative mutant of TAK1, but not MEKK1 or MAPK upstream kinase (MUK), strongly inhibited HGK-induced JNK activation. TNF-alpha activated HGK in 293T cells, as well as the dominant-negative HGK mutants, inhibited TNF-alpha-induced JNK activation. These results indicate that HGK, a novel activator of the JNK pathway, may function through TAK1, and that the HGK --> TAK1 --> MKK4, MKK7 --> JNK kinase cascade may mediate the TNF-alpha signaling pathway.