Protein Kinase Classification:      Atypical      Alpha

※ Alpha family introduction

    Alpha kinases belong to atypical kinase group and lack significant sequence similarity to ePK (1). Six members have been identified in mammals, including elongation factor 2 kinase, Dictyostelium myosin heavy chain kinases and other protein kinases. eEF-2 is involve in regulation of the global rate of protein synthesis and MHCK A is essential in regualtion of myosin assembly and disassembly. Although no detectable sequence identity between ePK and Alpha kinases has been found, the structure, sequence motifs and key amino acid residue position are very similar. The differences may impact on substrate recognition (2).

Reference
1. Manning, G., Whyte, D.B., Martinez, R., Hunter, T. and Sudarsanam, S. (2002) The protein kinase complement of the human genome. Science, 298, 1912-1934. PMID: 12471243
2. Drennan, D. and Ryazanov, A.G. (2004) Alpha-kinases: analysis of the family and comparison with conventional protein kinases. Prog Biophys Mol Biol, 85, 1-32. PMID: 15050379


Atypical Alpha in eukaryotes:

Ailuropoda melanoleuca (6)Anolis carolinensis (6)Bos taurus (6)
Caenorhabditis elegans (1)Callithrix jacchus (5)Canis familiaris (6)
Cavia porcellus (5)Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (2)Ciona intestinalis (1)
Ciona savignyi (1)Danio rerio (6)Equus caballus (6)
Felis catus (6)Gadus morhua (3)Gallus gallus (5)
Gasterosteus aculeatus (5)Gorilla gorilla (6)Homo sapiens (6)
Ictidomys tridecemlineatus (6)Latimeria chalumnae (5)Loxodonta africana (6)
Macaca mulatta (6)Meleagris gallopavo (5)Microcebus murinus (1)
Monodelphis domestica (6)Mus musculus (6)Mustela putorius furo (6)
Myotis lucifugus (4)Nomascus leucogenys (5)Ochotona princeps (2)
Oreochromis niloticus (5)Ornithorhynchus anatinus (4)Oryctolagus cuniculus (6)
Oryzias latipes (6)Otolemur garnettii (6)Pan troglodytes (6)
Pelodiscus sinensis (4)Physcomitrella patens (2)Pongo abelii (6)
Pteropus vampyrus (2)Rattus norvegicus (5)Sarcophilus harrisii (5)
Sus scrofa (5)Taeniopygia guttata (5)Takifugu rubripes (5)
Tetraodon nigroviridis (7)Tursiops truncatus (1)Xenopus tropicalis (4)
Xiphophorus maculatus (6)