Apoptosis Associated Tyrosine Kinase (AATK)

AATK is a novel gene which is induced during apoptosis. It encodes a protein with a tyrosine kinase domain at the N-terminal end and a proline-rich domain at the C-terminal end. AATK expression may be a necessary pre-requisite for the induction of growth arrest and/or apoptosis of myeloid precursor cells.By randomly selecting cDNA clones from size-fractionated human brain cDNA libraries, Ishikawa et al. (1998) identified a full-length cDNA clone, which they called KIAA0641, encoding a protein with significant homology to the mouse Aatyk protein identified by Gaozza et al. (1997). The deduced human AATK protein contains 1,207 amino acids and has an observed molecular mass greater than 100 kD. By RT-PCR, Ishikawa et al. (1998) detected expression of AATK in brain, lung, kidney, and pancreas.