Cyclin Dependent Kinase 18 (CDK18)

The PCTAIRE protein kinases comprise a distinct subfamily of the CDC2-related serine/threonine-specific protein kinases. Meyerson et al. (1992) isolated a partial cDNA encoding PCTAIRE3. Like other members of the PCTAIRE subfamily, the predicted PCTAIRE3 protein contains an N-terminal extension relative to CDC2. The CDC2-related region of PCTAIRE3, excluding the N-terminal extension, shares 51%, 79%, and 80% protein sequence identity with CDC2, PCTK1, and PCTK2, respectively. Northern blot analysis revealed that PCTAIRE3 is expressed in a variety of human cell lines and tissues. Okuda et al. (1992) identified the mouse homolog of PCTK3 .By fluorescence in situ hybridization, Okuda et al. (1994) mapped the PCTK3 gene to 1q31-q32.