Muscle Alpha Kinase (MaK)

The alpha-kinase family represents a class of atypical protein kinases that display little sequence similarity to conventional protein kinases.The alpha-kinase family was named after the unique mode of substrate recognition by its initial members, the Dictyostelium heavy chain kinases. To date six human alpha-kinases have been identified. In addition to eEF2K, the human genome encodes alphakinase 1 (lymphocyte alpha-kinase, LAK or ALPK1),alpha-kinase 2 (heart alpha-kinase, HAK or ALPK2), and alpha-kinase 3 (muscle alpha-kinase, MAK or ALPK3),initially named after the tissue in which they were identified. The remaining two mammalian alpha-kinases,TRPM6 and TRPM7, represent cation channels belonging to the TRP ion channel family.