Diacylglycerol Kinase Epsilon (DGKe)

Diacylglycerol kinases are thought to be involved mainly in the regeneration of phosphatidylinositol (PI) from diacylglycerol in the PI-cycle during cell signal transduction. When expressed in mammalian cells, DGK-epsilon shows specificity for arachidonyl-containing diacylglycerol. DGK-epsilon is expressed predominantly in testis.A product with a novel sequence was identified and used to clone a 2.6-kb cDNA from an endothelial cell library. They named this gene DGK-epsilon. The cDNA encoded a 567-amino acid polypeptide with a predicted molecular weight of 64 kD. The catalytic region of DGK-epsilon shares 38 to 42% sequence identity with other DGKs, including DGK-alpha and DGK-delta. When expressed in mammalian cells, DGK-epsilon showed specificity for arachidonyl-containing diacylglycerol.