Comparative analysis of human and bovine protein kinases reveals unique relationship and functional diversity

Abstract

Reversible protein phosphorylation by protein kinases and phosphatases is a common event in various cellular processes. The eukaryotic protein kinase superfamily, which is one of the largest superfamilies of eukaryotic proteins, plays several roles in cell signaling and diseases. We identified 482 eukaryotic protein kinases and 39 atypical protein kinases in the bovine genome, by searching publicly accessible genetic-sequence databases. Bovines have 512 putative protein kinases, each orthologous to a human kinase. Whereas orthologous kinase pairs are, on an average, 90.6% identical, orthologous kinase catalytic domain pairs are, on an average, 95.9% identical at the amino acid level. This bioinformatic study of bovine protein kinases provides a suitable framework for further characterization of their functional and structural properties.

Keywords: aPK; bovine; ePK; kinome.

Figure 1

Conservation within orthologous kinases (A) and catalytic domains (B) is family-dependent. Triangles indicate mean identity within selected families, and bars indicate the range.

Figure 2

Catalytic domain conservation is family-dependent. (A) The CK1 family is highly conserved, with zero to two amino acid changes between bovine and human orthologs. (B) Catalytic domains of the PEK family are poorly conserved between human and bovine. h, Human; b, Bovine.