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The mammalian Nek1 kinase is involved in primary cilium formation
Author(s) -
Shalom Ohad,
Shalva Nechama,
Altschuler Yoram,
Motro Benny
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2008.03.036
Subject(s) - ciliogenesis , cilium , biology , kinase , microbiology and biotechnology , mitosis , protein serine threonine kinases , basal body , polycystic kidney disease , cell cycle , protein kinase a , cell , kidney , genetics , gene , flagellum
Recent studies implicate primary cilium (PC) proteins in the etiologies of various polycystic kidney diseases (PKD). NIMA‐related kinases (NRKs) are conserved serine/threonine kinases, which are usually defined as ‘mitotic kinases’. Murine mutants for the NRKs, nek1 ( kat mice) suffer from PKD, suggesting that it may be involved in cilium control. We demonstrated herein that Nek1 is localized to basal body region and that Nek1 overexpression inhibits ciliogenesis in Madin–Darby canine kidney epithelial cells. The number of primary cilia is dramatically reduced in kat2J mouse embryonic fibroblasts culture. It is thus hypothesized that Nek1 links cell cycle progression and the PC cycle.