DAP‐kinase is a Ca 2+ /calmodulin‐dependent, cytoskeletal‐associated protein kinase, with cell death‐inducing functions that depend on its catalytic activity

DAP‐kinase was initially identified as a gene whose anti‐sense‐mediated reduced expression protected HeLa cells from interferon‐γ‐induced programmed cell death. It was cloned in our laboratory by a functional gene selection approach. According to its amino acid sequence, this 160 kDa protein was predicted to be a novel type of calmodulin‐regulated serine/threonine kinase which carries ankyrin repeats and the death domain. In this work we have shown that the kinase was autophosphorylated and capable of phosphorylating an exogenous substrate in a Ca 2+ /calmodulin‐dependent manner. We proved that calmodulin binds directly to the recombinant kinase, and generated a constitutively active kinase mutant by the deletion of the calmodulin‐regulatory domain. By immunostaining and biochemical fractionations we demonstrated that the kinase is localized to the cytoskeleton, in association with the microfilament system, and mapped a region within the protein which is responsible for binding to the cytoskeleton. Several assays attributed a cell death function to the gene. Ectopic expression of wild‐type DAP‐kinase induced the death of target cells, and the killing property depended strictly on the status of the intrinsic kinase activity. Conversely, a catalytically inactive mutant that carried a lysine to alanine substitution within the kinase domain, displayed dominant‐negative features and protected cells from interferon‐γ‐induced cell death. DAP‐kinase is therefore a novel cytoskeletal‐associated cell death serine/threonine kinase whose activation by Ca 2+ /calmodulin may be linked to the biochemical mechanism underlying the cytoskeletal alterations that occur during cell death.