Developmental and tissue-specific expression of mouse Pelle-like protein kinase

The NF-kappa B/c-Rel proteins are a family of evolutionarily conserved transcription factors activated during development that in the adult, mediate many processes including the immune response, A high degree of sequence similarity is shared between the NF-kappa B/c-Rel family of transcription factors and the Drosophila Dorsal protein as well as between its cytoplasmic inhibitor, I kappa B alpha and the Drosophila Cactus protein, Genetic analyses of Dorsal have defined components of a signaling pathway for Dorsal activation, including a serine/threonine kinase, Pelle, placed upstream of Dorsal and Cactus, We demonstrate that this pathway is likely to be conserved in mammals by the isolation of a cDNA that encodes a novel mouse protein highly related to Pelle, mPLK (mouse Pelle-like protein kinase), Expression of mPLK mRNA is developmentally regulated in the mouse and in adult tissue mPLK expression is greatest in the liver, a tissue that expresses a high level of NF-kappa B, Recombinant mPLK produced in bacteria is a protein kinase capable of autophosphorylating and phosphorylating I kappa B alpha.