Tousled Like Kinase 1 (TLK1)

The Tousled-like kinases, first described in Arabidopsis, are nuclear serine/threonine kinases that are potentially involved in the regulation of chromatin assembly.

The deduced 787-amino acid protein has a 5-domain structure, with N-terminal nuclear localization signals followed by a nucleotide binding motif, and a single catalytic domain near the C terminus. TLK1 shares 86% sequence identity with TLK2 overall, and 94% identity in the catalytic region. Northern blot analysis detected a 4.2-kb transcript expressed primarily in fetal kidney and liver, and in placenta. Immunofluorescence analysis of transfected COS-1 cells localized TLK1 to the nucleus.The deduced 718-amino acid protein has a calculated molecular mass of 81.9 kD.