Dual Serine/Threonine And Tyrosine Protein Kinase (DSTYK)

The deduced 929-amino acid protein contains a C-terminal kinase domain, which shares homology with the kinase domain of RIPK family members. Northern blot analysis of human tissues detected weak expression in heart, brain, placenta, skeletal muscle, kidney, pancreas, and testis.

DSTYK failed to activate NF-kappa-B (NFKB1) in a reporter gene assay. Overexpression of DSTYK induced DNA fragmentation and cell death in a dose-dependent manner with cell death occurring approximately 30 hours after transfection. Caspase inhibitory protein and morphologic studies showed that DSTYK induced both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death, and both the N- and C-terminal DSTYK deletion mutants retained the ability to induce cell death.