Characterization of a class 3 tyrosine kinase

In an effort to identify unique tyrosine kinases found in human leukemia cell lines, we utilized polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology and degenerate oligonucleotide primers to produce a cDNA library of kinase catalytic domains found in the human monocytic cell line AML-193. This search yielded a member of the class 3 tyrosine kinases closely related to the murine kinase FD-22. Previous work has identified this kinase as JAK1. This class of tyrosine kinases is characterized by being ubiquitously expressed, lacking both a ligand-binding domain and a SH2 domain, while containing a second domain similar to a degenerate kinase domain. Our studies focused on the further characterization of this class 3 tyrosine kinase using Northern blot analysis to demonstrate an increase in steady-state mRNA by interferon-gamma in human monocytes. A human-hamster somatic cell hybrid panel and linkage mapping was used to assign JAK1 (aml-116) to human chromosome 1.