Alternative titles; symbols
HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: CDK3
Cytogenetic location: 17q25.1 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38): 17:76,000,855-76,005,998 (from NCBI)
See PCTK1 (311550) and PCTK3 (169190).
Meyerson et al. (1992) identified 10 human protein kinases based on the structural relation to CDK2 (116953). The products of 5 of these kinases shared more than 50% amino acid sequence identity with CDC2 (116940) and 7 of the kinases were novel. The 7 novel genes were broadly expressed in human cell lines and tissues with each displaying some cell type or tissue specificity. The CDK3 gene, like CDC2 and CDK2, could complement cdc28 mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, suggesting that all 3 of these protein kinases can play roles in the regulation of the mammalian cell cycle. Multiple cdc2-related kinases may be essential to control the varied and distinct cell cycles and signaling pathways found within metazoan organisms. If true, this may explain the apparent absence of these kinases in yeast, where intercellular communication is less prominent.
Ye et al. (2001) reported the presence of a single point mutation in the CDK3 gene from several Mus musculus strains commonly used in the laboratory. This mutation results in the replacement of a conserved tryptophan (trp187) within kinase consensus domain IX with a stop codon. The protein predicted to be encoded by this allele was truncated near the T loop, which is involved in activation by CDK-activating kinase (CCNH; 601953). This mutation also deletes motif XI, known to be required for kinase function, and is therefore expected to generate a null allele. The mutation was missing in 2 wild mouse species. The data indicated that CDK3 is not required for M. musculus development and suggested that any functional role played by CDK3 in the G1/S-phase transition is likely to be redundant with another CDK.
By analysis of somatic cell hybrids, Bullrich et al. (1995) mapped the CDK3 gene to 17q22-qter, telomeric to the BRCA1 (113705) gene.
Bullrich, F., MacLachlan, T. K., Sang, N., Druck, T., Veronese, M. L., Allen, S. L., Chiorazzi, N., Koff, A., Heubner, K., Croce, C. M., Giordano, A. Chromosomal mapping of members of the cdc2 family of protein kinases, cdk3, cdk6, PISSLRE, and PITALRE, and a cdk inhibitor, p27-Kip1, to regions involved in human cancer. Cancer Res. 55: 1199-1205, 1995. [PubMed: 7882308]
Meyerson, M., Enders, G. H., Wu, C.-L., Su, L.-K., Gorka, C., Nelson, C., Harlow, E., Tsai, L.-H. A family of human cdc2-related protein kinases. EMBO J. 11: 2909-2917, 1992. [PubMed: 1639063] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05360.x]
Ye, X., Zhu, C., Harper, J. W. A premature-termination mutation in the Mus musculus cyclin-dependent kinase 3 gene. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 98: 1682-1686, 2001. [PubMed: 11172011] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.98.4.1682]