The betaCK2tes Gene Encodes the Tissue-Specific Regulatory Subunit of Casein Kinase 2 in Drosophila melanogaster

A. I. Kalmykova,¹ A. A. Dobritsa,¹ and V. A. Gvozdev^1,2

¹Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, pl. Kurchatova 46, Moscow, 123182 Russia; fax: (7-095) 196-02-21; E-mail: vgvozdev@glas.apc.org

²To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Submitted January 24, 1997.

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The betaCK2tes gene encodes a new variant of the tissue-specific regulatory beta-subunit of casein kinase 2 (CK2). The betaCK2tes open reading frame comprises nucleotide stretches encoding for the conservative polypeptide motifs characteristic for the CK2 beta-subunit including the Glu/Asp rich region responsible for regulation of CK2, C-terminal fragment responsible for binding to the catalytic alpha-subunit, and "zinc finger" motif. Unlike conserved sequences of CK2 beta-subunits in other organisms, the betaCK2tes polypeptide has no autophosphorylation site or other putative phosphorylation sites. betaCK2tes is expressed only in testes, whereas betaCK2 expression is maximal at embryonic stages and is detected also in larvae. We suggest that betaCK2tes determines substrate specificity of CK2 and/or CK2 activity during spermatogenesis in Drosophila.

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KEY WORDS: protein kinase, casein kinase 2, spermatogenesis, Drosophila melanogaster.

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