Genomic organization and chromosomal localization of the mouse protein kinase C alpha gene.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of ten isoforms of phospholipid-dependent serine/threonine kinases, which participate in many cellular responses including cell growth, differentiation, and tumorigenesis. Of the isoforms, PKC alpha is distributed ubiquitously in almost all tissues and involved in various signal transductions. Furthermore, PKC alpha plays an important role in the growth and malignant progression of some tumor cell lines. Elucidating the roles of PKC alpha in vivo would lead to understanding of the mechanism of tumorigenesis and other biological functions. In this study, we isolated and characterized genomic DNA clones of the mouse PKC alpha gene (Prkca). The Prkca gene was a unigene consisting of 17 exons and spanning at least 116 kb. All the exon-intron boundaries followed the GT/AG rule. The genomic structure of PKC alpha was markedly conserved among the mouse, human, and fly. By radiation hybrid mapping, the Prkca gene was closely linked to sequence-tagged site marker D11Mit258 that locates 65.0 cM from the centromere of chromosome 11, and its transcription was towards the centromere. This study shows that generation of PKC alpha-mutant mice may reveal the PKC alpha function in vivo.