New isoforms of multifunctional calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II.

Calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II) seems to act as an important regulator of intracellular signal transmission. Four subtypes, termed alpha to delta, have been cloned; some of them can exist as different splicing variants. All these isoforms share a great overall homology, and they contain 3 areas of low homology. We have identified 5 new variants of subtype delta so that the total number of different isoforms now adds up to 12. These variants are probably a result of different splicing and show several deletions in regard to subtype delta. The deletion sites do exactly match regions of low homology between the subtypes. This suggests a functional division of the CaM kinase II molecule into homologous and variable domains. The homologous domains are highly conserved. Therefore, it might be the case that the constitution of the variable domains is more significant for a certain isoform than its belonging to one of the 4 subtypes alpha to delta.