Exon-intron structure of the human PTK6 gene demonstrates that PTK6 constitutes a distinct family of non-receptor tyrosine kinase.

Partial PTK6 (also known as Brk) cDNA was initially isolated by reverse transcription-PCR of normal human melanocyte mRNAs and the full-length cDNA encodes a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase with an SH3 domain, an SH2 domain, and a kinase catalytic domain. We have cloned the human PTK6 gene by screening human genomic lambda libraries using the full-length PTK6 cDNA as probe. The human PTK6 gene consists of 8 exons encompassing 8.8 kb and all the splicing junctions followed the conserved GT/AG rule. Coding sequence of the PTK6 gene was identical to that of the cDNA cloned from T-47D, human breast tumor cell line. Although the amino acid sequence of the PTK6 polypeptide showed the strongest homology to those of the Src family members of protein tyrosine kinases, exon-intron boundaries of the PTK6 gene were quite different from those of the Src family genes, which are evolutionarily conserved. The 813-bp 5'-flanking sequence of the PTK6 gene upstream of a luciferase reporter gene conferred significant promoter activity, at approximately 60% level of the SV40 promoter, in transient expression assays into MCF-7, human breast tumor cell line. PTK6 mRNA was expressed at very high level in colon and at high levels in small intestine and prostate, and at low levels in some tested fetal tissues. These results suggest that PTK6 constitutes an evolutionarily distinct family of non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases and may function as an intracellular signal transducer in specific tissues.