Protein Kinase Evolution

Prokaryotic PKL Kinases

The ePKs are part of a larger family of kinases that share the same fold and catalytic mechanism, most of whom are prokaryotic, and many of which have non-protein substrates.

Archaeae

Archaeae have a very simple set of PKLs: every archaeal genome has just 3 kinases: Bud32, Rio1, and Rio2. Each is also present in all eukaryotes, almost always in single copies (metazoans also have a Rio3). The functions of all three are relatively mysterious and varied, though the Rio's have been associated with translation, jibing with the commonality between eukaryotes and archaeae in the translational apparatus. Bud32 is associated with p53 and gene regulation in metazoans, and with telomere biology, which may also correlate with the archaeal-eukaryotic link in DNA biology.

As far as we know (in 2008), archaeae have no other PKL kinases.