Characterization and expression of the gene encoding En-MAPK1, an intestinal cell kinase (ICK)-like kinase activated by the autocrine pheromone-signaling loop in the Polar Ciliate, Euplotes nobilii

In the protozoan ciliate Euplotes, a transduction pathway resulting in a mitogenic cell growth response is activated by autocrine receptor binding of cell type-specific, water-borne signaling protein pheromones. In Euplotes raikovi, a marine species of temperate waters, this transduction pathway was previously shown to involve the phosphorylation of a nuclear protein kinase structurally similar to the intestinal-cell and male germ cell-associated kinases described in mammals. In E. nobilii, which is phylogenetically closely related to E. raikovi but inhabits Antarctic and Arctic waters, we have now characterized a gene encoding a structurally homologous kinase. The expression of this gene requires +1 translational frameshifting and a process of intron splicing for the production of the active protein, designated En-MAPK1, which contains amino acid substitutions of potential significance for cold-adaptation.