Identification of Four Novel Human Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases Defines a Multi-isoform Subfamily

Abstract

Phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinases have critical roles in diverse cellular signalling processes and in protein trafficking. This suggests that like other intracellular signalling molecules, e.g., phospholipase C and protein kinase C, there might be a large family of PI 3-kinase isoforms with the individual members having discrete signalling roles. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction methods, using degenerate oligonucleotide primers against the lipid kinase consensus region, revealed eight sequences from human cDNA containing a high degree of identity to the family of PI 3-kinases. The sequences obtained included the previously described p110α, p110β, and p110γ isoforms and HsVps34. Additionally, we have identified four novel sequences which are related to PI 3-kinases. Three of the novel sequences would appear to form a distinct sub-family of PI 3-kinases. We report the expression of these novel PI 3-kinases in human tissues and in cells derived from normal breast.