Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1. Characteristics of CaMKII
CaMKII is an evolutionally conserved protein. Vertebrate CaMKII evolved
via
duplication of a single ancestral CaMKII gene, resulting in four genes, α,β, γ,and δ, in higher
vertebrates (Tombes et al., 2003). α and β CaMKII are the two major isoforms of the kinase
expressed in the brain, and expressed almost exclusively in the nervous system. CaMKII is
unique among protein kinases because of its oligomeric assembly with a holoenzyme
architecture. The subunit of CaMKII shares a domain structure consisting of catalytic,
regulatory, and association domains (Lin et al., 1987). The molecular conformation of
CaMKII and its binding to calmodulin have been investigated by electron microscopy (Fig. 1)
(Kanaseki et al., 1991).
