Enables protein serine/threonine kinase activity. Involved in autophagy and response to starvation. Acts upstream of or within axon extension and negative regulation of collateral sprouting. Located in phagophore assembly site membrane. Is expressed in facial bone primordium; nervous system; and sensory organ. Orthologous to human ULK2 (unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 2). [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Apr 2022]