Dclk1 - doublecortin-like kinase 1

This gene encodes a member of the protein kinase superfamily and the doublecortin family. The typical protein encoded by this gene contains two N-terminal doublecortin domains, which bind microtubules and regulate microtubule polymerization, a C-terminal serine/threonine protein kinase domain, which shows substantial homology to Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, and a serine/proline-rich domain in between the doublecortin and the protein kinase domains, which mediates multiple protein-protein interactions. The microtubule-polymerizing activity of the protein is independent of its protein kinase activity. This gene is involved in several different cellular processes, including neuronal migration, retrograde transport, neuronal apoptosis and neurogenesis. Multiple transcript variants generated by two alternative promoter usage and alternative splicing have been found, but the full-length nature of the variant produced from the 5' promoter has not been determined. Current reference sequence data represents two alternatively spliced transcript variants produced from the 3' promoter and their protein products lack the doublecortin domain.[provided by RefSeq, Sep 2010]