KINASE ACTIVITY OF VRK2 CAN BE REGULATED BY RNA EDITING WHICH IS ALTERED IN BREAST CANCER

Abstract

Genetic information is transferred from genomic DNA to mRNA to three-dimensional proteins. mRNAs can undergo various posttranscriptional modifications including RNA editing, which can change the sequence of mRNA. Here we found RNA editing occurs on c.499 of human vaccinia- related kinase 2 (VRK2). Both A to G and G to A form of RNA editing can happen on this site. A to G editing is mediated by ADAR1 and G toA editing is mediated by Apobec3A.This base change is nonsynonymous. If the base is A, the amino acid will be I. If the base is G, the amino acid will be V. Moreover, we found that I form of VRK2 has stronger kinase activity than V form. By sequence analysis of cDNA and gDNA from human breast cancer samples, we found I form is more frequent.