Cell cycle- and terminal differentiation-associated regulation of the mouse mRNA encoding a conserved mitotic protein kinase.

We determined the nucleotide sequence of a mouse and a human cDNA, which we designate STPK13, that encodes an apparent protein kinase related to that encoded by the Drosophila melanogaster polo gene and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae CDC5 gene. The polo and CDC5 gene products are required for normal mitosis. The STPK13 mRNA is regulated during terminal erythrodifferentiation and during the cell cycle. Within the precommitment period of murine erythroleukemia cell terminal differentiation, most of the poly(A) tail is lost from the STPK13 mRNA, but the body of the mRNA remains unchanged in abundance; this poly(A) loss does not occur in mutant erythroleukemia cells that fail to commit to terminal differentiation. During the cell cycle, the abundance of the body of the STPK13 mRNA fluctuates. The mRNA is present in growing but not in nongrowing cells. It reaches a maximum abundance during G2/M phase, is absent or present at only low levels during G1 phase, and begins to reaccumulate at approximately the middle of S phase. The cell cycle-associated accumulation and loss of the STPK13 mRNA could cause a similar fluctuation in abundance of its encoded protein kinase, thereby providing a maximum amount during M phase, when the kinase is thought to function, and little or none at other times of the cell cycle. Posttranscriptional regulation must be responsible for the cell cycle-associated fluctuations because transcription rates are relatively constant during different times of the cell cycle when there are large differences in mRNA abundance.