A new serine/threonine protein kinase, Omphk1, essential to ventral body wall formation

Here, we report a new serine/threonine protein kinase of the SNF1 subfamily Omphk1. Two Omphk homologues exist in each vertebrate species, and one homologue exists in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans; the kinase domain is highly conserved among these homologues, and several domains are conserved among vertebrate Omphk. Omphk1 expression dynamically changes in the developing central nervous system, is found ubiquitously in epidermis, and is present uniquely in several other tissues. Its expression is also found in each tissue associated with the ventral body wall closure: the primary body wall composed of primitive ectoderm and each component of the secondary body wall. Concomitantly, its null mutant exhibits omphalocele with a failure in closure of the secondary body wall. There are no apparent gross morphological defects in brain, however, despite the unique Omphk1 expression in this tissue.