| ID | Sequence | Length | GC content |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGAGAGGCCCAGGGGACAGCCAGGGACAGGCAGACAUGCAGCCAGGGCU… | 2709 nt | 0.6456 | |
| AGAGAGGCCCAGGGGACAGCCAGGGACAGGCAGACAUGCAGCCAGGGCU… | 2844 nt | 0.6494 | |
| AGAGAGGCCCAGGGGACAGCCAGGGACAGGCAGACAUGCAGCCAGGGCU… | 2752 nt | 0.6486 | |
| AGAGAGGCCCAGGGGACAGCCAGGGACAGGCAGACAUGCAGCCAGGGCU… | 2694 nt | 0.6444 | |
| AGAGAGGCCCAGGGGACAGCCAGGGACAGGCAGACAUGCAGCCAGGGCU… | 2799 nt | 0.6495 |
The protein encoded by this gene is a serine-threonine kinase that is closely related to other kinases that interact with members of the Rho family of small GTPases. Substrates for this enzyme include myogenin, the beta-subunit of the L-type calcium channels, and phospholemman. The 3' untranslated region of this gene contains 5-38 copies of a CTG trinucleotide repeat. Expansion of this unstable motif to 50-5,000 copies causes myotonic dystrophy type I, which increases in severity with increasing repeat element copy number. Repeat expansion is associated with condensation of local chromatin structure that disrupts the expression of genes in this region. Several alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene have been described, but the full-length nature of some of these variants has not been determined. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2016]
A study in humans demonstrated that a patient with sudden cardiac death was genetically diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) due to a DMPK CTG repeat expansion (>150 repeats) [Yamamoto et al. DOI:10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.109906]. This expansion was associated with abnormal RNA splicing of the DMPK in cardiac and skeletal muscle, a pattern characteristic of DM1, suggesting it as a potential molecular mechanism for the fatal event and highlighting the utility of genetic analysis for postmortem molecular diagnosis. Research in mice with cardiomyocyte-specific ablation of Mbnl1 and Mbnl2, which models the splicing dysregulation caused by DMPK expansions, recapitulated sudden cardiac death and revealed extensive cardiac spliceopathy and gene expression changes, including mis-splicing of the DMPK and other targets [Lee et al. DOI:10.1093/hmg/ddac108].