PIM1

Proto-oncogene serine/threonine-protein kinase Pim-1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the PIM1 gene.

Pim-1 is a proto-oncogene which encodes for the serine/threonine kinase of the same name. The pim-1 oncogene was first described in relation to murine T-cell lymphomas, as it was the locus most frequently activated by the Moloney murine leukemia virus. Subsequently, the oncogene has been implicated in multiple human cancers, including prostate cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and other hematopoietic malignancies. Primarily expressed in spleen, thymus, bone marrow, prostate, oral epithelial, hippocampus and fetal liver cells, Pim-1 has also been found to be highly expressed in cell cultures isolated from human tumors. Pim-1 is mainly involved in cell cycle progression, apoptosis and transcriptional activation, as well as more general signal transduction pathways.

Gene

Located on chromosome 6 (6p21.2), the gene encompasses 5Kb of DNA, including 6 exons and 5 introns. Expression of Pim-1 has been shown to be regulated by the JAK/STAT pathway. Direct binding of transcription factors STAT3 and STAT5 to the Pim-1 promoter results in the transcription of Pim-1. The Pim-1 gene has been found to be conserved in dogs, cows, mice, rats, zebrafish and C. elegans. Pim-1 deficient mice have been shown to be phenotypically normal, indicating that there is redundancy in the function of this kinase. In fact, sequence homology searches have shown that two other Pim-1-like kinases, Pim-2 and Pim-3, are structurally and functionally similar. The Pim-1 gene encodes has multiple translation initiation sites, resulting in two proteins of 34 and 44kD.