Interaction with C21ORF2 controls the cellular functioning of the NEK1 kinase
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract NEK1 is a pleiotropic protein kinase implicated in mitosis, ciliogenesis and DNA repair but little is known about its regulation or targets. Its relevance for human health is underscored by the association of NEK1 mutations with human diseases including axial spondylometaphyseal dyplasia (SMD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Mutations in the C21ORF2 gene are associated with a similar pattern of human diseases, suggesting close functional links with NEK1 . Here we report that in unperturbed, untransformed cells, endogenous NEK1 and C21ORF2 form a tight complex that does not appear to contain other proteins. A small acidic domain “CID: C21ORF2 interaction domain” at the C-terminus of NEK1 is necessary and sufficient to interact with C21ORF2, and pathogenic mutations in this region disrupt the complex. AlphaFold modelling predicts with high confidence an extended binding interface between a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain in the N-terminal half of C21ORF2 and a stretch of the NEK1-CID; mutating residues mediating electrostatic interactions within this interface disrupts the NEK1-C21ORF2 interaction. This model also explains why pathogenic mutations disrupt the complex. We go on to show that the kinase activity of NEK1 and its interaction with C21ORF2 is critical for NEK1 function in cells. These data reveal C21ORF2 as a regulatory subunit of NEK1, illuminating our understanding of how this kinase is regulated and NEK1-C21ORF2-associated diseases.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".