Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

CDK8

Cyclin-dependent kinase 8

Also known as: CDK8_HUMAN, K35

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P49336
Gene
CDK8
Ensembl
ENSG00000132964
Chromosome
13
Canonical length
464 aa
Protein class
Disease related genes, Enzymes, Human disease related genes, Plasma proteins, Potential drug targets, Predicted intracellular proteins
Subcellular location
Nucleoplasm

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene encodes a member of the cyclin-dependent protein kinase (CDK) family. CDK family members are known to be important regulators of cell cycle progression. This kinase and its regulatory subunit, cyclin C, are components of the Mediator transcriptional regulatory complex, involved in both transcriptional activation and repression by phosphorylation of the carboxy-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II. This kinase regulates transcription by targeting the cyclin-dependent kinase 7 subunits of the general transcription initiation factor IIH, thus providing a link between the Mediator complex and the basal transcription machinery. Multiple pseudogenes of this gene have been identified. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2016]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

464 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P49336|CDK8
     1  MDYDFKVKLS SERERVEDLF EYEGCKVGRG TYGHVYKAKR KDGKDDKDYA LKQIEGTGIS
    61  MSACREIALL RELKHPNVIS LQKVFLSHAD RKVWLLFDYA EHDLWHIIKF HRASKANKKP
   121  VQLPRGMVKS LLYQILDGIH YLHANWVLHR DLKPANILVM GEGPERGRVK IADMGFARLF
   181  NSPLKPLADL DPVVVTFWYR APELLLGARH YTKAIDIWAI GCIFAELLTS EPIFHCRQED
   241  IKTSNPYHHD QLDRIFNVMG FPADKDWEDI KKMPEHSTLM KDFRRNTYTN CSLIKYMEKH
   301  KVKPDSKAFH LLQKLLTMDP IKRITSEQAM QDPYFLEDPL PTSDVFAGCQ IPYPKREFLT
   361  EEEPDDKGDK KNQQQQQGNN HTNGTGHPGN QDSSHTQGPP LKKVRVVPPT TTSGGLIMTS
   421  DYQRSNPHAA YPNPGPSTSQ PQSSMGYSAT SQQPPQYSHQ THRY

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against CDK8 can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Intracellular
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.38
Highest tissue expression
9.5 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • colon: 9.5 nTPM
  • small intestine: 6.4 nTPM
  • duodenum: 5.6 nTPM
  • urinary bladder: 4.8 nTPM
  • testis: 4.5 nTPM
  • stomach: 4.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • myosatellite cells: 478 nCPM
  • myonuclei: 427 nCPM
  • prostatic club cells: 340 nCPM
  • thyrotrophs: 270 nCPM
  • cone photoreceptor cells: 261 nCPM
  • oligodendrocyte progenitor cells: 243 nCPM

Immune cell

  • eosinophil: 0.8 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0.4 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0.3 nTPM
  • naive CD4 T-cell: 0.3 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0.2 nTPM
  • memory CD8 T-cell: 0.2 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebellum: 14 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 12 nTPM
  • midbrain: 11 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 10 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 10 nTPM
  • pons: 10 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about CDK8.

Disease | AllUniProt

Conditions CDK8 is implicated in, by any mechanism.

  • Intellectual developmental disorder with hypotonia and behavioral abnormalities (IDDHBA) MIM:618748

Disease | GeneticClinVar

20 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 117 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.42
gnomAD pLI
0.41
gnomAD missense Z
3.68
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.06
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 7% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of CDK8 in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads CDK8 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against CDK8 could matter depends on whether native CDK8 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

CDK8 is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label CDK8 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/CDK8. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...