Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

NLK

Serine/threonine-protein kinase NLK

Also known as: NLK_HUMAN

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q9UBE8
Gene
NLK
Ensembl
ENSG00000087095
Chromosome
17
Canonical length
527 aa
Protein class
Enzymes, Predicted intracellular proteins
Subcellular location
Nucleoplasm,Nucleoli,Cell Junctions
Quaternary structure
Homodimer

OverviewNCBI Gene

Enables DNA-binding transcription factor binding activity; protein serine/threonine kinase activity; and ubiquitin protein ligase binding activity. Involved in several processes, including negative regulation of TORC1 signaling; protein stabilization; and transforming growth factor beta receptor signaling pathway. Predicted to be located in cytosol and nucleoplasm. Predicted to be active in cytoplasm and nucleus. [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Jul 2025]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

527 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q9UBE8|NLK
     1  MSLCGARANA KMMAAYNGGT SAAAAGHHHH HHHHLPHLPP PHLHHHHHPQ HHLHPGSAAA
    61  VHPVQQHTSS AAAAAAAAAA AAAMLNPGQQ QPYFPSPAPG QAPGPAAAAP AQVQAAAAAT
   121  VKAHHHQHSH HPQQQLDIEP DRPIGYGAFG VVWSVTDPRD GKRVALKKMP NVFQNLVSCK
   181  RVFRELKMLC FFKHDNVLSA LDILQPPHID YFEEIYVVTE LMQSDLHKII VSPQPLSSDH
   241  VKVFLYQILR GLKYLHSAGI LHRDIKPGNL LVNSNCVLKI CDFGLARVEE LDESRHMTQE
   301  VVTQYYRAPE ILMGSRHYSN AIDIWSVGCI FAELLGRRIL FQAQSPIQQL DLITDLLGTP
   361  SLEAMRTACE GAKAHILRGP HKQPSLPVLY TLSSQATHEA VHLLCRMLVF DPSKRISAKD
   421  ALAHPYLDEG RLRYHTCMCK CCFSTSTGRV YTSDFEPVTN PKFDDTFEKN LSSVRQVKEI
   481  IHQFILEQQK GNRVPLCINP QSAAFKSFIS STVAQPSEMP PSPLVWE

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against NLK 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)
0.35
Highest tissue expression
73 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • retina: 73 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 45 nTPM
  • adrenal gland: 35 nTPM
  • parathyroid gland: 27 nTPM
  • amygdala: 22 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 21 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • retinal pigment epithelial cells: 989 nCPM
  • cone photoreceptor cells: 932 nCPM
  • adrenal cortex cells: 889 nCPM
  • podocytes: 842 nCPM
  • retinal bipolar cells: 613 nCPM
  • late spermatids: 537 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 30 nTPM
  • memory B-cell: 0.6 nTPM
  • memory CD8 T-cell: 0.6 nTPM
  • naive CD8 T-cell: 0.6 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0.5 nTPM
  • memory CD4 T-cell: 0.5 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebral cortex: 95 nTPM
  • white matter: 88 nTPM
  • amygdala: 61 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 60 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 52 nTPM
  • thalamus: 51 nTPM

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)
0.11
gnomAD pLI
1
gnomAD missense Z
3.57
DepMap mean gene effect
0.14
DepMap dependency class
none

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

NLK 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 NLK as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/NLK. 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).

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