{"entity":{"id":"tlk2","kind":"target","name":"TLK2","aka":["tousled like kinase 2","Serine/threonine-protein kinase tousled-like 2","PKU-ALPHA","MGC44450"],"tldr":"TLK2 (Serine/threonine-protein kinase tousled-like 2) is a protein kinase, an enzyme that switches other proteins on by adding phosphate groups. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, a biomarker and a DNA repair gene, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Breast cancer.","summary":"Serine/threonine-protein kinase involved in the process of chromatin assembly and probably also DNA replication, transcription, repair, and chromosome segregation. Phosphorylates the chromatin assembly factors ASF1A and ASF1B. Phosphorylation of ASF1A prevents its proteasome-mediated degradation, thereby enhancing chromatin assembly.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant, naming Go6983 and GF109203X.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:11842","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:11842"},{"label":"UniProt Q86UE8","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q86UE8/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 11011","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/11011"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000146872","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000146872"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic"],"cancers":["breast-cancer"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 2 therapies; CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants; UniProt keyword \"DNA damage\". Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"TLK2","role":["drug-target","biomarker","dna-repair"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:11842","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:11842","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt Q86UE8","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q86UE8/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene TLK2","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/8787","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: Breast Cancer (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"specificity":"broadly-expressed","distribution":"one-type","specificityNote":"Broadly expressed or essential: HPA lists TLK2 among essential proteins and finds the RNA at low tissue specificity; a medicine acting on the wild-type protein would expose normal tissue too. HPA TLK2: RNA low tissue specificity; no normal tissue stained high. Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Breast cancer (all types)); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas TLK2 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000146872-TLK2/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000146872 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000146872/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:11842","ensembl":"ENSG00000146872","uniprot":"Q86UE8","entrez":"11011","firstDescribed":1997,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Yamakawa et al, Gene, 1997, \"cDNA cloning and chromosomal mapping of genes encoding novel protein kinases termed PKU-alpha and PKU-beta, which have nuclear localization signal\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9427565/","biology":"Serine/threonine-protein kinase involved in the process of chromatin assembly and probably also DNA replication, transcription, repair, and chromosome segregation. Phosphorylates the chromatin assembly factors ASF1A and ASF1B. Phosphorylation of ASF1A prevents its proteasome-mediated degradation, thereby enhancing chromatin assembly. Negative regulator of amino acid starvation-induced autophagy. Location: Nucleus; Nucleus, nucleoplasm; Cytoplasm, perinuclear region; Cytoplasm, cytoskeleton (UniProt). Locus 17q23.2 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Breast cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease"],"targetClass":"kinase","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/tlk2/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"}]}}