Background：

The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the Ser/Thr protein kinase family， and PIM subfamily. This gene is expressed primarily in B-lymphoid and myeloid cell lines， and is overexpressed in hematopoietic malignancies and in prostate cancer. It plays a role in signal transduction in blood cells， contributing to both cell proliferation and survival， and thus provides a selective advantage in tumorigenesis. Both the human and orthologous mouse genes have been reported to encode two isoforms (with preferential cellular localization) resulting from the use of alternative in-frame translation initiation codons， the upstream non-AUG (CUG) and downstream AUG codons (PMIDs:16186805， 1825810).