Choline kinase (CK) and ethanolamine kinase (EK) catalyze the phosphorylation of choline/ethanolamine to phosphocholine/phosphoethanolamine. This is the first enzyme in the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylethanolamine in all animal cells. The highly purified CKs from mammalian sources and their recombinant gene products have been shown to have EK activity also, indicating that both activities reside on the same protein. The choline kinase-like protein encoded by CHKL belongs to the choline/ethanolamine kinase family, however, its exact function is not known. Read-through transcripts are expressed from this locus that include exons from the downstream CPT1B locus. [provided by RefSeq, Jun 2009],catalytic activity:ATP + choline = ADP + O-phosphocholine.,catalytic activity:ATP + ethanolamine = ADP + O-phosphoethanolamine.,catalytic activity:Palmitoyl-CoA + L-carnitine = CoA + L-palmitoylcarnitine.,miscellaneous:This protein is produced by a bicistronic gene which also produces the CHKB protein from a non-overlapping reading frame.,miscellaneous:This protein is produced by a bicistronic gene which also produces the CPT1B protein from a non-overlapping reading frame.,pathway:Lipid metabolism, fatty acid beta-oxidation.,similarity:Belongs to the carnitine/choline acetyltransferase family.,similarity:Belongs to the choline/ethanolamine kinase family.,tissue specificity:Strong expression in heart and skeletal muscle. No expression in liver and kidney.,
