Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

2012 Edition
| Editors: Sangdun Choi

Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases

Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0461-4_193
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Synonyms

 MAP kinases;  Microtubule-associated protein kinases

Historical Background

Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are a family of serine/threonine kinases that play a key role in transducing chemical and physical extracellular signals into a variety of intracellular responses. These protein kinases are among the most highly studied signaling molecules, as reflected by the more than 65,000 papers on “MAP kinase” listed in PubMed as of July 2011. This chapter provides a broad overview of the different subfamilies of MAP kinases. Each subfamily will then be treated in more detail in individual entries of this encyclopedia.

The discovery of MAP kinases goes back to 1987 when Ray and Sturgill reported the identification of a novel insulin-stimulated serine/threonine kinase activity from extracts of 3T3-L1 adipocytes that was capable of phosphorylating microtubule-associated protein-2 in vitro (Ray and Sturgill 1987). As a result, the enzyme was called microtubule-associated...

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of PharmacologyInstitut de Recherche en Immunologie et Cancérologie, Université de MontréalMontrealCanada
  2. 2.Program of Molecular BiologyInstitut de Recherche en Immunologie et Cancérologie, Université de MontréalMontrealCanada