Description
Product Characteristics: Cell proliferation is regulated in several contexts, for example during development, tissue differentiation, wound healing and immune responses. In mammalian cells, proliferative signals lead to the activation of a protein kinase cascade, resulting in the phosphorylation of two closely related Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases (MAPK’s) ERK1 and ERK2 of 44 kDa and 42 kDa, respectively. When activated, ERK’s form dimers that translocate to the nucleus where they phosphorylate several classes of transcription factors which are involved in the up-regulation of immediate early genes. As such, ERK1 and ERK2 represent a paradigm for a growing family of proline-directed protein kinases that mediate entry, progression and exit from the cell cycle in diverse eukaryotic cells. These enzymes function within highly conserved cascade of sequentially activating protein kinases that transduce signals from diverse extracellular stimuli. Alternative splice transcript variants encoding different protein isoforms have been described. ERK1 and ERK2 are phosphorylated within the activation loop on both a Threonine and a Tyrosine residue (within a Thr-Glu-Tyr motif) by MEKs (MAPK/ERK kinases), thereby greatly elevating the activity of ERK1&2. In vertebrates the mitogen-induced sequential activation of the kinases Raf1->Mek1->Erk2->Rsk occurs via the G-protein Ras.
Synonyms: MAP kinase 1, MAP kinase 2, p42-MAPK
Target Information: The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the MAP kinase family. MAP kinases, also known as extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), act as an integration point for multiple biochemical signals, and are involved in a wide variety of cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, transcription regulation and development. The activation of this kinase requires its phosphorylation by upstream kinases. Upon activation, this kinase translocates to the nucleus of the stimulated cells, where it phosphorylates nuclear targets. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein, but differing in the UTRs, have been reported for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]