Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:2.7.12.2 (MEK)
18,161 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The prototype mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase module is a three-kinase cascade consisting of the MAP kinase, extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) 1 or ERK2, the MAP/ERK kinase (MEK) MEK1 or MEK2, and the MEK kinase, Raf-1 or B-Raf. This and other MAP kinase modules are thought to be critical signal transducers in major cellular events including proliferation, differentiation, and stress responses. To identify novel mammalian MAP kinase modules, polymerase chain reaction was used to isolate a new MEK family member, MEK5, from the rat. MEK5 is more closely related to MEK1 and MEK2 than to the other known mammalian MEKs, MKK3 and MKK4. MEK5 is thought to lie in an uncharacterized MAP kinase pathway, because MEK5 does not phosphorylate the ERK/MAP kinase family members ERK1, ERK2, ERK3, JNK/SAPK, or p38/HOG1, nor will Raf-1, c-Mos, or MEKK1 highly phosphorylate it. Alternative splicing results in a 50-kDa alpha and a 40-kDa beta isoform of MEK5. MEK5 beta is ubiquitously distributed and primarily cytosolic. MEK5 alpha is expressed most highly in liver and brain and is particulate. The 23 amino acids encoded by the 5' exon in the larger alpha isoform are similar to a sequence found in certain proteins believed to associate with the actin cytoskeleton; this alternatively spliced modular domain may lead to the differential subcellular localization of MEK5 alpha.
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PMID:Isolation of MEK5 and differential expression of alternatively spliced forms. 749 18

Mammalian MEK1 and MEK2 contain a proline-rich (PR) sequence that is absent both from the yeast homologs Ste7 and Byr1 and from a recently cloned activator of the JNK/stress-activated protein kinases, SEK1/MKK4. Since this PR sequence occurs in MEKs that are regulated by Raf family enzymes but is missing from MEKs and SEKs activated independently of Raf, we sought to investigate the role of this sequence in MEK1 and MEK2 regulation and function. Deletion of the PR sequence from MEK1 blocked the ability of MEK1 to associate with members of the Raf family and markedly attenuated activation of the protein in vivo following growth factor stimulation. In addition, this sequence was necessary for efficient activation of MEK1 in vitro by B-Raf but dispensable for activation by a novel MEK1 activator which we have previously detected in fractionated fibroblast extracts. Furthermore, we found that a phosphorylation site within the PR sequence of MEK1 was required for sustained MEK1 activity in response to serum stimulation of quiescent fibroblasts. Consistent with this observation, we observed that MEK2, which lacks a phosphorylation site at the corresponding position, was activated only transiently following serum stimulation. Finally, we found that deletion of the PR sequence from a constitutively activated MEK1 mutant rendered the protein nontransforming in Rat1 fibroblasts. These observations indicate a critical role for the PR sequence in directing specific protein-protein interactions important for the activation, inactivation, and downstream functioning of the MEKs.
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PMID:A proline-rich sequence unique to MEK1 and MEK2 is required for raf binding and regulates MEK function. 756 70

Integrin receptors play important roles in organizing the actin-containing cytoskeleton and in signal transduction from the extracellular matrix. The initial steps in integrin function can be analyzed experimentally using beads coated with ligands or anti-integrin antibodies to trigger rapid focal transmembrane responses. A hierarchy of transmembrane actions was identified in this study. Simple integrin aggregation triggered localized transmembrane accumulation of 20 signal transduction molecules, including RhoA, Rac1, Ras, Raf, MEK, ERK, and JNK. In contrast, out of eight cytoskeletal molecules tested, only tensin coaccumulated. Integrin aggregation alone was also sufficient to induce rapid activation of the JNK pathway, with kinetics of activation different from those of ERK. The tyrosine kinase inhibitors herbimycin A or genistein blocked both the accumulation of 19 out of 20 signal transduction molecules and JNK- and ERK-mediated signaling. Cytochalasin D had identical effects, whereas three other tyrosine kinase inhibitors did not. The sole exception among signaling molecules was the kinase pp125FAK which continued to coaggregate with alpha 5 beta 1 integrins even in the presence of these inhibitors. Tyrosine kinase inhibition also failed to block the ability of ligand occupancy plus integrin aggregation to trigger transmembrane accumulation of the three cytoskeletal molecules talin, alpha-actinin, and vinculin; these molecules accumulated even in the presence of cytochalasin D. However, it was necessary to fulfill all four conditions, i.e., integrin aggregation, integrin occupancy, tyrosine kinase activity, and actin cytoskeletal integrity, to achieve integrin-mediated focal accumulation of other cytoskeletal molecules including F-actin and paxillin. Integrins therefore mediate a transmembrane hierarchy of molecular responses.
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PMID:Integrin function: molecular hierarchies of cytoskeletal and signaling molecules. 759 97

Members of the Rho family of small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) regulate the organization of the actin cytoskeleton; Rho controls the assembly of actin stress fibers and focal adhesion complexes, Rac regulates actin filament accumulation at the plasma membrane to produce lamellipodia and membrane ruffles, and Cdc42 stimulates the formation of filopodia. When microinjected into quiescent fibroblasts, Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 stimulated cell cycle progression through G1 and subsequent DNA synthesis. Furthermore, microinjection of dominant negative forms of Rac and Cdc42 or of the Rho inhibitor C3 transferase blocked serum-induced DNA synthesis. Unlike Ras, none of the Rho GTPases activated the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade that contains the protein kinases c-Raf1, MEK (MAPK or ERK kinase), and ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase). Instead, Rac and Cdc42, but not Rho, stimulated a distinct MAP kinase, the c-Jun kinase JNK/SAPK (Jun NH2-terminal kinase or stress-activated protein kinase). Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 control signal transduction pathways that are essential for cell growth.
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PMID:An essential role for Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 GTPases in cell cycle progression through G1. 765 75

Insulin activation of Ras is mediated by the plasma membrane targeting of the guanylnucleotide exchange factor SOS associated with the small adapter protein Grb2. SOS also lies in an insulin-stimulated feedback pathway in which the serine/threonine phosphorylation of SOS results in disassociation of the Grb2-SOS complex thereby limiting the extent of Ras activation. To examine the relative role of the mitogen-activated protein kinases in the feedback phosphorylation of SOS we determined the signaling specificity of insulin, osmotic shock, and anisomycin to activate the ERK (extracellular-signal regulated kinase) and JNK (c-Jun kinase) pathways. In Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing the human insulin receptor and murine 3T3L1 adipocytes, insulin specifically activated ERK with no significant effect on JNK, whereas anisomycin specifically activated JNK but was unable to activate ERK. In contrast, osmotic shock was equally effective in the activation of both kinase pathways. Insulin and osmotic shock, but not anisomycin, resulted in SOS phosphorylation and disassociation of the Grb2-SOS complex, demonstrating that the JNK pathway was not involved in the insulin-stimulated feedback uncoupling of the Grb2- SOS complex. Both the insulin and osmotic shock-induced activation of ERK was prevented by treatment of cells with the specific MEK inhibitor (PD98059). However, expression of dominant-interfering Ras (N17Ras) inhibited the insulin- but not osmotic shock-stimulated phosphorylation of ERK and SOS. These data demonstrate that activation of the ERK pathway, but not JNK, is responsible for the feedback phosphorylation and disassociation of the Grb2-SOS complex.
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PMID:SOS phosphorylation and disassociation of the Grb2-SOS complex by the ERK and JNK signaling pathways. 862 28

The Tpl-2 protein serine/threonine kinase was originally identified, in a C-terminally deleted form, as the product of an oncogene associated with the progression of Moloney murine leukemia virus-induced T cell lymphomas in rats. The kinase domain of Tpl-2 is homologous to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene product, STE11, which encodes a MAP kinase kinase kinase. This suggested that Tpl-2 might have a similar activity. Consistent with this hypothesis, immunoprecipitated Tpl-2 and Tpl-2deltaC (a C-terminally truncated mutant) phosphorylated and activated recombinant fusion proteins of the mammalian MAP kinase kinases, MEK-1 and SEK-1, in vitro. Furthermore, transfection of Tpl-2 into COS-1 cells or Jurkat T cells. markedly activated the MAP kinases, ERK-1 and SAP kinase (JNK), which are substrates for MEK-1 and SEK-1, respectively. Tpl-2, therefore, is a MAP kinase kinase kinase which can activate two MAP kinase pathways. After Raf and Mos, Tpl-2 is the third serine/threonine oncoprotein kinase that has been shown to function as a direct activator of MEK-1.
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PMID:Activation of MEK-1 and SEK-1 by Tpl-2 proto-oncoprotein, a novel MAP kinase kinase kinase. 863 3

Ceramide generation by stimulated sphingomyelinase activity has been implicated in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) signaling of apoptosis and differentiation. We examined the role of ceramide in a major action of TNF: the initiation of inflammatory events. Sphingomyelinase C at high levels induced inflammatory protein expression in endothelial cells resulting in leukocyte adhesion, but the pattern of induction of adhesion molecules (E-selectin, ICAM-1, VCAM-1) and cytokines (interleukins 6 and 8) differed from that induced by TNF. TNF induced only a small increase in ceramide: using lower doses of sphingomyelinase to mimic this we found that small amounts of ceramide did not induce protein expression, but still rapidly activated Raf-1, mitogen-activated protein/extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) kinase (MEK) and ERKs. TNF additionally caused rapid p38 and JNK-1 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and efficient NF-kappaB translocation, which could not be achieved even by high levels of ceramide. Thus activation of the ERK cascade alone is an incomplete endothelial cell stimulus, and the TNF receptor generates at least two signals: Raf-1 activation, which could be ceramide-dependent; and ceramide-independent efficient NF-kappaB translocation and activation of p38 and JNK-1 mitogen-activated kinases.
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PMID:Endothelial cell inflammatory responses to tumor necrosis factor alpha. Ceramide-dependent and -independent mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades. 866 2

Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascades represent one of the major signal systems used by eukaryotic cells to transduce extracellular signals into cellular responses. Four MAP kinase subgroups have been identified in humans: ERK, JNK (SAPK), ERK5 (BMK), and p38. Here we characterize a new MAP kinase, p38beta. p38beta is a 372-amino acid protein most closely related to p38. It contains a TGY dual phosphorylation site, which is required for its kinase activity. Like p38, p38beta is activated by proinflammatory cytokines and environmental stress. A comparison of events associated with the activation of p38beta and p38 revealed differences, most notably in the preferred activation of p38beta by MAP kinase kinase 6 (MKK6), whereas p38 was activated nearly equally by MKK3, MKK4, and MKK6. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo experiments showed a strong substrate preference by p38beta for activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2). Enhancement of ATF2-dependent gene expression by p38beta was approximately20-fold greater than that of p38 and other MAP kinases tested. The data reported here suggest that while closely related, p38beta and p38 may be regulated by differing mechanisms and may exert their actions on separate downstream targets.
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PMID:Characterization of the structure and function of a new mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38beta). 866 24

The identities of the upstream activators of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologues termed stress-activated-protein (SAP) kinase-1 (also known as JNK or SAPK) and SAP kinase-2 (also known as p38, RK and CSBP) were investigated in rat PC12 cells and human KB cells after exposure to cellular stresses and cytokines. In PC12 cells, the same two upstream activators, SAP kinase kinase-1 (SAPKK-1) and SAPKK-2 were activated after exposure to osmotic shock, ultraviolet irradiation or the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin, and more weakly in response to sodium arsenite. SAPKK-1 was capable of activating both SAP kinase-1 and SAP kinase-2 and was similar, if not identical, to the previously described MAP kinase kinase homologue MKK4, as judged by immunological criteria and by its ability to be activated by MEK kinase in vitro. In contrast, SAPKK-2 activated SAP kinase-2, but not SAP kinase-1 in vitro. In KB cells, five distinct upstream activators of SAP kinase-1 and SAP kinase-2 were induced, namely SAPKK-1, SAPKK-2, SAPKK-3, SAPKK-4 and SAPKK-5, whose appearance depended on the nature of the stimulus. SAPKK-3, which was strongly induced by every stimulus tested (osmotic shock, ultraviolet irradiation, anisomycin or IL-1), accounted for about 95% of the SAP kinase-2 activator activity in these cells, did not activate SAP kinase-1 and eluted from Mono S at a lower salt concentration than SAPKK-2. SAPKK-4 and SAPKK-5 were also eluted from Mono S at higher NaC1 concentrations than SAPKK-3 and these enzymes activated SAP kinase-1 but not SAP kinase-2. SAPKK-4 was the only SAP kinase-1 activator induced by interleukin-1 or ultraviolet irradiation, while two SAP kinase-1 activators, SAPKK-1 and SAPKK-5, were induced by osmotic shock or anisomycin. SAPKK-2, SAPKK-3, SAPKK-4 and SAPKK-5, were not activated by MEK kinase in vitro, were separable from the major activator(s) of p42 MAP kinase, and were not recognised by anti-MKK4 antibodies. At least two of these enzymes are likely to be novel MAP kinase kinase homologues. Our results demonstrate unexpected complexity in the upstream regulation of stress and cytokine-stimulated kinase cascades and indicate that the selection of the appropriate SAPKK varies with both the stimulus and the cell type.
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PMID:Cellular stresses and cytokines activate multiple mitogen-activated-protein kinase kinase homologues in PC12 and KB cells. 866 97

The ERK, JNK/SAPK and p38/RK MAP kinase subtypes (reviewed in [1]) are differentially activated in mammalian cells by various stimuli, which elicit induction of immediate-early (IE) genes, such as c-fos and c-jun (reviewed in [1-3]), as well as phosphorylation of histone H3 [4] and HMG-14 [5]. Anisomycin and UV radiation have been suggested to induce c-fos and c-jun transcription via JNK/SAPK-mediated phosphorylation of TCF (ternary complex factor), for c-fos induction [6-8], and c-Jun and/or ATF-2 for c-jun induction [9-11] [12,13]. We report here that anisomycin and ultraviolet radiation (UV) activate MAP kinase kinase-6 (MKK6) [14,15], p38/RK [16] [17,18] and MAPKAP kinase-2 (MAPKAP K-2) [17-19]. By using the p38/RK inhibitor SB 203580 [20,21], we show that activation of p38/RK and/or its downstream effectors are essential for anisomycin- and UV-stimulated c-fos/c-jun induction and histone H3/HMG-14 phosphorylation, whereas JNK/SAPK activation and phosphorylation of c-Jun and ATF-2 are insufficient for these responses.
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PMID:p38/RK is essential for stress-induced nuclear responses: JNK/SAPKs and c-Jun/ATF-2 phosphorylation are insufficient. 880 35


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