All eukaryotic kinases share 1 common set of ...( Kinase mediated phosphorylation is gene...)

Date:8/21/2007

Kinase mediated phosphorylation is generally recognised as the major regulator of virtually all metabolic activities in eukaryotic cells including proliferation, gene expression, motility, vesicular transport and programmed cell death. Dysregulation of protein phosphorylation plays a major role in many diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, the elucidation of many kinase cascades has proved pivotal for understanding and manipulating cellular behaviour in a variety of divergent eukaryotes.

Within these organisms a wide rage of kinases has been defined. The human genome contains over 500 protein kinase genes, whereas the genome of a small plant like Arabidopsis thaliana, the mouse-ear cress, contains nearly 1,000. Despite this diversity, a team led by Maikel Peppelenbosch, PhD, a professor of Cell Biology at the University Medical Center in Groningen, the Netherlands, has established that all eukaryotic kinases share a common set of substrates, nine amino acid segments shared by all proteins that are known to be phosphorylated.

The teams work is to be published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE on August 22nd.

Using a peptide array, the investigators tested all kinase substrates described in the PhosphoBase phosphorylation database. They incubated them with radio actively labelled ATP as a source of phosphate, and lysates (cell content) of two species of yeast (Candida albicans and Pichia pastoris), a fungus (Fusarium solani), a plant (Triticum aeastivum, wheat), a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), a mouse (Mus musculus), and man (Homo sapiens) as a source of kinases. Their results show that the large diversity of kinases tested is contrasted by a very small diversity in the substrates that are sensitive to them.

These results indicate that, although probably thousands of different kinases have developed during the 2.4 billion years of eukaryotic evolution, they show no significant fun
'/>"/>

Contact: Professor Maikel Peppelenbosch m.p.peppelenbosch@med.umcg.nl Public Library of Science Source:Eurekalert

0 GOOD

Page: 1 2
Related biology news :

1. Man and mouse share genome structures
2. Plants, animals share molecular growth mechanisms
3. Ancient olfaction protein is shared by many bugs, offering new pest control target
4. A new study examines how shared pathogens affect host populations
5. The lopsided brain: Attention bias is shared by humans and birds
6. A new way to share models of biological systems
7. Insects and mammals share common fat-building pathway, study suggests
8. Evolution mystery: Spider venom and bacteria share same toxin
9. More evidence mammals, fruit flies share make-up on function of biological clocks
10. Malaria, potato famine pathogen share surprising trait
11. Ocean seep mollusks may share evolutionary history with other deep-sea creatures