Historical Background
The transmission of extracellular signals to their intracellular targets is mediated by a network of interacting proteins that governs a large number of cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, stress response, and apoptosis. One of the central components in the transmission network is the ERK cascade, which is composed of sequential phosphorylation and activation of the protein kinases Raf, MEK, ERK, and MAPKAPKs. In turn, the latter two components of the cascade phosphorylate a large number of regulatory proteins, culminating in the induction and regulation of proper downstream cellular processes. This cascade was identified in the late 1980s and early 1990s of the previous century by several research groups that studied growth factor receptor signaling. At that...
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation. RS is an incumbent of the Yale S. Lewine and Ella Miller Lewine professorial chair for cancer research.
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Procaccia, S., Seger, R. (2018). Mek. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_424
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