MAP kinase pathways: Molecular plug-and-play chips for the cell

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways transduce a large variety of external signals in mammals, unicellular eukaryotes, and plants. In recent years, plant MAPK pathways have attracted increasing interest resulting in the isolation of a large number of different components. Studies on the function of these components have revealed that MAPKs play important roles in the response to a broad variety of stresses, but also in the signaling of plant hormones and the cell cycle. Besides giving an update on recent results, the success and logic of MAPK-based signal transduction cascades is discussed.