Abstract
Living cells, unicellular organisms as well as cells of multicellular organisms, are permanently exposed to a multitude of signals. Cells have to transform these external stimuli into physiological intelligible signals that are transduced from outside of the cell into the cell to induce a proper cellular response. Extracellular stimuli are perceived and internalised by various cellular receptors. Subsequently, signals are transduced by one of many protein kinase signaling cascades. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) belong to the evolutionary most conserved class of such molecular switches. MAPKs can change the activity of target proteins and thereby bring about physiological responses to external signals. This review discusses the basic principles of MAPK pathways in the context of cellular information processing: Cellular bioinformatics is an increasingly important interdisciplinary field with important implications for basic and applied sciences.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1481-1487 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Monatshefte fur Chemie |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Mitogen-activated protein kinase
- Protein phosphorylation
- Signal transduction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry