Redundancy in the World of MAP Kinases: All for One

The protein kinases ERK1 and ERK2 are the effector components of the prototypical ERK1/2 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway. This signaling pathway regulates cell proliferation, differentiation and survival, and is essential for embryonic development and cellular homeostasis. ERK1 and ERK2 homologs share similar biochemical properties but whether they exert specific physiological functions or act redundantly has been a matter of controversy. However, recent studies now provide compelling evidence in support of functionally redundant roles of ERK1 and ERK2 in embryonic development and physiology. In this review, we present a critical assessment of the evidence for the functional specificity or redundancy of MAP kinase isoforms. We focus on the ERK1/ERK2 pathway but also discuss the case of JNK and p38 isoforms.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

• Publication date

  2016-06-27

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fcell.2016.00067PMID 27446918PMCID 4921452
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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