Light-Activated Kinases Enable Temporal Dissection of Signaling Networks in Living Cells

We report a general strategy for creating protein kinases in mammalian cells that are poised for very rapid activation by light. By photoactivating a caged version of MEK1, we demonstrate the specific, rapid, and receptor independent activation of an artificial subnetwork within the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway. Time-lapse microscopy allowed us to precisely characterize the kinetics of elementary steps in the signaling cascade and provided insight into adaptive feedback and rate-determining processes in the pathway.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  Journal of the American Chemical Society

• Publication date

  2011-01-27

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1021/ja1109979PMID 21271704PMCID 3048767
• 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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