MAP Kinase Signaling

The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are signal transduction pathways that involve a chain of 3 dual specificity kinases activating each other in series (MAPKKK, MAPKK, and MAPK). The 3 main MAPK families are: ERK (extracellular signal-related kinase), p38 MAPK, and JNK/SAPK (c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinase). Cell division, migration, and survival generally involve ERK signaling. Cellular stress activates the p38 MAPK and JNK/SAPK pathways. The p38 MAPK pathway mediates cell motility, transcription, and chromatin remodeling. JNK/SAPK signaling regulates apoptosis and inflammation. Additional potential MAPK pathways, such as ERK5, have yet to be fully characterized. MAP kinases regulate a wide variety of cellular processes, and they each phosphorylate many different substrates. MAP kinase pathway dysregulation is common during oncogenesis as well as other diseases. Analyzing the expression, regulation, and sequence of MAPK genes can help determine their relative importance to the biology of the cellular or disease processes under study.

QIAGEN provides a broad range of assay technologies for MAP kinase signaling research that enables analysis of gene expression and regulation, epigenetic modification, genotyping, and signal transduction pathway activation. Solutions optimized for MAP kinase signaling studies include PCR array, miRNA, siRNA, mutation analysis, pathway reporter, chromatin IP, DNA methylation, and protein expression products.