MAPK signaling specificity: it takes two to tango

• Published in: Trends in cell biology Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 254 - 257
• Main Authors: Breitkreutz, Ashton, Tyers, Mike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2002
• Subjects: Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; Carrier Proteins; cell signaling; Enzyme Activation; FMN Reductase; Fus3; invasive growth; Kss1; MAP Kinase Signaling System - drug effects; mating; Mating Factor; mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK); Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases - metabolism; NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases - metabolism; Peptides - pharmacology; Reproduction - drug effects; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - metabolism; Saccharomycetales - drug effects; Saccharomycetales - enzymology; Saccharomycetales - growth & development; Saccharomycetales - metabolism; scaffold protein; specificity; Ste5; Substrate Specificity; yeast; invasive growth; Kss1; Ste5; cell signaling; specificity; mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK); scaffold protein; Cell biology; Biochemistry; Fus3; yeast; mating
• ISSN: 0962-8924; 1879-3088
• DOI: 10.1016/S0962-8924(02)02284-5

A surprisingly limited repertoire of core signaling pathways generates an enormous diversity of responses, often in a cell type-specific manner. Even within one cell, a single pathway might yield two different responses depending on the input signal. In budding yeast, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) module seems to transmit both mating pheromone and invasive growth signals in the same yeast cell. We discuss recent insights into mechanisms of differential MAPK activation in this system. The means by which two inputs into the same MAP kinase module in the same haploid cell yield two evidently different cellular responses (mating/ invasive growth) is the subject of an ongoing and intense debate that has been fuelled by recent results.