Cross talk of stress-signal transduction pathways through STK38

Abstract

STK38 is a serine/threonine kinase, which is involved in the regulation of cell polarity and mitosis in yeast. However, the roles of STK38 is unclear in mammalian cells. We have recently found that STK38 plays an inhibitor of MAPKKK in stress-signal activated protein kinase cascades (Enomoto et al., Oncogene 2008). Furthermore, we have investigated the effects of various stimuli and the kinase inhibitor on the STK38 activity. As a result, wortmannin, a PI-3K inhibitor, suppressed oxidative-stress-induced activation of STK38. In this time, we provide a new cross-talk of stress-signal transduction pathways.