title: Dimerization A Key Mechanism of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Activation.
abstract: Receptor tyrosine kinase superfamily includes a group of growth factor receptors with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity which share similar molecular structure. Their ligand-induced activation is mediated primarily by the receptor dimerization. It was proposed that ligand-induced homo- or hetero- dimerization is essential for the activation of receptor kinase however, the mechanisms of receptor dimerization are different. This review introduces the ligand-induced dimerization of different receptor tyrosine kinase subclasses and concentrates on heterodimerization between members of EGF receptor family, resulting the various cellular signaling pathways.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. qslin@server.shcnc.ac.cn
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Qi-Shui
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Lin