title: DAPk protein family and cancer.
abstract: The Death-Associated Protein kinase (DAPk) family contains three closely related serine/threonine kinases, named DAPk, ZIPk and DRP-1, which display a high degree of homology in their catalytic domains. The recent discovery of protein-protein interactions and kinase/substrate relationships among these family members suggests that the three kinases may form multi-protein complexes capable of transmitting apoptotic or autophagic cell death signals in response to various cellular stresses including the misregulated expression of oncogenes in pre-malignant cells. Several lines of evidence indicate that the most studied member of the family, DAPk, has tumor and metastasis suppressor properties. Here we present an overview of the data connecting the DAPk family of proteins to cell death and malignant transformation and discuss the possible involvement of the autophagic cell death-inducing capacity of DAPk in its tumor suppressor activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Devrim
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gozuacik
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kimchi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology; D064550:Death-Associated Protein Kinases; D006801:Humans; D008745:Methylation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000502:physiology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000502:physiology; D011485:Protein Binding; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D064550:Death-Associated Protein Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases