title: Regulation and function of the RSK family of protein kinases.
abstract: The RSK (90 kDa ribosomal S6 kinase) family comprises a group of highly related serine/threonine kinases that regulate diverse cellular processes, including cell growth, proliferation, survival and motility. This family includes four vertebrate isoforms (RSK1, RSK2, RSK3 and RSK4), and single family member orthologues are also present in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. The RSK isoforms are downstream effectors of the Ras/ERK (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase) signalling pathway. Significant advances in the field of RSK signalling have occurred in the past few years, including several new functions ascribed to the RSK isoforms, the discovery of novel protein substrates and the implication of different RSK isoforms in cancer. Collectively, these new findings increase the diversity of biological functions regulated by RSK, and highlight potential new directions of research. In the present paper, we review the structure, expression and activation mechanisms of the RSK isoforms, and discuss their physiological roles on the basis of established substrates and recent discoveries.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, Université de Montréal, PO Box 6128, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3C 3J7.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.forename: Xiaocui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Philippe P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Roux
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D059447:Cell Cycle Checkpoints / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D004789:Enzyme Activation / Q000502:physiology; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000502:physiology; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D038744:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 90-kDa / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D038744:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 90-kDa; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases