Protein Kinases Kinase is a type of enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from high energy donor molecules, such as ATP, to specific substrates, a process referred to as phosphorylation. Kinases are part of the larger family of phosphotransferases. One of the largest groups of kinases is protein kinases, which act on and modify the activity of specific proteins. Kinases are used extensively to transmit signals and control complex processes in cells. More than five hundred different kinases have been identified in humans. Their diversity and their role in signaling make them an object of intensive studies. Quite a few protein kinases have been identified a reliable drug discovery targets. Various other kinases act on small molecules such as lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, and nucleotides, either for signaling or to prime them for metabolic pathways. The human protein kinase family is divided into the following groups: • AGC kinases: containing PKA, PKC and PKG. • CaM kinases: containing the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases. • CK1: containing the casein kinase 1 group. • CMGC: containing CDK, MAPK, GSK3 and CLK kinases. • STE: containing the homologs of yeast Sterile 7, Sterile 11, and Sterile 20 kinases. • TK: containing the tyrosine kinases. • TKL: containing the tyrosine-kinase like group of kinases. All kinases use ATP as their substrate to give ADP as a product. Most of the commercial protein kinase assay kits are based on monitoring either the phosphopeptide formation or the ATP depletion. For the kinase assay kits that are based on the detection of phosphopeptides, one has to spend time and efforts to identify an optimized peptide substrate while the ATP depletion method suffers various interferences due to the use of luciferase that is inhibited or activated by various biological compounds. However, both our ATP and ADP detection kits might be used for monitoring a kinase activity generically. Amplite™ Universal Fluorimetric Kinase Assay Kit (Cat# 31001) is based on monitoring ADP formation, which is directly proportional to enzyme phosphotransferase activity and is measured fluorimetrically. This enzyme-coupled kit provides a fast, simple, and homogeneous assay to measure kinase activities. It is a non-radioactive and no wash method to detect the amount of ADP produced from enzyme reaction. Its characteristics of high sensitivity (
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 17:05:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015