Evolutionary analysis of p38 stress-activated kinases in unicellular relatives of animals suggests an ancestral function in osmotic stress.

ABSTRACT: p38 kinases are key elements of the cellular stress response in animals. They mediate the cell response to a multitude of stress stimuli, from osmotic shock to inflammation and oncogenes. However, it is unknown how such diversity of function in stress evolved in this kinase subfamily. Here, we show that the p38 kinase was already present in a common ancestor of animals and fungi. Later, in animals, it diversified into three JNK kinases and four p38 kinases. Moreover, we identified a fifth p38 paralog in fishes and amphibians. Our analysis shows that each p38 paralog has specific amino acid substitutions around the hinge point, a region between the N-terminal and C-terminal protein domains. We showed that this region can be used to distinguish between individual paralogs and predict their s

SUBMITTER: Shabardina V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9846432 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature