Chapter category: Cell Cycle
CAK from Marine Invertebrates to Human
The CDK-Activating Kinase (CAK)
Edited by: Philipp KaldisISBN: 0-306-47438-7
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Chapter authors:
Randy Y.C. Poon
The eukaryotic cell cycle is driven by an evolutionarily conserved engine consisting of a series of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin modules. The orderly events of the cell cycle depend on the complex interplay of many factors, but the long-held idea that activation and inhibition of different cyclin-CDK drive different phases of the cell cycle still remains a good approximation. The activities of CDKs are highly regulated both positively and negatively, and most of these regulators of the CDKs have been conserved down to molecular detail during evolution from yeast to human. However, it is interesting that CDK-activating kinase (CAK), the protein kinase that phosphorylates the conserved activating threonine residue in the CDKs, seem to have diverged considerably. The composition, functions, and regulation of CAK in higher eukaryotes are discussed in this review. CAK in yeast and other organisms are discussed elsewhere in this volume. Since there is no definite proof of the existence of other CAKs in metazoans at this moment, the complex containing cyclin H-CDK7-MAT1 will be presumed to be the CAK in metazoans here, although the evidence of the existence of other CAKs will also be discussed.
Additional chapters from this book:
Structural Aspects of CDK Activation
Nick R. Brown and Jane A. Endicott
Sequential activation of members of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family orders the events required for DNA replication and cell division. Both the CDK and cyclin families ha...
Activation of CDKs by CAK: CAK in TFIIH
Anne Keriel and Jean-Marc Egly
TFIIH was originally identified as a basal transcription factor involved in protein-coding genes transcription.1,2 The systematic cloning of its nine subunits r...
CDK-Activation in Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe: Specificity Mediated
Thomas Westerling, Damien Hermand and Tomi P. Mäkelä
Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A we...
Activating Phosphorylation of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases in Budding Yeast
Philipp Kaldis, Vasiliki Tsakraklides, Karen E. Ross, Edward Winter
The eukaryotic cell division cycle is controlled via the sequential activation and inactivation of cyclin-dependent protein kinases (cdks). In the budding yeast Sacchar...
CDK-Activating Kinases in Higher Plants
Masaaki Umeda
Recent development in plant molecular genetics has facilitated our understanding of how plants accomplish their body plans in response to various environmental signals. Plants h...
Drosophila CDK7: A Paradigm for CAK in Metazoans
Stéphane Larochelle and Robert P. Fisher
Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A wealth o...
The Evolution of CDK-Activating Kinases
Ji Liu, Edward T. Kipreos
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are essential regulators of the cell cycle and transcription. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the fission ...
CAK from Marine Invertebrates to Human
Randy Y.C. Poon
The eukaryotic cell cycle is driven by an evolutionarily conserved engine consisting of a series of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin modules. The orderly events of the cell cyc...
