Title

Analysis of the impact of ERK5, JNK, and P38 kinase cascades on each other: A systems approach

Authors

Pondurangan Sundaramurthy^1,2, Sunita Gakkhar^1,2 and Ramanathan Sowdhamini^2, *

Affiliation

¹Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee - 247667, Uttarakhand, India; ²National Center for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, UAS-GKVK campus, Bellary Road, Bangalore - 560 065, India;

Email

mini@ncbs.res.in; * Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

received November 04, 2008; accepted November 11, 2008; published January 12, 2009

Abstract

The classical concept of linear pathways is being increasingly challenged by network representations, which emphasize the importance of interactions between components of a biological system, and motivates for adopting a system-level approach in biology. We have developed a dynamical system that integrates quantitative, dynamic and topological representation of network of ERK5 (Extracellular signal-regulated kinases 5), JNK(c-Jun N-terminal kinases) and P38 kinase cascades. We have observered that, the transient activation of ERK5, JNK1 and P38β kinase, and the persistent activation of JNK2, JNK3 and P38 δ kinase does not get affected due to the cross-talks between ERK5, JNK and P38 kinase cascades. But it is due to the cross - talks, the transiently activated P38α kinase become inactivated, and the transiently activated P38γ kinase become persistently activated. The impacts of one-way cross-talks between the cascades are insignificant and differ from the impact of two-way cross-talks. We generate a hypothesis that, signaling pathways should be studied as a system by considering the cross-talks between the two adjacent cascades.

Keywords

cross-talks; ERK5, JNK and P38 kinase cascades; systems approach

Citation

Sundaramurthy et al., Bioinformation 3(6): 244-249 (2009)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.