Group A: Discussion Question 3

31 January 2005

Andrew Chan

Protein phosphorylation is a critical biochemical reaction in intracellular signaling and it is catalyzed by protein kinases. Constitutive activation of protein kinases can lead to oncogenicity as have been described for Bcr-Abl and B-Raf. (i) Name two molecular events that commonly occur in protein kinases that are necessary for full activation. (ii) Name two major domains within the kinase catalytic pocket and describe their roles in catalyzing the phosphotransfer reaction.