Protein kinases

A protein kinase is a kinase enzyme that modifies other proteins by chemically adding phosphate groups to them (phosphorylation). Phosphorylation usually results in a functional change of the target protein (substrate) by changing enzyme activity, cellular location, or association with other proteins. The human genome contains about 560 protein kinase genes and they constitute about 2% of all human genes. Up to 30% of all human proteins may be modified by kinase activity, and kinases are known to regulate the majority of cellular pathways, especially those involved in signal transduction. Protein kinases are also found in bacteria and plants, and include the pseudokinase sub-family, which exhibit unusual features including atypical nucleotide binding and weak, or no, catalytic activity and are part of a much larger pseudoenzyme group of 'degraded' enzyme relatives that are found throughout life, where they take an active participation in mechanistic cellular signaling.

The chemical activity of a kinase involves transferring a phosphate group from a nucleoside triphosphate (usually ATP) and covalently attaching it to specific amino acids with a free hydroxyl group. Most kinases act on both serine and threonine (serine/threonine kinases), others act on tyrosine (tyrosine kinases), and a number act on all three (dual-specificity kinases). There are also protein kinases that phosphorylate other amino acids, including histidine kinases that phosphorylate histidine residues to create acid and heat-labile phosphoramidate bonds. Recent evidence preprinted at BioRxiv suggests widespread protein phosphorylation on multiple non-canonical amino acids, including motifs containing phosphorylated histidine, aspartate, glutamate, arginine and lysine in human HeLa cell extracts. Due to the chemical lability of these phosphorylated residues, special procedures and separation techniques are required for their preservation alongside classical Ser, Thr and Tyr phosphorylation.

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