BD Transduction Laboratories™ Purified Mouse Anti-Human hCNK1

Proteins of the Ras superfamily play critical roles in the control of normal and neoplastic proliferation. These proteins relay signals from Tyr-kinases at the plasma membrane to the nucleus via a network of Ser/Thr kinases that includes the MAP kinase (Raf-MEK-ERK) pathway. Kinase suppressor of Ras (KSR-1) was discovered in Drosophila in a genetic screen that identified mutations that suppress constitutively active Ras mutants. Connector enhancer of KSR (CNK) was found in a similar screen to identify mutations that enhance the KSR- dependent phenotype. Drosophila CNK contains a sterile alpha motif (SAM), a conserved region in CNK (CRIC), and a PDZ domain in the N-terminal region, a proline-rich and a plecstrin homology (PH) domain in the central region, and a C-terminal Pro-rich domain. The human homologue of CNK (hCNK1) contains similar N-terminal and central domains, but is 713 amino acids in length compared to 1557 amino acids for Drosophila CNK. In Drosophila, the N-terminal region of CNK facilitates binding to RAS, while the C-terminal region inhibits RAS- and RAF-dependent signaling. Thus, CNK may be important for regulation of both RAS- and RAF-dependent signaling.