Dual specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 6 also known as MAP kinase kinase 6 (MAPKK 6) or MAPK/ERK kinase 6 is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that in humans is encoded by the MAP2K6 gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

, on chromosome 17.

Function

MAPKK 6 is a member of the dual specificity protein kinase family, which functions as a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase. MAP kinases, also known as extracellular signal-regulated kinases

Extracellular signal-regulated kinases

In molecular biology, extracellular-signal-regulated kinases or classical MAP kinases are widely expressed protein kinase intracellular signalling molecules that are involved in functions including the regulation of meiosis, mitosis, and postmitotic functions in differentiated cells...

 (ERKs), act as an integration point for multiple biochemical signals. This protein phosphorylates and activates p38 MAP kinase

P38 mitogen-activated protein kinases

P38 mitogen-activated protein kinases are a class of mitogen-activated protein kinases that are responsive to stress stimuli, such as cytokines, ultraviolet irradiation, heat shock, and osmotic shock, and are involved in cell differentiation and apoptosis....

 in response to inflammatory cytokines or environmental stress. As an essential component of p38 MAP kinase mediated signal transduction pathway, this gene is involved in many cellular processes such as stress-induced cell cycle arrest, transcription

Transcription (genetics)

Transcription is the process of creating a complementary RNA copy of a sequence of DNA. Both RNA and DNA are nucleic acids, which use base pairs of nucleotides as a complementary language that can be converted back and forth from DNA to RNA by the action of the correct enzymes...

 activation and apoptosis

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation...

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Interactions

MAP2K6 has been shown to interact

Protein-protein interaction

Protein–protein interactions occur when two or more proteins bind together, often to carry out their biological function. Many of the most important molecular processes in the cell such as DNA replication are carried out by large molecular machines that are built from a large number of protein...

 with TAOK2

TAOK2

Serine/threonine-protein kinase TAO2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the TAOK2 gene.-Interactions:TAOK2 has been shown to interact with MAP2K6 and MAP2K3.-Further reading:...

, ASK1

ASK1

Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 also known as mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 5 is a member of MAP kinase kinase kinase family and as such a part of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway...

, MAPK14

MAPK14

Mitogen-activated protein kinase 14, also called p38-α, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAPK14 gene.-Interactions:MAPK14 has been shown to interact with Casein kinase 2, alpha 1, RPS6KA4, MAPKAPK2, CDC25B, DUSP1, ZFP36L1, CDC25C, MAPKAPK3, Activating transcription factor 2, MAPK1,...

 and MAP3K7

MAP3K7

Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 7 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAP3K7 gene.-Interactions:MAP3K7 has been shown to interact with Mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 6, MAP3K7IP2, MAP3K7IP1, MAP3K7IP3, ASK1, PPM1B, TRAF6, MAP2K6 and CHUK.-Further reading:...

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Further reading