A Road Map for Those Who Don't Know JAK-STAT
Abstract
The Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway transmits information received from extracellular polypeptide signals, through transmembrane receptors, directly to target gene promoters in the nucleus, providing a mechanism for transcriptional regulation without second messengers. Evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotic organisms from slime molds to humans, JAK-STAT signaling appears to be an early adaptation to facilitate intercellular communication that has co-evolved with myriad cellular signaling events. This co-evolution has given rise to highly adapted, ligand-specific signaling pathways that control gene expression. In addition, the JAK-STAT signaling pathways are regulated by a vast array of intrinsic and environmental stimuli, which can add plasticity to the response of a cell or tissue.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- May 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1071545
- Bibcode:
- 2002Sci...296.1653A
- Keywords:
-
- IMMUNOLOGY; CELL BIOL