MAPK全名是促分裂素原活化蛋白激酶(mitogen-activatedproteinkinases),由MAPK、MAPKK和MAPKKK参与构成的MAPK信号通路是真核生物信号传递网络中的重要途径之一，参与细胞的增殖、分化、迁移及凋亡等过程，与一系列包括阿尔茨海默病(老年痴呆症)、乳腺癌等在内的疾病相关。
自MAPK首次被发现以来,MAPK家族里已经涌现出许多成员，在脊椎动物中共有13个不同的亚家族。先前研究认为MAPK各亚家族是由一个存在于动植物及真菌界之前的共同祖先分化而来。我们最新的研究发现脊椎动物MAPK家族较早起源于三个不同的祖先，先前认为只存在于脊椎动物或脊索动物的MAPK4/6亚家族的祖先在棘皮动物中已经存在。在脊椎动物从无脊椎动物分化出来的早期,MAPK家族经历了一次较大规模的扩张,随后在某些物种中又发生了不同程度的丢失。另外MPAK4和7亚家族在从两栖类进化到哺乳类的过程中经历了内含子丢失,这一事件可能和脊椎动物的适应性进化相关。多个MAPK家族成员（MAPK11/12、MAPK13/14）存在基因共线性进化关系和基因结构相似性。在脊椎动物进化过程中，MPAK家族成员受到了纯化选择压力的作用。蛋白功能域和结构元件分析显示,某些MAPK亚家族中存在哺乳动物特异性的结构元件，它们可能对哺乳动物的进化有重要作用。上述研究对了解MAPK家族的进化历史具有重要意义.
该研究由江苏大学生命科学研究院的硕士研究生李萌和刘俊在导师张驰宇博士的指导下完成，研究结果于2011年10月27日正式发表在《PLoS综合》上。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026999
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Evolutionary History of the Vertebrate Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases Family
Meng Li, Jun Liu, Chiyu Zhang*
Background The mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) family pathway is implicated in diverse cellular processes and pathways essential to most organisms. Its evolution is conserved throughout the eukaryotic kingdoms. However, the detailed evolutionary history of the vertebrate MAPK family is largely unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings The MAPK family members were collected from literatures or by searching the genomes of several vertebrates and invertebrates with the known MAPK sequences as queries. We found that vertebrates had significantly more MAPK family members than invertebrates, and the vertebrate MAPK family originated from 3 progenitors, suggesting that a burst of gene duplication events had occurred after the divergence of vertebrates from invertebrates. Conservation of evolutionary synteny was observed in the vertebrate MAPK subfamilies 4, 6, 7, and 11 to 14. Based on synteny and phylogenetic relationships, MAPK12 appeared to have arisen from a tandem duplication of MAPK11 and the MAPK13-MAPK14 gene unit was from a segmental duplication of the MAPK11-MAPK12 gene unit. Adaptive evolution analyses reveal that purifying selection drove the evolution of MAPK family, implying strong functional constraints of MAPK genes. Intriguingly, however, intron losses were specifically observed in the MAPK4 and MAPK7 genes, but not in their flanking genes, during the evolution from teleosts to amphibians and mammals. The specific occurrence of intron losses in the MAPK4 and MAPK7 subfamilies might be associated with adaptive evolution of the vertebrates by enhancing the gene expression level of both MAPK genes. Conclusions/Significance These results provide valuable insight into the evolutionary history of the vertebrate MAPK family.
