Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Kinase Inhibitor Screening In Self-assembled Human Protein Microarrays
13:22

Kinase Inhibitor Screening In Self-assembled Human Protein Microarrays

Published on: October 23, 2019

8.3K

WNK Kinases in Development and Disease

Aylin R Rodan1, Andreas Jenny2

  • 1UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX, United States.

Current Topics in Developmental Biology
|February 27, 2017
PubMed

Insights

With-No-Lysine (K) kinases regulate renal ion transport, impacting blood pressure and potassium levels. These kinases also play conserved roles in osmoregulation, development, and diseases like cancer across species.

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Physiology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • With-No-Lysine (K) kinases are serine-threonine kinases with a unique catalytic lysine position.
  • Mutations in WNK1 and WNK4 are linked to hypertension and hyperkalemia in humans.
  • WNK kinases are crucial for regulating ion transport in the kidneys.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the diverse roles of WNK kinases in renal function and osmoregulation.
  • To explore the involvement of WNKs in cell migration, cerebral edema, and development.
  • To highlight conserved functions of WNK kinases across different species.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of existing research on WNK kinases.
  • Analysis of studies investigating WNKs in vertebrate and invertebrate models.
  • Synthesis of data on WNKs' roles in physiological and pathological processes.

Main Results:

  • WNK kinases are central regulators of renal ion transport processes.
  • These kinases are involved in cellular and organismal osmoregulation.
  • Emerging evidence points to WNKs' roles in cardiovascular and neural development, Wnt signaling, and cancer.

Conclusions:

  • WNK kinases play critical and conserved roles in ion transport and osmoregulation across phyla.
  • Dysregulation of WNK kinases contributes to human diseases, including hypertension and potentially cancer.
  • Further research into WNK kinase functions is warranted for therapeutic development.
Keywords:
Blood pressureC. elegansDrosophilaExcretory canalKidneyLhx8Malpighian tubuleMo25/Cab39SPAK/OSR1Wnt signalingZebrafish

More Related Videos

Identification of Novel CK2 Kinase Substrates Using a Versatile Biochemical Approach11:11

Identification of Novel CK2 Kinase Substrates Using a Versatile Biochemical Approach

Published on: February 21, 2019

7.9K
Assaying Protein Kinase Activity with Radiolabeled ATP08:05

Assaying Protein Kinase Activity with Radiolabeled ATP

Published on: May 26, 2017

19.5K

Related Concept Videos

M-Cdk Drives Transition Into Mitosis02:15

M-Cdk Drives Transition Into Mitosis

Checkpoints throughout the cell cycle serve as safeguards and gatekeepers, allowing the cell cycle to progress in favorable conditions and slow or halt it in problematic ones. This regulation is known as the cell cycle control system.
Cyclin-dependent kinases, or Cdks, work in concert with cyclins to control cell cycle transitions. M-Cdk, a complex of Cdk1 bound to M cyclin, is a well-known example of this coordinated control that drives the transition from the G2 to the M phase.
M cyclin...
6.7K
Protein Kinases and Phosphatases02:54

Protein Kinases and Phosphatases

Proteins undergo chemical modifications that trigger changes in the charge, structure, and conformation of the proteins. Phosphorylation, acetylation, glycosylation, nitrosylation, ubiquitination, lipidation, methylation, and proteolysis are various protein modifications that regulate protein activity. Such modifications are usually enzyme-driven.
Protein kinases
Many proteins in the cell are regulated by phosphorylation, the addition of a phosphate group. A family of enzymes called kinases...
15.4K
Protein Kinases and Phosphatases02:54

Protein Kinases and Phosphatases

4.6K
MAPK Signaling Cascades01:07

MAPK Signaling Cascades

Mitogen-activated protein kinase, or MAPK pathway, activates three sequential kinases to regulate cellular responses such as proliferation, differentiation, survival, and apoptosis. The canonical MAPK pathway starts with a mitogen or growth factor binding to an RTK. The activated RTKs stimulate Ras, which recruits Raf or MAP3 Kinase (MAPKKK), the first kinase of the MAPK signaling cascade. Raf further phosphorylates and activates MEK or MAP2 Kinases (MAPKK), which in turn phosphorylates MAP...
8.9K
Enzyme-linked Receptors01:00

Enzyme-linked Receptors

Enzyme-linked receptors are proteins that act as both receptor and enzyme, activating multiple intracellular signals. This is a large group of receptors that include the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family. Many growth factors and hormones bind to and activate the RTKs.
Neurotrophin (NT) receptors are a family of RTKs, including trkA, trkB, and trkC (tropomyosin-related kinase) receptors. TrkA is specific for nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin-6, and neurotrophin-7. TrkB binds...
87.9K
Canonical Wnt Signaling Pathway02:54

Canonical Wnt Signaling Pathway

The gene encoding the main signaling molecules of the Wnt signaling pathways (the Wnt proteins) was discovered almost four decades ago by Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus. They identified and originally named the gene "wingless" (wg) after a phenotype discovered during their landmark genetic screen in Drosophila for body pattern defects. At around the same time, another researcher named Harold Varmus found that a murine tumor virus activates the mammalian wg homolog, Int-1, which...
10.8K