STK3

Serine/threonine-protein kinase 3 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the STK3 gene.

Protein kinase activation is a frequent response of cells to treatment with growth factors, chemicals, heat shock, or apoptosis-inducing agents. This protein kinase activation presumably allows cells to resist unfavorable environmental conditions. The yeast 'sterile 20' (Ste20) kinase acts upstream of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade that is activated under a variety of stress conditions. MST2 was first identified as a kinase that resembles budding yeast Ste20 (Creasy and Chernoff, 1996) and later as a kinase that is activated by the proapoptotic agents straurosporine and FAS ligand (MIM 134638) (Taylor et al., 1996; Lee et al., 2001).[supplied by OMIM]