Control of the cell cycle progression by the MAPK Hog1

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells coordinate various intracellular activities in response to environmental stresses, activating an adaptive program to maximize the probability of survival and proliferation. Cells transduce diverse cellular stimuli by multiple mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades. MAPK are key signal transduction kinases required to respond to stress. A prototypical member of the MAPK family is the yeast high osmolarity glycerol (Hog1). Activation of Hog1 results in the generation of a set of adaptive responses that leads to the modulation of several aspects of cell physiology that are essential for cell survival, such as gene expression, translation, and morphogenesis. This review focuses on the control of cell cycle progression by Hog1 which is critical for cell survival in response to stress conditions.