Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA.
The eukaryotic protein kinases make up a large superfamily of homologous proteins. They are related by virtue of their kinase domains (also known as catalytic domains), which consist of approximately 250-300 amino acid residues. The kinase domains that define this group of enzymes contain 12 conserved subdomains that fold into a common catalytic core structure, as revealed by the 3-dimensional structures of several protein-serine kinases. There are two main subdivisions within the superfamily: the protein-serine/threonine kinases and the protein-tyrosine kinases. A classification scheme can be founded on a kinase domain phylogeny, which reveals families of enzymes that have related substrate specificities and modes of regulation.