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05/03/2001 Archived Entry: "Map kinase kinase kinase kinase kinase..."

So it's a usual day in the Biology of Cells lecture, and I've put my brain on autopilot while these words are drifting through my auditory centres:

"External cellular signalling is usually mediated by surface receptors and a phosphorylation cascade..."

I think to myself, 'Uh huh,' as I gaze blankly at a ridiculously complex molecular pathway diagram in the lecture notes, as if trying to coax the meaning out of it in the same kind of 3D 'snap' you get when you 'see' a stereogram - but instead of simply a visual understanding, a deeper fundamental understanding...

"...then MAP kinase kinase kinase phosphorylates MAP kinase kinase..."

'Interesting name for an enzyme,' I muse, as I mentally term it MAP kinase cubed.

"...which then in turn phosphorylates MAP kinase..."

I can see where this is going, at this point...

"...which then in turn phosphorylates MAP, which then interacts with urk."

What? Through an abnormally stretched-out millisecond of time, a dozen things flit through my mind - perhaps the lecturer has given out his last gasp of life, having just collapsed on the podium with an 'urk'. Or maybe he saw an old friend waving from the back of the lecture theatre, and was so surprised he said 'urk'. Or...

I look down at my lecture notes. According to the molecular pathway, MAP interacts with ERK. I settle back into my chair, satisfied that the mystery has now been solved.