AffiAB® Anti-MLCK Antibody

The Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases (CaM kinases) are a structurally related subfamily of serine/threonine kinases that includes CaMKI, CaMKII, CaMKIV and myosin light chain kinases (MYLK, also designated MLCK) . The MYLK kinases phosphorylate myosin regulatory light chains to catalyze myosin interaction with actin filaments resulting in contractile activity. Non-muscle, smooth muscle and skeletal/cardiac muscle MYLK isoforms exist. The MYLK gene (also designated MYLK1) encodes both smooth muscle and non-muscle isoforms as well as telokin, a small C-terminal isoform expressed only in smooth muscle with the capacity to stabilize unphosphorylated myosin filaments. Multiple transcript variants are described for the MYLK gene. Smooth-muscle and non-muscle MYLK isoforms are expressed in a wide variety of adult and fetal tissues. The skeletal/cardiac muscle isoforms of MYLK are encoded by a separate gene, MYLK2 (also designated skMLCK) . MYLK appears to be a target for PAKs (p21-activated kinases) . PAK1 interaction with MYLK results in a decrease in MYLK activity and myosin light chain phosphorylation.