Dimerization： A Key Mechanism of Receptor Tyrosine
Kinase Activation
WU Jing, LIN Qi-Shui*
( State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and
Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China )
Abstract Receptor
tyrosine kinase superfamily includes a group of growth factor receptors with
intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity which share similar molecular structure.
Their ligand-induced activation is mediated primarily by the receptor
dimerization. It was proposed that ligand-induced homo-or hetero-dimerization
is essential for the activation of receptor kinase；however,the mechanisms of receptor
dimerization are different. This review introduces the ligand-induced
dimerization of different receptor tyrosine kinase subclasses and concentrates
on heterodimerization between members of EGF receptor family, resulting the
various cellular signaling pathways.
Key words receptor tyrosine kinase；epidermal growth factor
receptor；dimerization
*Corresponding author：Fax,86-21-64338357；e-mail,[email protected]