Shaping the transcriptional landscape through MAPK signaling

Abstract

A change in the transcriptional landscape is an equilibrium-breaking event important for many biological processes. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are dedicated to sensing extracellular cues and are highly conserved across eukaryotes. Modulation of gene expression in response to the extracellular environment is one of the main mechanisms by which MAPK regulates proteome homeostasis to orchestrate adaptive responses that determine cell fate. A massive body of knowledge generated from population and single-cell analyses has led to an understanding of how MAPK pathways operate. MAPKs have thus emerged as fundamental transcriptome regulators that function through a multi-layered control of gene expression, a process often deregulated in disease, which therefore provides an attractive target for therapeutic strategies. Here, we summarize the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying MAPK-mediated gene expression in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals.