The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the MAP kinase family. MAP kinases act as an integration point for multiple biochemical signals, and are involved in a wide variety of cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, transcription regulation and development. This kinase is activated by various environmental stresses and proinflammatory cytokines. The activation requires its phosphorylation by MAP kinase kinases (MKKs), or its autophosphorylation triggered by the interaction of MAP3K7IP1/TAB1 protein with this kinase. The substrates of this kinase include transcription regulator ATF2, MEF2C, and MAX, cell cycle regulator CDC25B, and tumor suppressor p53, which suggest the roles of this kinase in stress related transcription and cell cycle regulation, as well as in genotoxic stress response. Four alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene encoding distinct isoforms have been reported. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]
Forensic Context
A study in humans identified the MAPK14 as a core ferroptosis-related diagnostic biomarker for heat stroke, with single-cell RNA sequencing showing its high expression in neutrophils, dendritic cells, and monocytes and receiver operating characteristic analysis in a validation cohort demonstrating an area under the curve of 1.0 [Yin et al. DOI:10.1186/s12920-025-02188-3]. Another human study on sepsis reported that the MAPK14 showed upregulated trends in patients compared to controls, a finding consistent with validation in an external dataset [Qin et al. DOI:10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000209].