deodands

JNK and FOS

JNK: a c-Jun kinase. jun was an oncogene identified in 1987. Its name comes from ju-nana, the japanese number 17, for it was isolated from avian sarcoma virus (ASV) 17. The c- prefix meant cellular homologue. Think of jun and you think of fos (at least Dot does and she's a professor). fos took its name around 1983 from FBJ murine osteosarcoma virus. And FBJ turn out to be, rather splendidly, Miriam P Finkel, Birute O. Biskis, and PB Jinkins who identified the virus at Argonne in 1966.

After this proteoetymological excitment, the transcription factors coded by jun (some authors) or the heterodimers of either Jun or Fos (some others I met one of once) are more dully called AP1 for activator protein 1.