deodands

MAPK and ERK

MAPK, mitogen activated protein kinase. First named MAP kinase in 1988 , but from one of its specific substrates: microtubule associated protein (MAP-2). By 1989, it was realised that this was the same as the 42 kDa protein, phosphorylated by mitogen stimulation, known since 1981, and so it was retroacronymically renamed mitogen activated protein kinase.

When the protein was cloned in 1990 it was named, not MAPK, but ERK1 for extracellular-signal regulated kinase, a somewhat uninspired choice. MAPK is now more commonly used for the superfamily of related kinses of which the ERK family is one.