Hepatocyte progenitor kinase like/germinal center kinase like kinase, HGK, HPK/GCK like kinase, HPK/GCK like kinase HGK, KIAA0687, MAPK/ERK kinase kinase kinase 4, MEK kinase kinase 4, MEKKK 4, MEKKK4, Mitogen activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase 4, Nck interacting kinase, NIK, M4K4_HUMAN.
The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the serine/threonine protein kinase family. This kinase has been shown to specifically activate MAPK8/JNK. The activation of MAPK8 by this kinase is found to be inhibited by the dominant-negative mutants of MAP3K7/TAK1, MAP2K4/MKK4, and MAP2K7/MKK7, which suggests that this kinase may function through the MAP3K7-MAP2K4-MAP2K7 kinase cascade, and mediate the TNF-alpha signaling pathway. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]
