Cloning and characterization of mRNA expression profile of one of the MAPK family enzymes from tetrahymena thermophila

All eukaryotes express mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) that govern diverse cellular processes. Knowledge of functionality and diversity of MAPK family members are mostly comes from animal, plant and fungus. Since the knowledge of MAPK?s of Protista, which has high level of divergence among its members increases day by day, necessity of revision of the current literature knowledge about MAPK family shows itself as an emerging need.Tetrahymena thermophila is an important model organism gives an opportunity for research on MAPK?s which is one of the most important components of signal transduction pathways in response to stress, on level of single celled organism. In this thesis 11 MAPK members of Tetrahymena thermophila has been identified and analyzed for their existence on the level of mRNA expression in different kind of stress conditions such as salt, starvation, temperature shift and conjugation.As a result it has been shown that nine members of the analyzed MAPK family members show existence as a mRNA in most of the tested stress conditions. Additionally the phylogenetic results presented in this thesis offer existence of at least two distinct protist MAPK groups.