Meta-Biol

• Pathways

LIM kinases are serine protein kinases with a unique combination of two N-terminal LIM motifs, a central PDZ domain, and a C-terminal protein kinase domain. ROCK1 and ROCK2 phosphorylate and activate LIM kinases LIMK1 and LIMK2 at Thr508 and Thr505, respectively (Ohashi et al. 2000, Sumi et al. 2001). These threonine residues lay within the activation loop of the kinase domain. LIMKs phosphorylate and inactivate cofilin, an actin depolymerizing factor, resulting in stabilization of the actin cytoskeleton (Pandey et al. 2006).