What does AKT stand for?

[Guest Genotype]

I've been trying to find what AKT stand for in the AKT signalling pathway. I know what the pathway is and what it does....but for the life of me I can not find what akt stand for.

 

I have searched the whole of google and pubmed.

 

Any ideas?

[inamorata]

I had the same problem

 

Its also known as protein kinase B, so you'll often see it written as Akt/PKB (protein kinase B). I couldn't find the name either, and ended up using PKB rather than Akt as the abbreviation.

[inamorata]

Its a protein in the apoptosis pathway, a serine/threonine kinase.

 

I searched for HOURS to try and find the full name, and couldn't

 

OK. Look at this:

A serine/threonine kinase, named protein kinase B (PKB) for its sequence homology to both protein kinase A and C, has previously been isolated. PKB, which is identical to the kinase Rac, was later found to be the cellular homologue of the transforming v-Akt.

 

ok im checking that now.

 

A previous report described the isolation of a directly transforming retrovirus, AKT8, from a spontaneous thymoma of an AKR mouse. The AKT8 provirus has now been molecularly cloned from a transformed, nonproducer cell line. The virus genome contains both viral and nonviral, cell-related sequences; the nonviral sequence has been designated v-akt, the presumed viral oncogene of the AKT8 virus.

 

Ok so its derived from teh name of a viral gene.

[inamorata]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Display&dopt=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=3037531

 

Has a list of some very early papers, which you can easily search from, deatiling the discovery of the original retrtoviral gene from the AKR mouse. Go back early enough, and you should be able to work out where they got Akt from, although I suspect it may just be the name of the oncogene, and not an acronym.

[5614]

ah, ok, thanks very much, i hoped that by bringing this topic to the home page, and new post list, someone might have a useful reply, thanks, much appriciated!

[inamorata]

My pleasure

[colinp1]

Following a recent research presentation on Akt, I was asked what Akt stands for....a question to which I had no solid reply...so, here it is...

 

After an extensive literature search, it turns out the origins of Akt date back to 1928, where J. Furth performed experimental studies on mice that developed spontaneous thymic lymphomas. Mice from three different stocks designated A, R, and S were studied. Stock A was noted to yield many cancers, and inbred families were subsequently designated by a second small letter....Aa, Ab, Ac...thus the Ak strain of mice. Further inbreeding was undertaken with Ak mice at the Rockefeller Institute in 1936, leading to the designation of the AKR mouse strain. In 1977, a transforming retrovirus was isolated from the AKR mouse. This virus was named Akt-8, the "t" representing its transforming capabilities. Ten years later the proviral DNA was cloned and the viral oncogene, v-akt, was discovered. Human homologues Akt1 and Akt2 were later discovered, with gene amplification noted in a human gastric cancer. Akt is now known to regulate many normal cellular functions, and loss of regulatory control has been implicated in many human cancers.

[gonzales2010]

Thank you colinp1, thank you very much! I also spend hours searching for AKT, reached back as far as 1978.... but no luck

 

seems like everybody is using the acronym but nobody knows the meaning...

looks pretty stupid to me.

 

Thanks again

[jjasso]

Following a recent research presentation on Akt, I was asked what Akt stands for....a question to which I had no solid reply...so, here it is...

 

After an extensive literature search, it turns out the origins of Akt date back to 1928, where J. Furth performed experimental studies on mice that developed spontaneous thymic lymphomas. Mice from three different stocks designated A, R, and S were studied. Stock A was noted to yield many cancers, and inbred families were subsequently designated by a second small letter....Aa, Ab, Ac...thus the Ak strain of mice. Further inbreeding was undertaken with Ak mice at the Rockefeller Institute in 1936, leading to the designation of the AKR mouse strain. In 1977, a transforming retrovirus was isolated from the AKR mouse. This virus was named Akt-8, the "t" representing its transforming capabilities. Ten years later the proviral DNA was cloned and the viral oncogene, v-akt, was discovered. Human homologues Akt1 and Akt2 were later discovered, with gene amplification noted in a human gastric cancer. Akt is now known to regulate many normal cellular functions, and loss of regulatory control has been implicated in many human cancers.

Thank you very much. I've been searching the same answer