Autophosphorylation

Definition
noun
(biochemistry) The phosphorylation of the kinase through its own enzymatic activity
Supplement
Autophosphorylation is a biochemical process in which a phosphate is added to a protein kinase by itself. In eukaryotes, autophosphorylation takes place by the addition of a phosphate group to serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues in protein kinases.^{1, 2} Most of the phosphate groups added are from nucleoside triphosphates such as ATP.¹ The name is due to the phosphorylation reaction that takes place through its own enzymatic activity. This process is essential in cell signaling. It causes a conformational change to expose or hide catalytic or allosteric sites, thereby regulating kinase activity (e.g. substrate binding or molecular recognition).¹ Apart from this, autophosphorylation is also reported to be involved in enabling cells for endocytosis and proteolysis.³
See also:

• phosphorylation
• phosphate group
• kinase
• nucleoside triphosphate

Mentioned in:

Reference(s):

¹Petsko, GA and Ringe, D 2009, ‘Protein Structure and Function’, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, U.S.A

² Summers, K. C.; Shen, F.; Sierra Potchanant, E. A.; Phipps, E. A.; Hickey, R. J.; Malkas, L. H. (2011). “Phosphorylation: The Molecular Switch of Double-Strand Break Repair”. International Journal of Proteomics 2011: 1.

³ Smith, J. A.; Francis, S. H.; Corbin, J. D. (1993). “Autophosphorylation: A salient feature of protein kinases”. Molecular and cellular biochemistry. 127-128: 51–70.