GCN2 Antibody

Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 2-Alpha Kinase 4, also called GCN2 (General control nonderepressible 2), is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the EIF2AK4 gene. It belongs to a family of kinases that phosphorylate the alpha subunit of eukaryotic translation initiation factor-2 to downregulate protein synthesis in response to varied cellular stresses. Hartz(2005) mapped the gene to chromosome 15q15.1 based on an alignment of the protein sequence with the genomic sequence. Berlanga et al.(1999) demonstrated that GCN2 immunopurified from mouse liver extracts could phosphorylate rabbit Eif2 in vitro. Serum starvation increased the level of phosphorylated EIF2-alpha more than 2-fold in human embryonic kidney cells transfected with mouse Eif2ak4. Costa-Mattioli et al.(2005) reported a unique feature of hippocampal slices from GCN2-null mice: in CA1, a single 100-Hz train induced a strong and sustained long-term potentiation(late LTP or L-LTP), which was dependent on transcription and translation.