An overview of Plasmodium protein kinases

Protein kinases are key regulators of many biochemical processes in eukaryo tic cells. Malaria parasites, in spite of all their peculiarities, are not likely to represent an exception in this respect. Over the past few years, several genes encoding Plasmodium protein kinases have been cloned and char acterized; these molecular studies extend previous data on kinase activitie s in parasite extracts. Here, Barbara Kappes, Christian Doerig and Ralph Gr aeser present available data on this topic, with an emphasis on cloned prot ein kinase genes, and discuss the potential outcome of such research in the context of drug development.