Src was a prototypical kinase—although a kinase on hyperdrive.* The protein made by the viral src gene was so potent and hyperactive that it phosphorylated anything and everything around it, including many crucial proteins in the cell. Src worked by unleashing an indiscriminate volley of phosphorylation—throwing “on” dozens of molecular switches. In src’s case, the activated series of proteins eventually impinged on proteins that controlled cell division. Src thus forcibly induced a cell to change its state from nondividing to dividing, ultimately inducing accelerated mitosis, the hallmark of
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