Figure 2.

Classical Structure of receptor tyrosine kinase and activation mechanism. (1) At first, RTKs reside at the cell membrane as a monomer. (2) Upon ligand binding, RTKs are activated through the formation of inter-molecular dimerization in the presence of ligands, resulting in kinase activation and phosphorylation of the receptor C-terminal tail. (3) Phosphorylated RTK either serves as a docking site for adaptor proteins or may directly phosphorylate signaling molecules.