14-3-3 proteins are a family of highly conserved proteins that appear to have multiple roles in cell signaling (Bridges and Moorhead, 2005). The proteins are abundantly expressed in the brain and have been detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with different neurological disorders (Berg et al., 2003). 14-3-3 proteins bind protein ligands that are typically phosphorylated on serine or threonine residues and regulate the functions of these binding partners by a number of different mechanisms (Silhan et al., 2004; Dougherty and Morrison, 2004). The14-3-3 proteins affect a diverse array of cellular processes including the cell cycle and transcription, signal transduction and intracellular trafficking. These functions of 14-3-3 proteins are facilitated by, if not dependent on, its dimeric structure. Recent work has demonstrated that the dimeric status of the 14-3-3 protein is regulated by site-specific serine phosphorylation (Woodcock et al., 2003).
