AKT - Name

Name

The name Akt does not refer to its function. The "Ak" in Akt was a temporary classification name for a mouse strain originally bred and maintained by Jacob Furth that developed spontaneous thymic lymphomas. The "t" stands for 'thymoma'; the letter was added when a transforming retrovirus was isolated from the Ak strain, which was termed "Akt-8". When the oncogene encoded in this virus was discovered, it was termed v-Akt. Thus, the later identified human analogues were named accordingly.