Raf and the road to cell survival: a tale of bad spells, ring bearers and detours.

Research of the last years has demonstrated the absolute requirement of mitogenic signaling pathways for the control of cell survival. As reviewed here for the members of the Raf kinase family, apoptosis suppression proceeds through diverse mechanisms. They include the recruitment of novel effectors such as IAP and Bcl-2 proteins, key molecules in cell survival control, which interfere with the executions of the cell death at various levels, but also direct effects on metabolic events.