Background of the antigen
mTOR is one of a family of proteins involved in cell cycle progression, DNA recombination, and DNA damage detection. In rat, it is a 289-kDa protein (symbolized RAFT1) with significant homology to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein TOR1 and has been shown to associate with the immunophilin FKBP12 in a rapamycin dependent fashion. The FKBP12-rapamycin complex is known to inhibit progression through the G1 cell cycle stage by interfering with mitogenic signaling pathways involved in G1 progression in several cell types, as well as in yeast. The binding of FRAP to FKBP12-rapamycin correlated with the ability of these ligands to inhibit cell cycle progression.