As serine/threonine-protein kinases, Thousand and One Kinases(TAOKs) are members of the GCKlike
superfamily, one of two well-known branches of the Ste20 kinase family. Within the last two decades, three
functionally similar kinases, namely TAOK1-3, were identified. TAOKs are involved in many molecular and
cellular events. Scholars widely believe that TAOKs act as kinases upstream of the MAPK cascade and as factors
that interact with MST family kinases, the cytoskeleton, and apoptosis-associated proteins. Therefore, TAOKs are
thought to function in tumorigenesis. Additionally, TAOKs participate in signal transduction induced by Notch,
TCR, and IL-17. Recent studies found that TAOKs play roles in a series of diseases and conditions, such as the
central nervous system dysfunction, herpes viral infection, immune system imbalance, urogenital system malformation
during development, cardiovascular events, and childhood obesity. Therefore, inhibitory chemicals targeting
TAOKs may be of great significance as potential drugs for these diseases.