Serine/threonine kinase which acts as an essential component of the MAP kinase signal transduction pathway. MAPK12 is one of the four p38 MAPKs which play an important role in the cascades of cellular responses evoked by extracellular stimuli such as proinflammatory cytokines or physical stress leading to direct activation of transcription factors such as ELK1 and ATF2. Accordingly, p38 MAPKs phosphorylate a broad range of proteins and it has been estimated that they may have approximately 200 to 300 substrates each. Some of the targets are downstream kinases such as MAPKAPK2, which are activated through phosphorylation and further phosphorylate additional targets. Plays a role in myoblast differentiation and also in the down-regulation of cyclin D1 in response to hypoxia in adrenal cells suggesting MAPK12 may inhibit cell proliferation while promoting differentiation. Phosphorylates DLG1. Following osmotic shock, MAPK12 in the cell nucleus increases its association with nuclear DLG1, thereby causing dissociation of DLG1-SFPQ complexes. This function is independent of its catalytic activity and could affect mRNA processing and/or gene transcription to aid cell adaptation to osmolarity changes in the environment.