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Sample records for bicaudal-d serine phosphorylation

  1. Phosphorylation of mouse serine racemase regulates D-serine synthesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Foltyn, Veronika N; Zehl, Martin; Dikopoltsev, Elena

    2010-01-01

    Serine racemase (SR) catalyses the synthesis of the transmitter/neuromodulator D-serine, which plays a major role in synaptic plasticity and N-methyl D-aspartate receptor neurotoxicity. We now report that SR is phosphorylated at Thr71 and Thr227 as revealed by mass spectrometric analysis and in v...... with a phosphorylation-deficient SR mutant indicate that Thr71 phosphorylation increases SR activity, suggesting a novel mechanism for regulating D-serine production....

  2. Cross-phosphorylation of bacterial serine/threonine and tyrosine protein kinases on key regulatory residues

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    Lei eShi

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Bacteria possess protein serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases which resemble eukaryal kinases in their capacity to phosphorylate multiple substrates. We hypothesized that the analogy might extend further, and bacterial kinases may also undergo mutual phosphorylation and activation, which is currently considered as a hallmark of eukaryal kinase networks. In order to test this hypothesis, we explored the capacity of all members of four different classes of serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases present in the firmicute model organism Bacillus subtilis to phosphorylate each other in vitro and interact with each other in vivo. The interactomics data suggested a high degree of connectivity among all types of kinases, while phosphorylation assays revealed equally wide-spread cross-phosphorylation events. Our findings suggest that the Hanks-type kinases PrkC, PrkD and YabT exhibit the highest capacity to phosphorylate other B. subtilis kinases, while the BY-kinase PtkA and the two-component-like kinases RsbW and SpoIIAB show the highest propensity to be phosphorylated by other kinases. Analysis of phosphorylated residues on several selected recipient kinases suggests that most cross-phosphorylation events concern key regulatory residues. Therefore, cross-phosphorylation events are very likely to influence the capacity of recipient kinases to phosphorylate substrates downstream in the signal transduction cascade. We therefore conclude that bacterial serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases probably engage in a network-type behavior previously described only in eukaryal cells.

  3. Phosphorylation of the leukemic oncoprotein EVI1 on serine 196 modulates DNA binding, transcriptional repression and transforming ability.

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    Daniel J White

    Full Text Available The EVI1 (ecotropic viral integration site 1 gene at 3q26 codes for a transcriptional regulator with an essential role in haematopoiesis. Overexpression of EVI1 in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML is frequently associated with 3q26 rearrangements and confers extremely poor prognosis. EVI1 mediates transcriptional regulation, signalling, and epigenetic modifications by interacting with DNA, proteins and protein complexes. To explore to what extent protein phosphorylation impacts on EVI1 functions, we analysed endogenous EVI1 protein from a high EVI1 expressing Fanconi anaemia (FA derived AML cell line. Mass spectrometric analysis of immunoprecipitated EVI1 revealed phosphorylation at serine 196 (S196 in the sixth zinc finger of the N-terminal zinc finger domain. Mutated EVI1 with an aspartate substitution at serine 196 (S196D, which mimics serine phosphorylation of this site, exhibited reduced DNA-binding and transcriptional repression from a gene promotor selectively targeted by the N-terminal zinc finger domain. Forced expression of the S196D mutant significantly reduced EVI1 mediated transformation of Rat1 fibroblasts. While EVI1-mediated serial replating of murine haematopoietic progenitors was maintained by EVI1-S196D, this was associated with significantly higher Evi1-trancript levels compared with WT-EVI1 or EVI1-S196A, mimicking S196 non-phosphorylated EVI1. These data suggest that EVI1 function is modulated by phosphorylation of the first zinc finger domain.

  4. ATM-mediated Snail Serine 100 phosphorylation regulates cellular radiosensitivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boohaker, Rebecca J.; Cui, Xiaoli; Stackhouse, Murray; Xu, Bo

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Activation of the DNA damage responsive protein kinase ATM is a critical step for cellular survival in response to ionizing irradiation (IR). Direct targets of ATM regulating radiosensitivity remain to be fully investigated. We have recently reported that ATM phosphorylates the transcriptional repressor Snail on Serine 100. We aimed to further study the functional significance of ATM-mediated Snail phosphorylation in response to IR. Material and methods: We transfected vector-only, wild-type, the Serine 100 to alanine (S100A) or to glutamic acid (S100E) substitution of Snail into various cell lines. We assessed colony formation, γ-H2AX focus formation and the invasion index in the cells treated with or without IR. Results: We found that over-expression of the S100A mutant Snail in HeLa cells significantly increased radiosensitivity. Meanwhile the expression of S100E, a phospho-mimicking mutation, resulted in enhanced radio-resistance. Interestingly, S100E could rescue the radiosensitive phenotype in ATM-deficient cells. We also found that expression of S100E increased γ-H2AX focus formation and compromised inhibition of invasion in response to IR independent of cell survival. Conclusion: ATM-mediated Snail Serine 100 phosphorylation in response to IR plays an important part in the regulation of radiosensitivity

  5. Autocrine motility factor (neuroleukin, phosphohexose isomerase) induces cell movement through 12-lipoxygenase-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation and serine dephosphorylation events.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timár, J; Tóth, S; Tóvári, J; Paku, S; Raz, A

    1999-01-01

    Autocrine motility factor (AMF) is one of the motility cytokines regulating tumor cell migration, therefore identification of the signaling pathway coupled with it has critical importance. Previous studies revealed several elements of this pathway predominated by lipoxygenase-PKC activations but the role for tyrosine kinases remained questionable. Motility cytokines frequently have mitogenic effect as well, producing activation of overlapping signaling pathways therefore we have used B16a melanoma cells as models where AMF has exclusive motility effect. Our studies revealed that in B16a cells AMF initiated rapid (1-5 min) activation of the protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) cascade inducing phosphorylation of 179, 125, 95 and 40/37 kD proteins which was mediated by upstream cyclo- and lipoxygenases. The phosphorylated proteins were localized to the cortical actin-stress fiber attachment zones in situ by confocal microscopy. On the other hand, AMF receptor activation induced significant decrease in overall serine-phosphorylation level of cellular proteins accompanied by serine phosphorylation of 200, 90, 78 and 65 kd proteins. The decrease in serine phosphorylation was independent of PTKs, PKC as well as cyclo- and lipoxygenases. However, AMF induced robust translocation of PKCalpha to the stress fibers and cortical actin suggesting a critical role for this kinase in the generation of the motility signal. Based on the significant decrease in serine phosphorylation after AMF stimulus in B16a cells we postulated the involvement of putative serine/threonine phosphatase(s) upstream lipoxygenase and activation of the protein tyrosine kinase cascade downstream cyclo- and lipoxygenase(s) in the previously identified autocrine motility signal.

  6. Endothelin-1 stimulates catalase activity through the PKCδ mediated phosphorylation of Serine 167

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    Rafikov, Ruslan; Kumar, Sanjiv; Aggarwal, Saurabh; Hou, Yali; Kangath, Archana; Pardo, Daniel; Fineman, Jeffrey R.; Black, Stephen M.

    2013-01-01

    Our previous studies have shown that endothelin-1 (ET-1) stimulates catalase activity in endothelial cells and lambs with acute increases in pulmonary blood flow (PBF), without altering gene expression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the molecular mechanism by which this occurs. Exposing pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAEC) to ET-1 increased catalase activity and decreased cellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels. These changes correlated with an increase in serine phosphorylated catalase. Using the inhibitory peptide δV1.1, this phosphorylation was shown to be PKCδ dependent. Mass spectrometry identified serine167 as the phosphorylation site. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to generate a phospho-mimic (S167D) catalase. Activity assays using recombinant protein purified from E.coli or transiently transfected COS-7 cells, demonstrated that S167D-catalase had an increased ability to degrade H2O2 compared to the wildtype enzyme. Using a phospho-specific antibody, we were able to verify that pS167 catalase levels are modulated in lambs with acute increases in PBF in the presence and absence of the ET receptor antagonist, tezosentan. S167 is being located on the dimeric interface suggesting it could be involved in regulating the formation of catalase tetramers. To evaluate this possibility we utilized analytical gel-filtration to examine the multimeric structure of recombinant wildtype- and S167D-catalase. We found that recombinant wildtype catalase was present as a mixture of monomers and dimers while S167D catalase was primarily tetrameric. Further, the incubation of wildtype catalase with PKCδ was sufficient to convert wildtype catalase into a tetrameric structure. In conclusion, this is the first report indicating that the phosphorylation of catalase regulates its multimeric structure and activity. PMID:24211614

  7. Protein kinase A phosphorylates serine 267 in the homeodomain of engrailed-2 leading to decreased DNA binding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjerrild, Majbrit; Stensballe, Allan; Jensen, Ole N

    2004-01-01

    Engrailed-2 (En-2) belongs to an evolutionarily conserved family of DNA binding homeodomain-containing proteins that are expressed in mammalian brain during development. Here, we demonstrate that serine 267 in the homeodomain of En-2 is phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA) in forskolin......-treated COS-7 cells. Furthermore, we analyze the physiological function of En-2 phosphorylation by PKA. The nuclear localization of En-2 is not influenced by the phosphorylation of serine 267. However, substitution of serine 267 with alanine resulted in increased binding of En-2 to DNA, while replacing serine...

  8. Hexokinase 2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae: regulation of oligomeric structure by in vivo phosphorylation at serine-14.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behlke, J; Heidrich, K; Naumann, M; Müller, E C; Otto, A; Reuter, R; Kriegel, T

    1998-08-25

    Homodimeric hexokinase 2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is known to have two sites of phosphorylation: for serine-14 the modification in vivo increases with glucose exhaustion [Kriegel et al. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 148-152], while for serine-157 it occurs in vitro with ATP in the presence of nonphosphorylateable five-carbon analogues of glucose [Heidrich et al. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 1960-1964]. We show now by site-directed mutagenesis and sedimentation analysis that serine-14 phosphorylation affects the oligomeric state of hexokinase, its substitution by glutamate causing complete dissociation; glutamate exchange for serine-157 does not. Phosphorylation of wild-type hexokinase at serine-14 likewise causes dissociation in vitro. In view of the higher glucose affinity of monomeric hexokinase and the high hexokinase concentration in yeast [Womack, F., and Colowick, S. P. (1978) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 191, 742-747; Mayes, E. L., Hoggett, J. G., and Kellett, G. L. (1983) Eur. J. Biochem. 133, 127-134], we speculate that the in vivo phosphorylation at serine-14 as transiently occurring in glucose derepression might provide a mechanism to improve glucose utilization from low level and/or that nuclear localization of the monomer might be involved in the signal transduction whereby glucose causes catabolite repression.

  9. Negative Role of RIG-I Serine 8 Phosphorylation in the Regulatin of Interferon-beta Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    E Nistal-Villan; M Gack; G Martinez-Delgado; N Maharaj; K Inn; H Yang; R Wang; A Aggarwal; J Jung; A Garcia-Sastre

    2011-12-31

    RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene I) and TRIM25 (tripartite motif protein 25) have emerged as key regulatory factors to induce interferon (IFN)-mediated innate immune responses to limit viral replication. Upon recognition of viral RNA, TRIM25 E3 ligase binds the first caspase recruitment domain (CARD) of RIG-I and subsequently induces lysine 172 ubiquitination of the second CARD of RIG-I, which is essential for the interaction with downstream MAVS/IPS-1/CARDIF/VISA and, thereby, IFN-beta mRNA production. Although ubiquitination has emerged as a major factor involved in RIG-I activation, the potential contribution of other post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, to the regulation of RIG-I activity has not been addressed. Here, we report the identification of serine 8 phosphorylation at the first CARD of RIG-I as a negative regulatory mechanism of RIG-I-mediated IFN-beta production. Immunoblot analysis with a phosphospecific antibody showed that RIG-I serine 8 phosphorylation steady-state levels were decreased upon stimulation of cells with IFN-beta or virus infection. Substitution of serine 8 in the CARD RIG-I functional domain with phosphomimetic aspartate or glutamate results in decreased TRIM25 binding, RIG-I ubiquitination, MAVS binding, and downstream signaling. Finally, sequence comparison reveals that only primate species carry serine 8, whereas other animal species carry an asparagine, indicating that serine 8 phosphorylation may represent a primate-specific regulation of RIG-I activation. Collectively, these data suggest that the phosphorylation of RIG-I serine 8 operates as a negative switch of RIG-I activation by suppressing TRIM25 interaction, further underscoring the importance of RIG-I and TRIM25 connection in type I IFN signal transduction.

  10. Phosphorylation of SAF-A/hnRNP-U Serine 59 by Polo-Like Kinase 1 Is Required for Mitosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, Pauline; Ye, Ruiqiong; Morrice, Nicholas; Britton, Sébastien; Trinkle-Mulcahy, Laura; Lees-Miller, Susan P

    2015-08-01

    Scaffold attachment factor A (SAF-A), also called heterogenous nuclear ribonuclear protein U (hnRNP-U), is phosphorylated on serine 59 by the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) in response to DNA damage. Since SAF-A, DNA-PK catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), and protein phosphatase 6 (PP6), which interacts with DNA-PKcs, have all been shown to have roles in mitosis, we asked whether DNA-PKcs phosphorylates SAF-A in mitosis. We show that SAF-A is phosphorylated on serine 59 in mitosis, that phosphorylation requires polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) rather than DNA-PKcs, that SAF-A interacts with PLK1 in nocodazole-treated cells, and that serine 59 is dephosphorylated by protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in mitosis. Moreover, cells expressing SAF-A in which serine 59 is mutated to alanine have multiple characteristics of aberrant mitoses, including misaligned chromosomes, lagging chromosomes, polylobed nuclei, and delayed passage through mitosis. Our findings identify serine 59 of SAF-A as a new target of both PLK1 and PP2A in mitosis and reveal that both phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of SAF-A serine 59 by PLK1 and PP2A, respectively, are required for accurate and timely exit from mitosis. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  11. AQP4 plasma membrane trafficking or channel gating is not significantly modulated by phosphorylation at C-terminal serine residues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Assentoft, Mette; Larsen, Brian R; Olesen, Emma T B

    2014-01-01

    heterologous expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes (along with serine-to-aspartate mutants of the same residues to mimic a phosphorylation). None of the mutant AQP4 constructs displayed alterations in the unit water permeability. Thus phosphorylation of six different serine residues in the COOH terminus of AQP4....... Phosphorylation of aquaporins can regulate plasma membrane localization and, possibly, the unit water permeability via gating of the AQP channel itself. In vivo phosphorylation of six serine residues in the COOH terminus of AQP4 has been detected by mass spectrometry: Ser(276), Ser(285), Ser(315), Ser(316), Ser...

  12. Bicaudal is a conserved substrate for Drosophila and mammalian caspases and is essential for cell survival.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Creagh, Emma M

    2009-01-01

    Members of the caspase family of cysteine proteases coordinate cell death through restricted proteolysis of diverse protein substrates and play a conserved role in apoptosis from nematodes to man. However, while numerous substrates for the mammalian cell death-associated caspases have now been described, few caspase substrates have been identified in other organisms. Here, we have utilized a proteomics-based approach to identify proteins that are cleaved by caspases during apoptosis in Drosophila D-Mel2 cells, a subline of the Schneider S2 cell line. This approach identified multiple novel substrates for the fly caspases and revealed that bicaudal\\/betaNAC is a conserved substrate for Drosophila and mammalian caspases. RNAi-mediated silencing of bicaudal expression in Drosophila D-Mel2 cells resulted in a block to proliferation, followed by spontaneous apoptosis. Similarly, silencing of expression of the mammalian bicaudal homologue, betaNAC, in HeLa, HEK293T, MCF-7 and MRC5 cells also resulted in spontaneous apoptosis. These data suggest that bicaudal\\/betaNAC is essential for cell survival and is a conserved target of caspases from flies to man.

  13. Skeletal muscle PLIN3 and PLIN5 are serine phosphorylated at rest and following lipolysis during adrenergic or contractile stimulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacPherson, Rebecca E K; Vandenboom, Rene; Roy, Brian D; Peters, Sandra J

    2013-01-01

    In adipose tissue, access of adipose triglyceride and hormone-sensitive lipases (ATGL and HSL) to the lipid droplet depends on PLIN1 phosphorylation, however, PLIN1 is not expressed in skeletal muscle and the phosphorylation of the expressed PLINs has yet to be investigated. Further, direct interactions between skeletal muscle PLINs and HSL are unknown. We investigated the isolated and combined effects of epinephrine and contraction on PLIN-to-lipase interactions as well as phosphorylation. Isolated rat solei were assigned to one of four 30 min in vitro conditions (25°C): (1) rest; (2) intermittent tetanic stimulation (60 Hz for 150 msec; train rate 20/min); (3) 5 nmol/L epinephrine; (4) intermittent tetanic stimulation and 5 nmol/L epinephrine. Immunoprecipitation of serine phosphorylated proteins followed by Western blotting for PLIN2, PLIN3, PLIN5, revealed that only PLIN2 is not phosphorylated under any of the experimental conditions. This is the first study to show that in whole rat skeletal muscle PLIN3 and PLIN5 are serine phosphorylated. The degree of serine phosphorylation remained unchanged following adrenergic and/or contractile stimulation. Oil red O staining of muscle sections for lipid content shows a significant decrease following each condition, confirming lipolysis occurred (P < 0.05). PLIN2, 3, and 5 all interact with HSL and ATGL, but these interactions were unchanged following treatments. Our results show that in skeletal muscle, PLIN2 is not serine phosphorylated at rest or with lipolytic stimulation and that while PLIN3, PLIN5 are serine phosphorylated at rest, the degree of phosphorylation does not change with lipolytic stimulation. PMID:24303154

  14. Ubiquitination-Linked Phosphorylation of the FANCI S/TQ Cluster Contributes to Activation of the Fanconi Anemia I/D2 Complex

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    Ronald S. Cheung

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Repair of interstrand crosslinks by the Fanconi anemia (FA pathway requires both monoubiquitination and de-ubiquitination of the FANCI/FANCD2 (FANCI/D2 complex. In the standing model, the phosphorylation of six sites in the FANCI S/TQ cluster domain occurs upstream of, and promotes, FANCI/D2 monoubiquitination. We generated phospho-specific antibodies against three different S/TQ cluster sites (serines 556, 559, and 565 on human FANCI and found that, in contrast to the standing model, distinct FANCI sites were phosphorylated either predominantly upstream (ubiquitination independent; serine 556 or downstream (ubiquitination-linked; serines 559 and 565 of FANCI/D2 monoubiquitination. Ubiquitination-linked FANCI phosphorylation inhibited FANCD2 de-ubiquitination and bypassed the need to de-ubiquitinate FANCD2 to achieve effective interstrand crosslink repair. USP1 depletion suppressed ubiquitination-linked FANCI phosphorylation despite increasing FANCI/D2 monoubiquitination, providing an explanation of why FANCD2 de-ubiquitination is important for function of the FA pathway. Our work results in a refined model of how FANCI phosphorylation activates the FANCI/D2 complex.

  15. The Contribution of Serine 194 Phosphorylation to Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein Function

    OpenAIRE

    Sasaki, Goro; Zubair, Mohamad; Ishii, Tomohiro; Mitsui, Toshikatsu; Hasegawa, Tomonobu; Auchus, Richard J.

    2014-01-01

    The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) facilitates the delivery of cholesterol to the inner mitochondrial membrane, where the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme catalyzes the initial step of steroid hormone biosynthesis. StAR was initially identified in adrenocortical cells as a phosphoprotein, the expression and phosphorylation of which were stimulated by corticotropin. A number of in vitro studies have implicated cAMP-dependent phosphorylation at serine 194 (S194, S195 in hum...

  16. Selective inhibition reveals cyclin-dependent kinase 2 as another kinase that phosphorylates the androgen receptor at serine 81

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Jorda, Radek; Bučková, Zuzana; Řezníčková, Eva; Bouchal, J.; Kryštof, Vladimír

    2018-01-01

    Roč. 1865, č. 2 (2018), s. 354-363 ISSN 0167-4889 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LO1204; GA MŠk(CZ) LO1304 Institutional support: RVO:61389030 Keywords : Androgen receptor * Cyclin-dependent kinase * Inhibitor * Phosphorylation * Serine 81 Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology OBOR OECD: Biochemistry and molecular biology Impact factor: 4.521, year: 2016

  17. Phorbol ester-induced serine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor decreases its tyrosine kinase activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takayama, S; White, M F; Kahn, C R

    1988-03-05

    The effect of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) on the function of the insulin receptor was examined in intact hepatoma cells (Fao) and in solubilized extracts purified by wheat germ agglutinin chromatography. Incubation of ortho[32P]phosphate-labeled Fao cells with TPA increased the phosphorylation of the insulin receptor 2-fold after 30 min. Analysis of tryptic phosphopeptides from the beta-subunit of the receptor by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography and determination of their phosphoamino acid composition suggested that TPA predominantly stimulated phosphorylation of serine residues in a single tryptic peptide. Incubation of the Fao cells with insulin (100 nM) for 1 min stimulated 4-fold the phosphorylation of the beta-subunit of the insulin receptor. Prior treatment of the cells with TPA inhibited the insulin-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation by 50%. The receptors extracted with Triton X-100 from TPA-treated Fao cells and purified on immobilized wheat germ agglutinin retained the alteration in kinase activity and exhibited a 50% decrease in insulin-stimulated tyrosine autophosphorylation and phosphotransferase activity toward exogenous substrates. This was due primarily to a decrease in the Vmax for these reactions. TPA treatment also decreased the Km of the insulin receptor for ATP. Incubation of the insulin receptor purified from TPA-treated cells with alkaline phosphatase decreased the phosphate content of the beta-subunit to the control level and reversed the inhibition, suggesting that the serine phosphorylation of the beta-subunit was responsible for the decreased tyrosine kinase activity. Our results support the notion that the insulin receptor is a substrate for protein kinase C in the Fao cell and that the increase in serine phosphorylation of the beta-subunit of the receptor produced by TPA treatment inhibited tyrosine kinase activity in vivo and in vitro. These data suggest that protein kinase C may regulate the function

  18. CDK2 and PKA mediated-sequential phosphorylation is critical for p19INK4d function in the DNA damage response.

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    Mariela C Marazita

    Full Text Available DNA damage triggers a phosphorylation-based signaling cascade known as the DNA damage response. p19INK4d, a member of the INK4 family of CDK4/6 inhibitors, has been reported to participate in the DNA damage response promoting DNA repair and cell survival. Here, we provide mechanistic insight into the activation mechanism of p19INK4d linked to the response to DNA damage. Results showed that p19INK4d becomes phosphorylated following UV radiation, β-amyloid peptide and cisplatin treatments. ATM-Chk2/ATR-Chk1 signaling pathways were found to be differentially involved in p19INK4d phosphorylation depending on the type of DNA damage. Two sequential phosphorylation events at serine 76 and threonine 141 were identified using p19INK4d single-point mutants in metabolic labeling assays with (32P-orthophosphate. CDK2 and PKA were found to participate in p19INK4d phosphorylation process and that they would mediate serine 76 and threonine 141 modifications respectively. Nuclear translocation of p19INK4d induced by DNA damage was shown to be dependent on serine 76 phosphorylation. Most importantly, both phosphorylation sites were found to be crucial for p19INK4d function in DNA repair and cell survival. In contrast, serine 76 and threonine 141 were dispensable for CDK4/6 inhibition highlighting the independence of p19INK4d functions, in agreement with our previous findings. These results constitute the first description of the activation mechanism of p19INK4d in response to genotoxic stress and demonstrate the functional relevance of this activation following DNA damage.

  19. D-serine increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis

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    Sebastien eSultan

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Adult hippocampal neurogenesis results in the continuous formation of new neurons and is a process of brain plasticity involved in learning and memory. The neurogenic niche regulates the stem cell proliferation and the differentiation and survival of new neurons and a major contributor to the neurogenic niche are astrocytes. Among the molecules secreted by astrocytes, D-serine is an important gliotransmitter and is a co-agonist of the glutamate, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA receptor. D-serine has been shown to enhance the proliferation of neural stem cells in vitro, but its effect on adult neurogenesis in vivo is unknown. Here, we tested the effect of exogenous administration of D-serine on adult neurogenesis in the mouse dentate gyrus. We found that 1 week of treatment with D-serine increased cell proliferation in vivo and in vitro and increased the density of neural stem cells and transit amplifying progenitors. Furthermore, D-serine increased the survival of newborn neurons. Together, these results indicate that D-serine treatment resulted in the improvement of several steps of adult neurogenesis in vivo.

  20. The Glycerate and Phosphorylated Pathways of Serine Synthesis in Plants: The Branches of Plant Glycolysis Linking Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Igamberdiev, Abir U; Kleczkowski, Leszek A

    2018-01-01

    Serine metabolism in plants has been studied mostly in relation to photorespiration where serine is formed from two molecules of glycine. However, two other pathways of serine formation operate in plants and represent the branches of glycolysis diverging at the level of 3-phosphoglyceric acid. One branch (the glycerate - serine pathway) is initiated in the cytosol and involves glycerate formation from 3-phosphoglycerate, while the other (the phosphorylated serine pathway) operates in plastids and forms phosphohydroxypyruvate as an intermediate. Serine formed in these pathways becomes a precursor of glycine, formate and glycolate accumulating in stress conditions. The pathways can be linked to GABA shunt via transamination reactions and via participation of the same reductase for both glyoxylate and succinic semialdehyde. In this review paper we present a hypothesis of the regulation of redox balance in stressed plant cells via participation of the reactions associated with glycerate and phosphorylated serine pathways. We consider these pathways as important processes linking carbon and nitrogen metabolism and maintaining cellular redox and energy levels in stress conditions.

  1. Novel Serine 176 Phosphorylation of YBX1 Activates NF-κB in Colon Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Matthew; Hua, Laiqing; Wang, Benlian; Wei, Han; Prabhu, Lakshmi; Hartley, Antja-Voy; Jiang, Guanglong; Liu, Yunlong; Lu, Tao

    2017-02-24

    Y box protein 1 (YBX1) is a well known oncoprotein that has tumor-promoting functions. YBX1 is widely considered to be an attractive therapeutic target in cancer. To develop novel therapeutics to target YBX1, it is of great importance to understand how YBX1 is finely regulated in cancer. Previously, we have shown that YBX1 could function as a tumor promoter through phosphorylation of its Ser-165 residue, leading to the activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway (1). In this study, using mass spectrometry analysis, we discovered a distinct phosphorylation site, Ser-176, on YBX1. Overexpression of the YBX1-S176A (serine-to-alanine) mutant in either HEK293 cells or colon cancer HT29 cells showed dramatically reduced NF-κB-activating ability compared with that of WT-YBX1, confirming that Ser-176 phosphorylation is critical for the activation of NF-κB by YBX1. Importantly, the mutant of Ser-176 and the previously reported Ser-165 sites regulate distinct groups of NF-κB target genes, suggesting the unique and irreplaceable function of each of these two phosphorylated serine residues. Our important findings could provide a novel cancer therapy strategy by blocking either Ser-176 or Ser-165 phosphorylation or both of YBX1 in colon cancer. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  2. Influence of the O-phosphorylation of serine, threonine and tyrosine in proteins on the amidic N-15 chemical shielding anisotropy tensors

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Emmer, J.; Vavrinská, A.; Sychrovský, Vladimír; Benda, Ladislav; Kříž, Z.; Koča, J.; Boelens, R.; Sklenář, V.; Trantírek, L.

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 55, č. 1 (2013), s. 59-70 ISSN 0925-2738 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP205/10/0228 Grant - others:CEITEC(XE) CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0068 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : CSA * phosphorylation * amidic nitrogen * serine * threonine * tyrosine * protein * NMR Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 3.305, year: 2013

  3. Phosphomimetic mutation of the mitotically phosphorylated serine 1880 compromises the interaction of the transmembrane nucleoporin gp210 with the nuclear pore complex

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onischenko, Evgeny A.; Crafoord, Ellinor; Hallberg, Einar

    2007-01-01

    The nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) reversibly disassemble and reassemble during mitosis. Disassembly of the NPC is accompanied by phosphorylation of many nucleoporins although the function of this is not clear. It was previously shown that in the transmembrane nucleoporin gp210 a single serine residue at position 1880 is specifically phosphorylated during mitosis. Using amino acid substitution combined with live cell imaging, time-lapse microscopy and FRAP, we investigated the role of serine 1880 in binding of gp210 to the NPC in vivo. An alanine substitution mutant (S1880A) was significantly more dynamic at the NPC compared to the wild-type protein, suggesting that serine 1880 is important for binding of gp210 to the NPC. Moreover a glutamate substitution (S1880E) closely mimicking phosphorylated serine specifically interfered with incorporation of gp210 into the NPC and compromised its post-mitotic recruitment to the nuclear envelope of daughter nuclei. Our findings are consistent with the idea that mitotic phosphorylation acts to dissociate gp210 from the structural elements of the NPC

  4. beta2-adaptin is constitutively de-phosphorylated by serine/threonine protein phosphatase PP2A and phosphorylated by a staurosporine-sensitive kinase

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lauritsen, Jens Peter Holst; Menné, C; Kastrup, J

    2000-01-01

    Clathrin-mediated endocytosis includes cycles of assembly and disassembly of the clathrin-coated vesicle constituents. How these cycles are regulated is still not fully known but previous studies have indicated that phosphorylation of coat subunits may play a role. Here we describe that beta2-ada...... the hypothesis that phosphorylation/de-phosphorylation of coat proteins plays a regulatory role in the assembly/disassembly cycle of clathrin-coated vesicles.......Clathrin-mediated endocytosis includes cycles of assembly and disassembly of the clathrin-coated vesicle constituents. How these cycles are regulated is still not fully known but previous studies have indicated that phosphorylation of coat subunits may play a role. Here we describe that beta2......-adaptin undergoes cycles of phosphorylation/de-phosphorylation in intact cells. Thus, beta2-adaptin was constitutively de-phosphorylated by serine/threonine protein phosphatase 2A and phosphorylated by a staurosporine-sensitive kinase in vivo. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated...

  5. Maintained activity of glycogen synthase kinase-3β despite of its phosphorylation at serine-9 in okadaic acid-induced neurodegenerative model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, Yong-Whan; Yoon, Seung-Yong; Choi, Jung-Eun; Kim, Sang-Min; Lee, Hui-Sun; Choe, Han; Lee, Seung-Chul; Kim, Dong-Hou

    2010-01-01

    Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) is recognized as one of major kinases to phosphorylate tau in Alzheimer's disease (AD), thus lots of AD drug discoveries target GSK3β. However, the inactive form of GSK3β which is phosphorylated at serine-9 is increased in AD brains. This is also inconsistent with phosphorylation status of other GSK3β substrates, such as β-catenin and collapsin response mediator protein-2 (CRMP2) since their phosphorylation is all increased in AD brains. Thus, we addressed this paradoxical condition of AD in rat neurons treated with okadaic acid (OA) which inhibits protein phosphatase-2A (PP2A) and induces tau hyperphosphorylation and cell death. Interestingly, OA also induces phosphorylation of GSK3β at serine-9 and other substrates including tau, β-catenin and CRMP2 like in AD brains. In this context, we observed that GSK3β inhibitors such as lithium chloride and 6-bromoindirubin-3'-monoxime (6-BIO) reversed those phosphorylation events and protected neurons. These data suggest that GSK3β may still have its kinase activity despite increase of its phosphorylation at serine-9 in AD brains at least in PP2A-compromised conditions and that GSK3β inhibitors could be a valuable drug candidate in AD.

  6. Chk1 protects against chromatin bridges by constitutively phosphorylating BLM serine 502 to inhibit BLM degradation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petsalaki, Eleni; Dandoulaki, Maria; Morrice, Nick; Zachos, George

    2014-09-15

    Chromatin bridges represent incompletely segregated chromosomal DNA connecting the anaphase poles and can result in chromosome breakage. The Bloom's syndrome protein helicase (BLM, also known as BLMH) suppresses formation of chromatin bridges. Here, we show that cells deficient in checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1, also known as CHEK1) exhibit higher frequency of chromatin bridges and reduced BLM protein levels compared to controls. Chk1 inhibition leads to BLM ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation during interphase. Furthermore, Chk1 constitutively phosphorylates human BLM at serine 502 (S502) and phosphorylated BLM localises to chromatin bridges. Mutation of S502 to a non-phosphorylatable alanine residue (BLM-S502A) reduces the stability of BLM, whereas expression of a phospho-mimicking BLM-S502D, in which S502 is mutated to aspartic acid, stabilises BLM and prevents chromatin bridges in Chk1-deficient cells. In addition, wild-type but not BLM-S502D associates with cullin 3, and cullin 3 depletion rescues BLM accumulation and localisation to chromatin bridges after Chk1 inhibition. We propose that Chk1 phosphorylates BLM-S502 to inhibit cullin-3-mediated BLM degradation during interphase. These results suggest that Chk1 prevents deleterious anaphase bridges by stabilising BLM. © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  7. Bicaudal-D1 regulates the intracellular sorting and signalling of neurotrophin receptors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terenzio, Marco; Golding, Matthew; Russell, Matthew R G; Wicher, Krzysztof B; Rosewell, Ian; Spencer-Dene, Bradley; Ish-Horowicz, David; Schiavo, Giampietro

    2014-07-17

    We have identified a new function for the dynein adaptor Bicaudal D homolog 1 (BICD1) by screening a siRNA library for genes affecting the dynamics of neurotrophin receptor-containing endosomes in motor neurons (MNs). Depleting BICD1 increased the intracellular accumulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-activated TrkB and p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)) by disrupting the endosomal sorting, reducing lysosomal degradation and increasing the co-localisation of these neurotrophin receptors with retromer-associated sorting nexin 1. The resulting re-routing of active receptors increased their recycling to the plasma membrane and altered the repertoire of signalling-competent TrkB isoforms and p75(NTR) available for ligand binding on the neuronal surface. This resulted in attenuated, but more sustained, AKT activation in response to BDNF stimulation. These data, together with our observation that Bicd1 expression is restricted to the developing nervous system when neurotrophin receptor expression peaks, indicate that BICD1 regulates neurotrophin signalling by modulating the endosomal sorting of internalised ligand-activated receptors. © 2014 The Authors.

  8. IRS-1 serine phosphorylation and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle from pancreas tranplant recipient

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bouzakri, K; Karlsson, HRK; Vestergaard, Henrik

    2006-01-01

    Insulin-dependent diabetic recipients of successful pancreas allografts achieve self-regulatory insulin secretion and discontinue exogenous insulin therapy; however, chronic hyperinsulinemia and impaired insulin sensitivity generally develop. To determine whether insulin resistance is accompanied....... In conclusion, peripheral insulin resistance in pancreas-kidney transplant recipients may arise from a negative feedback regulation of the canonical insulin-signaling cascade from excessive serine phosphorylation of IRS-1, possibly as a consequence of immunosuppressive therapy and hyperinsulinemia....... insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 Ser (312) and Ser (616) phosphorylation, IRS-1-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 phosphorylation were elevated in pancreas-kidney transplant recipients, coincident with fasting hyperinsulinemia. Basal...

  9. Neonatal disruption of serine racemase causes schizophrenia-like behavioral abnormalities in adulthood: clinical rescue by d-serine.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiroko Hagiwara

    Full Text Available D-Serine, an endogenous co-agonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA receptor, is synthesized from L-serine by serine racemase (SRR. Given the role of D-serine in both neurodevelopment and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, we examined whether neonatal disruption of D-serine synthesis by SRR inhibition could induce behavioral abnormalities relevant to schizophrenia, in later life.Neonatal mice (7-9 days were injected with vehicle or phenazine methosulfate (Met-Phen: 3 mg/kg/day, an SRR inhibitor. Behavioral evaluations, such as spontaneous locomotion, novel object recognition test (NORT, and prepulse inhibition (PPI were performed at juvenile (5-6 weeks old and adult (10-12 weeks old stages. In addition, we tested the effects of D-serine on PPI deficits in adult mice after neonatal Met-Phen exposure. Finally, we assessed whether D-serine could prevent the onset of schizophrenia-like behavior in these mice. Neonatal Met-Phen treatment reduced D-serine levels in the brain, 24 hours after the final dose. Additionally, this treatment caused behavioral abnormalities relevant to prodromal symptoms in juveniles and to schizophrenia in adults. A single dose of D-serine improved PPI deficits in adult mice. Interestingly, chronic administration of D-serine (900 mg/kg/day from P35 to P70 significantly prevented the onset of PPI deficits after neonatal Met-Phen exposure.This study shows that disruption of D-serine synthesis during developmental stages leads to behavioral abnormalities relevant to prodromal symptoms and schizophrenia, in later life. Furthermore, early pharmacological intervention with D-serine may prevent the onset of psychosis in adult.

  10. Phosphorylation of p37 is important for Golgi disassembly at mitosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaneko, Yayoi; Tamura, Kaori; Totsukawa, Go; Kondo, Hisao

    2010-01-01

    Research highlights: → p37 is phosphorylated on Serine-56 and Threonine-59 by Cdc2 at mitosis. → Phosphorylated p37 does not bind to Golgi membranes. → p37 phosphorylation inhibits p97/p37-mediated Golgi membrane fusion. -- Abstract: In mammals, the Golgi apparatus is disassembled at early mitosis and reassembled at the end of mitosis. For Golgi disassembly, membrane fusion needs to be blocked. Golgi biogenesis requires two distinct p97ATPase-mediated membrane fusion, the p97/p47 and p97/p37 pathways. We previously reported that p47 phosphorylation on Serine-140 by Cdc2 results in mitotic inhibition of the p97/p47 pathway . In this study, we demonstrate that p37 is phosphorylated on Serine-56 and Threonine-59 by Cdc2 at mitosis, and this phosphorylated p37 does not bind to Golgi membranes. Using an in vitro Golgi reassembly assay, we show that mutated p37(S56D, T59D), which mimics mitotic phosphorylation, does not cause any cisternal regrowth, indicating that p37 phosphorylation inhibits the p97/p37 pathway. Our results demonstrate that p37 phosphorylation on Serine-56 and Threonine-59 is important for Golgi disassembly at mitosis.

  11. D-serine : The right or wrong isoform?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fuchs, Sabine A; Berger, Ruud; de Koning, Tom J

    2011-01-01

    Only recently, d-amino acids have been identified in mammals. Of these, d-serine has been most extensively studied. d-Serine was found to play an important role as a neurotransmitter in the human central nervous system (CNS) by binding to the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAr), similar to

  12. Identification of serine 348 on the apelin receptor as a novel regulatory phosphorylation site in apelin-13-induced G protein-independent biased signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xiaoyu; Bai, Bo; Tian, Yanjun; Du, Hui; Chen, Jing

    2014-11-07

    Phosphorylation plays vital roles in the regulation of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) functions. The apelin and apelin receptor (APJ) system is involved in the regulation of cardiovascular function and central control of body homeostasis. Here, using tandem mass spectrometry, we first identified phosphorylated serine residues in the C terminus of APJ. To determine the role of phosphorylation sites in APJ-mediated G protein-dependent and -independent signaling and function, we induced a mutation in the C-terminal serine residues and examined their effects on the interaction between APJ with G protein or GRK/β-arrestin and their downstream signaling. Mutation of serine 348 led to an elimination of both GRK and β-arrestin recruitment to APJ induced by apelin-13. Moreover, APJ internalization and G protein-independent ERK signaling were also abolished by point mutation at serine 348. In contrast, this mutant at serine residues had no demonstrable impact on apelin-13-induced G protein activation and its intracellular signaling. These findings suggest that mutation of serine 348 resulted in inactive GRK/β-arrestin. However, there was no change in the active G protein thus, APJ conformation was biased. These results provide important information on the molecular interplay and impact of the APJ function, which may be extrapolated to design novel drugs for cardiac hypertrophy based on this biased signal pathway. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  13. Heterogeneity of D-Serine Distribution in the Human Central Nervous System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suzuki, Masataka; Imanishi, Nobuaki; Mita, Masashi; Hamase, Kenji; Aiso, Sadakazu

    2017-01-01

    D-serine is an endogenous ligand for N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors. Accumulating evidence including genetic associations of D-serine metabolism with neurological or psychiatric diseases suggest that D-serine is crucial in human neurophysiology. However, distribution and regulation of D-serine in humans are not well understood. Here, we found that D-serine is heterogeneously distributed in the human central nervous system (CNS). The cerebrum contains the highest level of D-serine among the areas in the CNS. There is heterogeneity in its distribution in the cerebrum and even within the cerebral neocortex. The neocortical heterogeneity is associated with Brodmann or functional areas but is unrelated to basic patterns of cortical layer structure or regional expressional variation of metabolic enzymes for D-serine. Such D-serine distribution may reflect functional diversity of glutamatergic neurons in the human CNS, which may serve as a basis for clinical and pharmacological studies on D-serine modulation. PMID:28604057

  14. Phosphopeptide derivatization signatures to identify serine and threonine phosphorylated peptides by mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molloy, M P; Andrews, P C

    2001-11-15

    The development of rapid, global methods for monitoring states of protein phosphorylation would provide greater insight for understanding many fundamental biological processes. Current best practices use mass spectrometry (MS) to profile digests of purified proteins for evidence of phosphorylation. However, this approach is beset by inherent difficulties in both identifying phosphopeptides from within a complex mixture containing many other unmodified peptides and ionizing phosphopeptides in positive-ion MS. We have modified an approach that uses barium hydroxide to rapidly eliminate the phosphoryl group of serine and threonine modified amino acids, creating dehydroamino acids that are susceptible to nucleophilic derivatization. By derivatizing a protein digest with a mixture of two different alkanethiols, phosphopeptide-specific derivatives were readily distinguished by MS due to their characteristic ion-pair signature. The resulting tagged ion pairs accommodate simple and rapid screening for phosphopeptides in a protein digest, obviating the use of isotopically labeled samples for qualitative phosphopeptide detection. MALDI-MS is used in a first pass manner to detect derivatized phosphopeptides, while the remaining sample is available for tandem MS to reveal the site of derivatization and, thus, phosphorylation. We demonstrated the technique by identifying phosphopeptides from beta-casein and ovalbumin. The approach was further used to examine in vitro phosphorylation of recombinant human HSP22 by protein kinase C, revealing phosphorylation of Thr-63.

  15. Phosphorylation of Rad9 at serine 328 by cyclin A-Cdk2 triggers apoptosis via interfering Bcl-xL.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhuo Zhan

    Full Text Available Cyclin A-Cdk2, a cell cycle regulated Ser/Thr kinase, plays important roles in a variety of apoptoticprocesses. However, the mechanism of cyclin A-Cdk2 regulated apoptosis remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that Rad9, a member of the BH3-only subfamily of Bcl-2 proteins, could be phosphorylated by cyclin A-Cdk2 in vitro and in vivo. Cyclin A-Cdk2 catalyzed the phosphorylation of Rad9 at serine 328 in HeLa cells during apoptosis induced by etoposide, an inhibitor of topoisomeraseII. The phosphorylation of Rad9 resulted in its translocation from the nucleus to the mitochondria and its interaction with Bcl-xL. The forced activation of cyclin A-Cdk2 in these cells by the overexpression of cyclin A,triggered Rad9 phosphorylation at serine 328 and thereby promoted the interaction of Rad9 with Bcl-xL and the subsequent initiation of the apoptotic program. The pro-apoptotic effects regulated by the cyclin A-Cdk2 complex were significantly lower in cells transfected with Rad9S328A, an expression vector that encodes a Rad9 mutant that is resistant to cyclin A-Cdk2 phosphorylation. These findings suggest that cyclin A-Cdk2 regulates apoptosis through a mechanism that involves Rad9phosphorylation.

  16. Serine 62-Phosphorylated MYC Associates with Nuclear Lamins and Its Regulation by CIP2A Is Essential for Regenerative Proliferation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin Myant

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available An understanding of the mechanisms determining MYC’s transcriptional and proliferation-promoting activities in vivo could facilitate approaches for MYC targeting. However, post-translational mechanisms that control MYC function in vivo are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that MYC phosphorylation at serine 62 enhances MYC accumulation on Lamin A/C-associated nuclear structures and that the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A inhibitor protein CIP2A is required for this process. CIP2A is also critical for serum-induced MYC phosphorylation and for MYC-elicited proliferation induction in vitro. Complementary transgenic approaches and an intestinal regeneration model further demonstrated the in vivo importance of CIP2A and serine 62 phosphorylation for MYC activity upon DNA damage. However, targeting of CIP2A did not influence the normal function of intestinal crypt cells. These data underline the importance of nuclear organization in the regulation of MYC phosphorylation, leading to an in vivo demonstration of a strategy for inhibiting MYC activity without detrimental physiological effects.

  17. Ser/Thr Phosphorylation Regulates the Fatty Acyl-AMP Ligase Activity of FadD32, an Essential Enzyme in Mycolic Acid Biosynthesis*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le, Nguyen-Hung; Molle, Virginie; Eynard, Nathalie; Miras, Mathieu; Stella, Alexandre; Bardou, Fabienne; Galandrin, Ségolène; Guillet, Valérie; André-Leroux, Gwenaëlle; Bellinzoni, Marco; Alzari, Pedro; Mourey, Lionel; Burlet-Schiltz, Odile; Daffé, Mamadou; Marrakchi, Hedia

    2016-01-01

    Mycolic acids are essential components of the mycobacterial cell envelope, and their biosynthetic pathway is a well known source of antituberculous drug targets. Among the promising new targets in the pathway, FadD32 is an essential enzyme required for the activation of the long meromycolic chain of mycolic acids and is essential for mycobacterial growth. Following the in-depth biochemical, biophysical, and structural characterization of FadD32, we investigated its putative regulation via post-translational modifications. Comparison of the fatty acyl-AMP ligase activity between phosphorylated and dephosphorylated FadD32 isoforms showed that the native protein is phosphorylated by serine/threonine protein kinases and that this phosphorylation induced a significant loss of activity. Mass spectrometry analysis of the native protein confirmed the post-translational modifications and identified Thr-552 as the phosphosite. Phosphoablative and phosphomimetic FadD32 mutant proteins confirmed both the position and the importance of the modification and its correlation with the negative regulation of FadD32 activity. Investigation of the mycolic acid condensation reaction catalyzed by Pks13, involving FadD32 as a partner, showed that FadD32 phosphorylation also impacts the condensation activity. Altogether, our results bring to light FadD32 phosphorylation by serine/threonine protein kinases and its correlation with the enzyme-negative regulation, thus shedding a new horizon on the mycolic acid biosynthesis modulation and possible inhibition strategies for this promising drug target. PMID:27590338

  18. ATM-dependent phosphorylation of Mdm2 on serine 395: role in p53 activation by DNA damage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maya, Ruth; Balass, Moshe; Kim, Seong-Tae; Shkedy, Dganit; Leal, Juan-Fernando Martinez; Shifman, Ohad; Moas, Miri; Buschmann, Thomas; Ronai, Ze'ev; Shiloh, Yosef; Kastan, Michael B.; Katzir, Ephraim; Oren, Moshe

    2001-01-01

    The p53 tumor suppressor protein, a key regulator of cellular responses to genotoxic stress, is stabilized and activated after DNA damage. The rapid activation of p53 by ionizing radiation and radiomimetic agents is largely dependent on the ATM kinase. p53 is phosphorylated by ATM shortly after DNA damage, resulting in enhanced stability and activity of p53. The Mdm2 oncoprotein is a pivotal negative regulator of p53. In response to ionizing radiation and radiomimetic drugs, Mdm2 undergoes rapid ATM-dependent phosphorylation prior to p53 accumulation. This results in a decrease in its reactivity with the 2A10 monoclonal antibody. Phage display analysis identified a consensus 2A10 recognition sequence, possessing the core motif DYS. Unexpectedly, this motif appears twice within the human Mdm2 molecule, at positions corresponding to residues 258–260 and 393–395. Both putative 2A10 epitopes are highly conserved and encompass potential phosphorylation sites. Serine 395, residing within the carboxy-terminal 2A10 epitope, is the major target on Mdm2 for phosphorylation by ATM in vitro. Mutational analysis supports the conclusion that Mdm2 undergoes ATM-dependent phosphorylation on serine 395 in vivo in response to DNA damage. The data further suggests that phosphorylated Mdm2 may be less capable of promoting the nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling of p53 and its subsequent degradation, thereby enabling p53 accumulation. Our findings imply that activation of p53 by DNA damage is achieved, in part, through attenuation of the p53-inhibitory potential of Mdm2. PMID:11331603

  19. KSR1 is a functional protein kinase capable of serine autophosphorylation and direct phosphorylation of MEK1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goettel, Jeremy A.; Liang, Dongchun; Hilliard, Valda C.; Edelblum, Karen L.; Broadus, Matthew R.; Gould, Kathleen L.; Hanks, Steven K.; Polk, D. Brent

    2011-01-01

    The extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK/MAPK) pathway is a highly conserved signaling pathway that regulates diverse cellular processes including differentiation, proliferation, and survival. Kinase suppressor of Ras-1 (KSR1) binds each of the three ERK cascade components to facilitate pathway activation. Even though KSR1 contains a C-terminal kinase domain, evidence supporting the catalytic function of KSR1 remains controversial. In this study, we produced recombinant wild-type or kinase-inactive (D683A/D700A) KSR1 proteins in Escherichia coli to test the hypothesis that KSR1 is a functional protein kinase. Recombinant wild-type KSR1, but not recombinant kinase-inactive KSR1, underwent autophosphorylation on serine residue(s), phosphorylated myelin basic protein (MBP) as a generic substrate, and phosphorylated recombinant kinase-inactive MAPK/ERK kinase-1 (MEK1). Furthermore, FLAG immunoprecipitates from KSR1 -/- colon epithelial cells stably expressing FLAG-tagged wild-type KSR1 (+KSR1), but not vector (+vector) or FLAG-tagged kinase-inactive KSR1 (+D683A/D700A), were able to phosphorylate kinase-inactive MEK1. Since TNF activates the ERK pathway in colon epithelial cells, we tested the biological effects of KSR1 in the survival response downstream of TNF. We found that +vector and +D683A/D700A cells underwent apoptosis when treated with TNF, whereas +KSR1 cells were resistant. However, +KSR1 cells were sensitized to TNF-induced cell loss in the absence of MEK kinase activity. These data provide clear evidence that KSR1 is a functional protein kinase, MEK1 is an in vitro substrate of KSR1, and the catalytic activities of both proteins are required for eliciting cell survival responses downstream of TNF.

  20. Amperometric Self-Referencing Ceramic Based Microelectrode Arrays for D-Serine Detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campos-Beltrán, Diana; Konradsson-Geuken, Åsa; Quintero, Jorge E; Marshall, Lisa

    2018-03-06

    D-serine is the major D-amino acid in the mammalian central nervous system. As the dominant co-agonist of the endogenous synaptic NMDA receptor, D-serine plays a role in synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Alterations in D-serine are linked to neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. Thus, it is of increasing interest to monitor the concentration of D-serine in vivo as a relevant player in dynamic neuron-glia network activity. Here we present a procedure for amperometric detection of D-serine with self-referencing ceramic-based microelectrode arrays (MEAs) coated with D-amino acid oxidase from the yeast Rhodotorula gracilis (RgDAAO). We demonstrate in vitro D-serine recordings with a mean sensitivity of 8.61 ± 0.83 pA/µM to D-serine, a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.17 ± 0.01 µM, and a selectivity ratio of 80:1 or greater for D-serine over ascorbic acid (mean ± SEM; n = 12) that can be used for freely moving studies.

  1. Aurora-B Mediated ATM Serine 1403 Phosphorylation Is Required For Mitotic ATM Activation and the Spindle Checkpoint

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Chunying; Tang, Xi; Guo, Xiaojing; Niikura, Yohei; Kitagawa, Katsumi; Cui, Kemi; Wong, Stephen T.C.; Fu, Li; Xu, Bo

    2011-01-01

    The ATM kinase plays a critical role in the maintenance of genetic stability. ATM is activated in response to DNA damage and is essential for cell cycle checkpoints. Here, we report that ATM is activated in mitosis in the absence of DNA damage. We demonstrate that mitotic ATM activation is dependent on the Aurora-B kinase and that Aurora-B phosphorylates ATM on serine 1403. This phosphorylation event is required for mitotic ATM activation. Further, we show that loss of ATM function results in...

  2. Regulation of the Incorporation of Tissue Factor into Microparticles by Serine Phosphorylation of the Cytoplasmic Domain of Tissue Factor*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collier, Mary E. W.; Ettelaie, Camille

    2011-01-01

    The mechanisms that regulate the incorporation and release of tissue factors (TFs) into cell-derived microparticles are as yet unidentified. In this study, we have explored the regulation of TF release into microparticles by the phosphorylation of serine residues within the cytoplasmic domain of TF. Wild-type and mutant forms of TF, containing alanine and aspartate substitutions at Ser253 and Ser258, were overexpressed in coronary artery and dermal microvascular endothelial cells and microparticle release stimulated with PAR2 agonist peptide (PAR2-AP). The release of TF antigen and activity was then monitored. In addition, the phosphorylation state of the two serine residues within the released microparticles and the cells was monitored for 150 min. The release of wild-type TF as procoagulant microparticles peaked at 90 min and declined thereafter in both cell types. The TF within these microparticles was phosphorylated at Ser253 but not at Ser258. Aspartate substitution of Ser253 resulted in rapid release of TF antigen but not activity, whereas TF release was reduced and delayed by alanine substitution of Ser253 or aspartate substitution of Ser258. Alanine substitution of Ser258 prolonged the release of TF following PAR2-AP activation. The release of TF was concurrent with phosphorylation of Ser253 and was followed by dephosphorylation at 120 min and phosphorylation of Ser258. We propose a sequential mechanism in which the phosphorylation of Ser253 through PAR2 activation results in the incorporation of TF into microparticles, simultaneously inducing Ser258 phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of Ser258 in turn promotes the dephosphorylation of Ser253 and suppresses the release of TF. PMID:21310953

  3. Phosphorylation of human respiratory syncytial virus P protein at serine 54 regulates viral uncoating

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asenjo, Ana; Gonzalez-Armas, Juan C.; Villanueva, Nieves

    2008-01-01

    The human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) structural P protein, phosphorylated at serine (S) and threonine (T) residues, is a co-factor of viral RNA polymerase. The phosphorylation of S54 is controlled by the coordinated action of two cellular enzymes: a lithium-sensitive kinase, probably glycogen synthetase kinase (GSK-3) β and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). Inhibition of lithium-sensitive kinase, soon after infection, blocks the viral growth cycle by inhibiting synthesis and/or accumulation of viral RNAs, proteins and extracellular particles. P protein phosphorylation at S54 is required to liberate viral ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) from M protein, during the uncoating process. Kinase inhibition, late in infection, produces a decrease in genomic RNA and infectious viral particles. LiCl, intranasally applied to mice infected with HRSV A2 strain, reduces the number of mice with virus in their lungs and the virus titre. Administration of LiCl to humans via aerosol should prevent HRSV infection, without secondary effects

  4. Detection and characterization of 3D-signature phosphorylation site motifs and their contribution towards improved phosphorylation site prediction in proteins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selbig Joachim

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Phosphorylation of proteins plays a crucial role in the regulation and activation of metabolic and signaling pathways and constitutes an important target for pharmaceutical intervention. Central to the phosphorylation process is the recognition of specific target sites by protein kinases followed by the covalent attachment of phosphate groups to the amino acids serine, threonine, or tyrosine. The experimental identification as well as computational prediction of phosphorylation sites (P-sites has proved to be a challenging problem. Computational methods have focused primarily on extracting predictive features from the local, one-dimensional sequence information surrounding phosphorylation sites. Results We characterized the spatial context of phosphorylation sites and assessed its usability for improved phosphorylation site predictions. We identified 750 non-redundant, experimentally verified sites with three-dimensional (3D structural information available in the protein data bank (PDB and grouped them according to their respective kinase family. We studied the spatial distribution of amino acids around phosphorserines, phosphothreonines, and phosphotyrosines to extract signature 3D-profiles. Characteristic spatial distributions of amino acid residue types around phosphorylation sites were indeed discernable, especially when kinase-family-specific target sites were analyzed. To test the added value of using spatial information for the computational prediction of phosphorylation sites, Support Vector Machines were applied using both sequence as well as structural information. When compared to sequence-only based prediction methods, a small but consistent performance improvement was obtained when the prediction was informed by 3D-context information. Conclusion While local one-dimensional amino acid sequence information was observed to harbor most of the discriminatory power, spatial context information was identified as

  5. Pdx1 is post-translationally modified in vivo and serine 61 is the principal site of phosphorylation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frogne, Thomas; Sylvestersen, Kathrine Beck; Kubicek, Stefan

    2012-01-01

    signaling. Several studies have shown that post-translational modifications are regulating Pdx1 activity through intracellular localization and binding to co-factors. Understanding the signaling cues converging on Pdx1 and modulating its activity is therefore an attractive approach in diabetes treatment. We...... alanine scanning and mass spectrometry we map this phosphorylation to serine 61 in both Min6 cells and in exogenous Pdx1 over-expressed in HEK293 cells. A single phosphorylation is also present in cultured islets but it remains unaffected by changes in glucose levels. It is present during embryogenesis...

  6. ACTIVATION OF A CRYPTIC D-SERINE DEAMINASE (DSD) GENE FROM PSEUDOMONAS CEPACIA 17616

    Science.gov (United States)

    D-serine inhibits growth of P. cepacia 17616; however, resistant mutants able to express an ordinarily cryptic D-serine deaminase (dsd) gene were isolated readily. The resistant strains formed high levels of a D-serine deaminase active on D-threonine as well as D-serine. IS eleme...

  7. Bacillus subtilis single-stranded DNA-binding protein SsbA is phosphorylated at threonine 38 by the serine/threonine kinase YabT

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Derouiche, Abderahmane; Petranovic, Dina; Macek, Boris

    2016-01-01

    Background and purpose: Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins participate in all stages of DNA metabolism that involve single-stranded DNA, from replication, recombination, repair of DNA damage, to natural competence in species such as Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis single-stranded DNA......-binding proteins have previously been found to be phosphorylated on tyrosine and arginine residues. While tyrosine phosphorylation was shown to enhance the DNA-binding properties of SsbA, arginine phosphorylation was not functionally characterized.Materials and methods: We used mass spectrometry analysis to detect...... phosphorylation of SsbA purified from B. subtilis cells. The detected phosphorylation site was assessed for its influence on DNA-binding in vitro, using electrophoretic mobility shift assays. The ability of B. subtilis serine/threonine kinases to phosphorylate SsbA was assessed using in vitro phosphorylation...

  8. Polo-like kinase 2-dependent phosphorylation of NPM/B23 on serine 4 triggers centriole duplication.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annekatrin Krause

    Full Text Available Duplication of the centrosome is well controlled during faithful cell division while deregulation of this process leads to supernumary centrosomes, chromosome missegregation and aneuploidy, a hallmark of many cancer cells. We previously reported that Polo-like kinase 2 (Plk2 is activated near the G1/S phase transition, and regulates the reproduction of centrosomes. In search for Plk2 interacting proteins we have identified NPM/B23 (Nucleophosmin as a novel Plk2 binding partner. We find that Plk2 and NPM/B23 interact in vitro in a Polo-box dependent manner. An association between both proteins was also observed in vivo. Moreover, we show that Plk2 phosphorylates NPM/B23 on serine 4 in vivo in S-phase. Notably, expression of a non-phosphorylatable NPM/B23 S4A mutant interferes with centriole reduplication in S-phase arrested cells and leads to a dilution of centriole numbers in unperturbed U2OS cells. The corresponding phospho-mimicking mutants have the opposite effect and their expression leads to the accumulation of centrioles. These findings suggest that NPM/B23 is a direct target of Plk2 in the regulation of centriole duplication and that phosphorylation on serine 4 can trigger this process.

  9. Antinociceptive Effect of Rat D-Serine Racemase Inhibitors, L-Serine-O-Sulfate, and L-Erythro-3-Hydroxyaspartate in an Arthritic Pain Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudio Laurido

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAr activation requires the presence of D-serine, synthesized from L-serine by a pyridoxal 5′-phosphate-dependent serine racemase (SR. D-serine levels can be lowered by inhibiting the racemization of L-serine. L-serine-O-sulfate (LSOS and L-erythro-3-hydroxyaspartate (LEHA, among others, have proven to be effective in reducing the D-serine levels in culture cells. It is tempting then to try these compounds in their effectiveness to decrease nociceptive levels in rat arthritic pain. We measured the C-reflex paradigm and wind-up potentiation in the presence of intrathecally injected LSOS (100 μg/10 μL and LEHA (100 μg/10 μL in normal and monoarthritic rats. Both compounds decreased the wind-up activity in normal and monoarthritic rats. Accordingly, all the antinociceptive effects were abolished when 300 μg/10 μL of D-serine were injected intrathecally. Since no in vivo results have been presented so far, this constitutes the first evidence that SR inhibitions lower the D-serine levels, thus decreasing the NMDAr activity and the consequent development and maintenance of chronic pain.

  10. Human ribosomal protein L37 has motifs predicting serine/threonine phosphorylation and a zinc-finger domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnard, G F; Staniunas, R J; Puder, M; Steele, G D; Chen, L B

    1994-08-02

    Ribosomal protein L37 mRNA is overexpressed in colon cancer. The nucleotide sequences of human L37 from several tumor and normal, colon and liver cDNA sources were determined to be identical. L37 mRNA was approximately 375 nucleotides long encoding 97 amino acids with M(r) = 11,070, pI = 12.6, multiple potential serine/threonine phosphorylation sites and a zinc-finger domain. The human sequence is compared to other species.

  11. Crystal Structure of Serine Racemase that Produces Neurotransmitter font-variant:small-caps">d-Serine for Stimulation of the NMDA Receptor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goto, Masaru

    font-variant:small-caps">d-Serine is an endogenous coagonist for the N-methyl-font-variant:small-caps">d-aspartate receptor and is involved in excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. Mammalian pyridoxal 5’-phosphate-dependent serine racemase, which is localized in the mammalian brain, catalyzes the racemization of font-variant:small-caps">l-serine to yield font-variant:small-caps">d-serine and vice versa. We have determined the structures of three forms of the mammalian enzyme homolog from Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Lys57 and Ser82 located on the protein and solvent sides, respectively, with respect to the cofactor plane, are acid-base catalysts that shuttle protons to the substrate. The modified enzyme, which has a unique lysino-font-variant:small-caps">d-alanyl residue at the active site, also binds the substrate serine in the active site, suggesting that the lysino-font-variant:small-caps">d-alanyl residue acts as a catalytic base in the same manner as Lys57 of the wild type enzyme.

  12. Cerebrospinal fluid D-serine concentrations in major depressive disorder negatively correlate with depression severity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishiwata, Sayuri; Hattori, Kotaro; Sasayama, Daimei; Teraishi, Toshiya; Miyakawa, Tomoko; Yokota, Yuuki; Matsumura, Ryo; Nishikawa, Toru; Kunugi, Hiroshi

    2018-01-15

    D-serine is an endogenous co-agonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) and plays an important role in glutamate neurotransmission. Several studies suggested the possible involvement of D-serine related in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders including major depression disorders (MDD). We tried to examine whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or plasma D-serine concentrations are altered in MDD and whether D-serine concentrations correlated with disease severity. 26 MDD patients and 27 healthy controls matched for age, sex and ethnicity were enrolled. We measured amino acids in these samples using by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorometric detection. D-serine and L-serine, precursor of D-serine, levels in CSF or plasma were not significantly different in patients of MDD compared to controls. Furthermore, a significant correlation between D-serine levels in CSF and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD)-17 score was observed (r = -0.65, p = 0.006). Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between CSF D-serine and HVA concentrations in MDD patients (r = 0.54, p = 0.007). CSF D-serine concentrations were correlated with those of plasma in MDD (r = 0.61, p = 0.01) but not in controls. In CSF, we also confirmed a significant correlation between D-serine and L-serine levels in MDD (r = 0.72, p depression severity and HVA concentrations and further investigation were required to reveal the effect of medication and disease heterogeneity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Identification of a novel phosphorylation site on TBC1D4 regulated by AMP-activated protein kinase in skeletal muscle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Treebak, Jonas Thue; Taylor, Eric B.; Witczak, Carol A.

    2010-01-01

    TBC1D4 (also known as AS160) regulates GLUT4 translocation and glucose uptake in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. Its mode of action involves phosphorylation of Serine (S)/Threonine (T) residues by upstream kinases resulting in inactivation of Rab-GAP activity leading to GLUT4 mobilization...

  14. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcriptional repressor EthR is negatively regulated by Serine/Threonine phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leiba, Jade; Carrère-Kremer, Séverine; Blondiaux, Nicolas; Dimala, Martin Moune; Wohlkönig, Alexandre; Baulard, Alain; Kremer, Laurent; Molle, Virginie

    2014-04-18

    Recent efforts have underlined the role of Serine/Threonine Protein Kinases (STPKs) in growth, pathogenesis and cell wall metabolism in mycobacteria. Herein, we demonstrated that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis EthR, a transcriptional repressor that regulates the activation process of the antitubercular drug ethionamide (ETH) is a specific substrate of the mycobacterial kinase PknF. ETH is a prodrug that must undergo bioactivation by the monooxygenease EthA to exert its antimycobacterial activity and previous studies reported that EthR represses transcription of ethA by binding to the ethA-ethR intergenic region. Mass spectrometry analyses and site-directed mutagenesis identified a set of four phosphoacceptors, namely Thr2, Thr3, Ser4 and Ser7. This was further supported by the complete loss of PknF-dependent phosphorylation of a phosphoablative EthR mutant protein. Importantly, a phosphomimetic version of EthR, in which all phosphosites were replaced by Asp residues, exhibited markedly decreased DNA-binding activity compared with the wild-type protein. Together, these findings are the first demonstration of EthR phosphorylation and indicate that phosphorylation negatively affects its DNA-binding activity, which may impact ETH resistance levels in M. tb. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Ketamine Metabolites Enantioselectively Decrease Intracellular D-Serine Concentrations in PC-12 Cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nagendra S Singh

    Full Text Available D-Serine is an endogenous NMDA receptor co-agonist that activates synaptic NMDA receptors modulating neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex and plays a key role in long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission. D-serine is associated with NMDA receptor neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration and elevated D-serine concentrations have been associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinsons' diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Previous studies have demonstrated that the ketamine metabolites (rac-dehydronorketamine and (2S,6S-hydroxynorketamine decrease intracellular D-serine concentrations in a concentration dependent manner in PC-12 cells. In the current study, PC-12 cells were incubated with a series of ketamine metabolites and the IC50 values associated with attenuated intracellular D-serine concentrations were determined. The results demonstrate that structural and stereochemical features of the studied compounds contribute to the magnitude of the inhibitory effect with (2S,6S-hydroxynorketamine and (2R,6R-hydroxynorketamine displaying the most potent inhibition with IC50 values of 0.18 ± 0.04 nM and 0.68 ± 0.09 nM. The data was utilized to construct a preliminary 3D-QSAR/pharmacophore model for use in the design of new and more efficient modulators of D-serine.

  16. A central role for CK1 in catalysing phosphorylation of the P53 transactivation domain at serine 20 after HHV-6B viral infection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Maclaine, NJ; Øster, Bodil; Bundgaard, Bettina

    2008-01-01

    The tumour suppressor protein p53 is activated by distinct cellular stresses including radiation, hypoxia, type-I interferon, and DNA/RNA virus infection. The transactivation domain of p53 contains a phosphorylation site at serine 20 (Ser20) whose modification stabilises the binding of the transc...... was not blocked by D4476. These data highlight a central role for CK1 as the Ser20-site kinase for p53 in DNA virus-infected cells, but also suggest that distinct stresses may selectively trigger different protein kinases to modify the transactivation domain of p53 at Ser20....

  17. FBXO22 Protein Is Required for Optimal Synthesis of the N-Methyl-d-Aspartate (NMDA) Receptor Coagonist d-Serine

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dikopoltsev, Elena; Foltyn, Veronika N; Zehl, Martin

    2014-01-01

    d-Serine is a physiological activator of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) in the nervous system that mediates several NMDAR-mediated processes ranging from normal neurotransmission to neurodegeneration. d-Serine is synthesized from l-serine by serine racemase (SR), a brain-enriched enzyme. However, little......, SR interacts preferentially with free FBXO22 species. In vivo ubiquitination and SR half-life determination indicate that FBXO22 does not target SR to the proteasome system. FBXO22 primarily affects SR subcellular localization and seems to increase d-serine synthesis by preventing the association...... is known about the regulation of d-serine synthesis. We now demonstrate that the F-box only protein 22 (FBXO22) interacts with SR and is required for optimal d-serine synthesis in cells. Although FBXO22 is classically associated with the ubiquitin system and is recruited to the Skip1-Cul1-F-box E3 complex...

  18. Evaluation of oxidative stress in D-serine induced nephrotoxicity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orozco-Ibarra, Marisol; Medina-Campos, Omar Noel; Sanchez-Gonzalez, Dolores Javier; Martinez-Martinez, Claudia Maria; Floriano-Sanchez, Esau; Santamaria, Abel; Ramirez, Victoria; Bobadilla, Norma A.; Pedraza-Chaverri, Jose

    2007-01-01

    It has been suggested that oxidative stress is involved in D-serine-induced nephrotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to assess if oxidative stress is involved in this experimental model using several approaches including (a) the determination of several markers of oxidative stress and the activity of some antioxidant enzymes in kidney and (b) the use of compounds with antioxidant or prooxidant effects. Rats were sacrificed at several periods of time (from 3 to 24 h) after a single i.p. injection of D-serine (400 mg/kg). Control rats were injected with L-serine (400 mg/kg) and sacrificed 24 h after. The following markers were used to assess the temporal aspects of renal damage: (a) urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine in blood serum, (b) kidney injury molecule (KIM-1) mRNA levels, and (c) tubular necrotic damage. In addition, creatinine clearance, proteinuria, and urinary excretion of N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) were measured 24 h after D-serine injection. Protein carbonyl content, malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), fluorescent products of lipid peroxidation, reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH) content, and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression were measured as markers of oxidative stress in the kidney. Additional experiments were performed using the following compounds with antioxidant or pro-oxidant effects before D-serine injection: (a) α-phenyl-tert-butyl-nitrone (PBN), a spin trapping agent; (b) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (4-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrinato iron(III) (FeTPPS), a soluble complex able to metabolize peroxynitrite; (c) aminotriazole (ATZ), a catalase (CAT) inhibitor; (d) stannous chloride (SnCl 2 ), an HO-1 inductor; (e) tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP), an HO inhibitor. In the time-course study, serum creatinine and BUN increased significantly on 15-24 and 20-24 h, respectively, and KIM-1 mRNA levels increased significantly on 6-24 h. Histological analyses revealed tubular necrosis at 12 h. The activity of antioxidant enzymes

  19. O-GlcNAc modification: why so intimately associated with phosphorylation?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ande Sudharsana R

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Post-translational modification of proteins at serine and threonine side chains by β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc mediated by the enzyme β-N-acetylglucosamine transferase has been emerging as a fundamental regulatory mechanism encompassing a wide range of proteins involved in cell division, metabolism, transcription and cell signaling. Furthermore, an extensive interplay between O-GlcNAc modification and serine/threonine phosphorylation in a variety of proteins has been reported to exist. However, our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms involved in O-GlcNAc modification and its interplay with serine/threonine phosphorylation in proteins is still elusive. Recent success in the mapping of O-GlcNAc modification sites in proteins as a result of technological advancement in mass spectrometry have revealed two important clues which may be inherently connected to the regulation of O-GlcNAc modification and its interplay with phosphorylation in proteins. First, almost all O-GlcNAc modified proteins are known phospho proteins. Second, the prevalence of tyrosine phosphorylation among O-GlcNAc modified proteins is exceptionally higher (~68% than its normal occurrence (~2% alone. We hypothesize that phosphorylation may be a requisite for O-GlcNAc modification and tyrosine phosphorylation plays a role in the interplay between O-GlcNAc modification and serine/threonine phosphorylation in proteins. In other words, the interplay between O-GlcNAc modification and phosphorylation is not limited to serine/threonine phosphorylation but also includes tyrosine phosphorylation. Our hypothesis provides an opportunity to understand the underlying mechanism involved in O-GlcNAc modification and its interplay with serine/threonine phosphorylation in proteins. Furthermore, implication of our hypothesis extends to tyrosine kinase signaling.

  20. Cell-type specific mechanisms of D-serine uptake and release in the brain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magalie eMartineau

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Accumulating evidence during the last decade established that D-serine is a key signaling molecule utilized by neurons and astroglia in the mammalian central nervous system. D-serine is increasingly appreciated as the main physiological endogenous coagonist for synaptic NMDA receptors at central excitatory synapses; it is mandatory for long-term changes in synaptic strength, memory, learning, and social interactions. Alterations in the extracellular levels of D-serine leading to disrupted cell-cell signaling are a trademark of many chronic or acute neurological (i.e. Alzheimer disease, epilepsy, stroke and psychiatric (i.e. schizophrenia disorders, and are associated with addictive behavior (i.e. cocaine addiction. Indeed, fine tuning of the extracellular levels of D-serine, achieved by various molecular machineries and signaling pathways, is necessary for maintenance of accurate NMDA receptor functions. Here, we review the experimental data supporting the notion that astroglia and neurons use different pathways to regulate levels of extracellular D-serine.

  1. D-Serine and Glycine Differentially Control Neurotransmission during Visual Cortex Critical Period.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claire N J Meunier

    Full Text Available N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs play a central role in synaptic plasticity. Their activation requires the binding of both glutamate and d-serine or glycine as co-agonist. The prevalence of either co-agonist on NMDA-receptor function differs between brain regions and remains undetermined in the visual cortex (VC at the critical period of postnatal development. Here, we therefore investigated the regulatory role that d-serine and/or glycine may exert on NMDARs function and on synaptic plasticity in the rat VC layer 5 pyramidal neurons of young rats. Using selective enzymatic depletion of d-serine or glycine, we demonstrate that d-serine and not glycine is the endogenous co-agonist of synaptic NMDARs required for the induction and expression of Long Term Potentiation (LTP at both excitatory and inhibitory synapses. Glycine on the other hand is not involved in synaptic efficacy per se but regulates excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission by activating strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors, then producing a shunting inhibition that controls neuronal gain and results in a depression of synaptic inputs at the somatic level after dendritic integration. In conclusion, we describe for the first time that in the VC both D-serine and glycine differentially regulate somatic depolarization through the activation of distinct synaptic and extrasynaptic receptors.

  2. The uropathogenic species Staphylococcus saprophyticus tolerates a high concentration of D-serine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakinç, Türkân; Michalski, Nadine; Kleine, Britta; Gatermann, Sören G

    2009-10-01

    Human urine contains a relatively high concentration of d-serine, which is toxic to several nonuropathogenic bacteria, but can be utilized or detoxified by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). The sequenced genome of uropathogenic Staphylococcus saprophyticus contains a gene with homology to the d-serine deaminase gene (dsdA) of UPEC. We found the gene in several clinical isolates of S. saprophyticus; however, the gene was absent in Staphylococcus xylosus and Staphylococcus cohnii, phylogenetically close relatives of S. saprophyticus, and could also not be detected in isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and 13 other staphylococcal species. In addition, the genomes of other sequenced staphylococci do not harbor homologues of this operon. Interestingly, S. saprophyticus could grow in media supplemented with relatively high concentrations of d-serine, whereas S. aureus, S. epidermidis and other staphylococcal species could not. The association of the dsdA gene with growth in media including d-serine was proved by introducing the gene into S. aureus Newman. Given the fact that UPEC and S. saprophyticus tolerate this compound, d-serine utilization and detoxification may be a general property of uropathogenic bacteria. © 2009 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Contribution of the D-Serine-dependent pathway to the cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive aging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilie Rouaud

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available An association between age-related memory impairments and changes in functional plasticity in the aging brain has been under intense study within the last decade. In this article, we show that an impaired activation of the strychnine-insensitive glycine site of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptors (NMDA-R by its agonist D-serine contributes to deficits of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of memory-impaired aged rats. Supplementation with exogenous D-serine prevents the age-related deficits of isolated NMDA-R-dependent synaptic potentials as well as those of theta-burst-induced long-term potentiation and synaptic depotentiation. Endogenous levels of D-serine are reduced in the hippocampus with aging, that correlates with a weaker expression of serine racemase synthesizing the amino acid. On the contrary, the affinity of D-serine binding to NMDA-R is not affected by aging. These results point to a critical role for the D-serine-dependent pathway in the functional alterations of the brain underlying memory impairment and provide key information in the search for new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of memory deficits in the elderly.

  4. Amino acid chirality breaking by N-phosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Yufen; Yan Qingjin.

    1995-01-01

    The chirality breaking of amino acid is a focus issue in the origin of life. For chemists, there are some interesting chemical approaches to solve the symmetry breaking problem. Our previous experiments indicated that when amino acids were phosphorylated, there were many bio-mimic reactions happened. In this paper, it was found that there had significant difference between the N-phosphoryl L- and D- amino acids such as serine and threonine. The optical rotation tracing experiments of the racemic N-phosphoamino acids also showed the similar results. The chirality breaking of amino acids by N-phosphorylation was a novel phenomena. (author). 3 refs, 1 fig. Abstract only

  5. Differential regulation of the phosphorylation of Trimethyl-lysine27 histone H3 at serine 28 in distinct populations of striatal projection neurons

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bonito-Oliva, Alessandra; Södersten, Erik; Spigolon, Giada

    2016-01-01

    Phosphorylation of histone H3 (H3) on serine 28 (S28) at genomic regions marked by trimethylation of lysine 27 (H3K27me3) often correlates with increased expression of genes normally repressed by Polycomb group proteins (PcG). We show that amphetamine, an addictive psychostimulant, and haloperidol...... of the protein phosphatase-1 inhibitor, dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa (DARPP-32), reduces the phosphorylation of H3K27me3S28 produced by amphetamine and haloperidol. In contrast, knockout of the mitogen- and stress activated kinase 1 (MSK1), which is implicated in the phosphorylation...... of histone H3, decreases the effect of amphetamine, but not that of haloperidol. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis shows that amphetamine and haloperidol increase the phosphorylation of H3K27me3S28 at the promoter regions of Atf3, Npas4 and Lipg, three genes repressed by PcG. These results identify H3K...

  6. Dynamic phosphorylation of Ebola virus VP30 in NP-induced inclusion bodies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lier, Clemens; Becker, Stephan; Biedenkopf, Nadine

    2017-12-01

    Zaire Ebolavirus (EBOV) causes a severe feverish disease with high case fatality rates. Transcription of EBOV is dependent on the activity of the nucleocapsid protein VP30 which represents an essential viral transcription factor. Activity of VP30 is regulated via phosphorylation at six N-terminal serine residues. Recent data demonstrated that dynamic phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of serine residue 29 is essential for transcriptional support activity of VP30. To analyze the spatio/temporal dynamics of VP30 phosphorylation, we generated a peptide antibody recognizing specifically VP30 phosphorylated at serine 29. Using this antibody we could demonstrate that (i) the majority of VP30 molecules in EBOV-infected cells is dephosphorylated at the crucial position serine 29, (ii) both, VP30 phosphorylation and dephosphorylation take place in viral inclusion bodies that are induced by the nucleoprotein NP and (iii) NP influences the phosphorylation state of VP30. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Impact of Serine/Threonine Protein Kinases on the Regulation of Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pompeo, Frédérique; Foulquier, Elodie; Galinier, Anne

    2016-01-01

    Bacteria possess many kinases that catalyze phosphorylation of proteins on diverse amino acids including arginine, cysteine, histidine, aspartate, serine, threonine, and tyrosine. These protein kinases regulate different physiological processes in response to environmental modifications. For example, in response to nutritional stresses, the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis can differentiate into an endospore; the initiation of sporulation is controlled by the master regulator Spo0A, which is activated by phosphorylation. Spo0A phosphorylation is carried out by a multi-component phosphorelay system. These phosphorylation events on histidine and aspartate residues are labile, highly dynamic and permit a temporal control of the sporulation initiation decision. More recently, another kind of phosphorylation, more stable yet still dynamic, on serine or threonine residues, was proposed to play a role in spore maintenance and spore revival. Kinases that perform these phosphorylation events mainly belong to the Hanks family and could regulate spore dormancy and spore germination. The aim of this mini review is to focus on the regulation of sporulation in B. subtilis by these serine and threonine phosphorylation events and the kinases catalyzing them.

  8. Synthesis of Isomeric Phosphoubiquitin Chains Reveals that Phosphorylation Controls Deubiquitinase Activity and Specificity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Huguenin-Dezot

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Ubiquitin is post-translationally modified by phosphorylation at several sites, but the consequences of these modifications are largely unknown. Here, we synthesize multi-milligram quantities of ubiquitin phosphorylated at serine 20, serine 57, and serine 65 via genetic code expansion. We use these phosphoubiquitins for the enzymatic assembly of 20 isomeric phosphoubiquitin dimers, with different sites of isopeptide linkage and/or phosphorylation. We discover that phosphorylation of serine 20 on ubiquitin converts UBE3C from a dual-specificity E3 ligase into a ligase that primarily synthesizes K48 chains. We profile the activity of 31 deubiquitinases on the isomeric phosphoubiquitin dimers in 837 reactions, and we discover that phosphorylation at distinct sites in ubiquitin can activate or repress cleavage of a particular linkage by deubiquitinases and that phosphorylation at a single site in ubiquitin can control the specificity of deubiquitinases for distinct ubiquitin linkages.

  9. Phosphorylations of Serines 21/9 in Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3α/β Are Not Required for Cell Lineage Commitment or WNT Signaling in the Normal Mouse Intestine.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fiona Hey

    Full Text Available The WNT signalling pathway controls many developmental processes and plays a key role in maintenance of intestine renewal and homeostasis. Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 (GSK3 is an important component of the WNT pathway and is involved in regulating β-catenin stability and expression of WNT target genes. The mechanisms underpinning GSK3 regulation in this context are not completely understood, with some evidence suggesting this occurs through inhibitory N-terminal serine phosphorylation in a similar way to GSK3 inactivation in insulin signaling. To investigate this in a physiologically relevant context, we have analysed the intestinal phenotype of GSK3 knockin mice in which N-terminal serines 21/9 of GSK3α/β have been mutated to non-phosphorylatable alanine residues. We show that these knockin mutations have very little effect on overall intestinal integrity, cell lineage commitment, β-catenin localization or WNT target gene expression although a small increase in apoptosis at villi tips is observed. Our results provide in vivo evidence that GSK3 is regulated through mechanisms independent of N-terminal serine phosphorylation in order for β-catenin to be stabilised.

  10. Phosphorylation of p53 at serine 15 in A549 pulmonary epithelial cells exposed to vanadate: Involvement of ATM pathway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suzuki, Katsura; Inageda, Kiyoshi; Nishitai, Gen; Matsuoka, Masato

    2007-01-01

    When A549 cells were exposed to sodium metavanadate (NaVO 3 ), the pentavalent species of vanadium (vanadate), phosphorylation of p53 protein at Ser15 was found in a time (8-48 h)- and dose (10-200 μM)-dependent manner. After the incubation with 50 or 100 μM NaVO 3 for 48 h, accumulation of p53 protein was accompanied with Ser15 phosphorylation. Among serines in p53 protein immunoprecipitated from A549 cells treated with 100 μM NaVO 3 for 48 h, only Ser15 was markedly phosphorylated. Treatment with other vanadate compounds, sodium orthovanadate (Na 3 VO 4 ) and ammonium metavanadate (NH 4 VO 3 ), also induced Ser15 phosphorylation and accumulation of p53 protein. While phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) was found in cells treated with NaVO 3 , treatment with U0126 did not suppress Ser15 phosphorylation. On the other hand, treatment with wortmannin or caffeine, the inhibitors to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase related kinases (PIKKs), suppressed both NaVO 3 -induced Ser15 phosphorylation and accumulation of p53 protein. The silencing of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) expression using short-interference RNA resulted in the marked suppression of Ser15 phosphorylation in A549 cells exposed to NaVO 3 . However, treatment with antioxidants such as catalase and N-acetylcysteine did not suppress NaVO 3 -induced Ser15 phosphorylation. Transcriptional activation of p53 and DNA fragmentation in A549 cells treated with NaVO 3 were suppressed only slightly by S15A mutation, suggesting that Ser15 phosphorylation is not essential for these responses. The present results showed that vanadate induces the phosphorylation of p53 at Ser15 depending on ATM, one of the members of PIKK family, in this human pulmonary epithelial cell line

  11. Distinct kinetics of serine and threonine dephosphorylation are essential for mitosis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hein, Jamin B; Hertz, Emil P T; Garvanska, Dimitriya H

    2017-01-01

    Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in complex with B55 regulatory subunits reverses cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) phosphorylations at mitotic exit. Interestingly, threonine and serine residues phosphorylated by Cdk1 display distinct phosphorylation dynamics, but the biological significance remains ...

  12. In vitro phosphorylation of the movement protein of tomato mosaic tobamovirus by a cellular kinase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsushita, Y; Hanazawa, K; Yoshioka, K; Oguchi, T; Kawakami, S; Watanabe, Y; Nishiguchi, M; Nyunoya, H

    2000-08-01

    The movement protein (MP) of tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) was produced in E. coli as a soluble fusion protein with glutathione S-transferase. When immobilized on glutathione affinity beads, the recombinant protein was phosphorylated in vitro by incubating with cell extracts of Nicotiana tabacum and tobacco suspension culture cells (BY-2) in the presence of [gamma-(32)P]ATP. Phosphorylation occurred even after washing the beads with a detergent-containing buffer, indicating that the recombinant MP formed a stable complex with some protein kinase(s) during incubation with the cell extract. Phosphoamino acid analysis revealed that the MP was phosphorylated on serine and threonine residues. Phosphorylation of the MP was decreased by addition of kinase inhibitors such as heparin, suramin and quercetin, which are known to be effective for casein kinase II (CK II). The phosphorylation level was not changed by other types of inhibitor. In addition, as shown for animal and plant CK II, [gamma-(32)P]GTP was efficiently used as a phosphoryl donor. Phosphorylation was not affected by amino acid replacements at serine-37 and serine-238, but was completely inhibited by deletion of the carboxy-terminal 9 amino acids, including threonine-256, serine-257, serine-261 and serine-263. These results suggest that the MP of ToMV could be phosphorylated in plant cells by a host protein kinase that is closely related to CK II.

  13. Mitotic phosphorylation of VCIP135 blocks p97ATPase-mediated Golgi membrane fusion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Totsukawa, Go; Matsuo, Ayaka; Kubota, Ayano; Taguchi, Yuya; Kondo, Hisao, E-mail: hk228@med.kyushu-u.ac.jp

    2013-04-05

    Highlights: •VCIP135 is mitotically phosphorylated on Threonine-760 and Serine-767 by Cdc2. •Phosphorylated VCIP135 does not bind to p97ATPase. •The phosphorylation of VCIP135 inhibits p97ATPase-mediated Golgi membrane fusion. -- Abstract: In mammals, the Golgi apparatus is disassembled early mitosis and reassembled at the end of mitosis. For Golgi disassembly, membrane fusion needs to be blocked. Golgi biogenesis requires two distinct p97ATPase-mediated membrane fusion, the p97/p47 and p97/p37 pathways. We previously reported that p47 phosphorylation on Serine-140 and p37 phosphorylation on Serine-56 and Threonine-59 result in mitotic inhibition of the p97/p47 and the p97/p37 pathways, respectively [11,14]. In this study, we show another mechanism of mitotic inhibition of p97-mediated Golgi membrane fusion. We clarified that VCIP135, an essential factor in both p97 membrane fusion pathways, is phosphorylated on Threonine-760 and Serine-767 by Cdc2 at mitosis and that this phosphorylated VCIP135 does not bind to p97. An in vitro Golgi reassembly assay revealed that VCIP135(T760E, S767E), which mimics mitotic phosphorylation, caused no cisternal regrowth. Our results indicate that the phosphorylation of VCIP135 on Threonine-760 and Serine-767 inhibits p97-mediated Golgi membrane fusion at mitosis.

  14. Epigenetic Activation of ASCT2 in the Hippocampus Contributes to Depression-Like Behavior by Regulating D-Serine in Mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiesi Wang

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The roles of D-serine in depression are raised concerned recently as an intrinsic co-agonist for the NMDA receptor. However, the mechanisms underlying its regulation are not fully elucidated. ASCT2 is a Na+-dependent D-serine transporter. We found that decreased D-serine and increased hippocampal ASCT2 levels correlated with chronic social defeat stress (CSDS in mice. Lentivirus-mediated shRNA-mediated knockdown of ASCT2 and the administration of exogenous D-serine in the hippocampus alleviated CSDS-induced social avoidance and immobility. In vivo and in vitro experiments revealed that upregulation of ASCT2 expression in CSDS was regulated through histone hyper-acetylation, not DNA methylation in its promoter region. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated the co-localization of ASCT2 and D-serine. Uptake of D-serine by ASCT2 was demonstrated by in vivo and in vitro experiments. Our results indicate that CSDS induces ASCT2 expression through epigenetic activation and decreases hippocampal D-serine levels, leading to social avoidance, and immobility. Thus, targeting D-serine transport represents an attractive new strategy for treating depression.

  15. Plk1 phosphorylation of IRS2 prevents premature mitotic exit via AKT inactivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Long; Li, Zhiguo; Ahmad, Nihal; Liu, Xiaoqi

    2016-01-01

    Insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins play important roles by acting as a platform in transducing signals from transmembrane receptors upon growth factor stimulation. Although tyrosine phosphorylation on IRS proteins plays critical roles in signal transduction, phosphorylation of IRS proteins on serine/threonine residues are believed to play various regulatory roles on IRS protein function. However, studies on serine/threonine phosphorylation of IRS proteins are very limited, especially for insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2), one member of the IRS protein family. In this study, we identify Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) as the responsible kinase for phosphorylation of IRS2 on two serine residues, Ser 556 and Ser 1098. Phosphorylation of IRS2 on these two serine residues by Plk1 prevents the activation of the PI3K pathway upon growth factor stimulation by inhibiting the binding between IRS2 and the PI3K pathway components and increasing IRS2 protein degradation. Of significance, we show that IRS2 phosphorylation is cell cycle regulated and that Plk1 phosphorylation of IRS2 prevents premature mitotic exit via AKT inactivation. PMID:25830382

  16. Hormone-sensitive lipase serine phosphorylation and glycerol exchange across skeletal muscle in lean and obese subjects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jocken, Johan We; Roepstorff, Carsten; Goossens, Gijs H.

    2008-01-01

    from the vastus lateralis muscle before and during ISO to investigate hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) protein expression and serine phosphorylation. Results: Baseline total glycerol release across the forearm was significantly blunted in obese compared with lean subjects (P=0.045). This was accompanied......Objective: Increased intramuscular triacylglycerol (IMTG) storage is a characteristic of the obese insulin resistant state. We aimed to investigate whether a blunted fasting or beta-adrenergically mediated lipolysis contributes to this increased IMTG storage in obesity. Research design and Methods......: Forearm skeletal muscle (SM) lipolysis was investigated in thirteen lean and ten obese men using [(2)H(5)]-glycerol combined with the measurement of arterio-venous differences before and during beta-adrenergic stimulation using the non-selective beta-agonist isoprenaline (ISO). Muscle biopsies were taken...

  17. Decreased levels of free D-aspartic acid in the forebrain of serine racemase (Srr) knock-out mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horio, Mao; Ishima, Tamaki; Fujita, Yuko; Inoue, Ran; Mori, Hisashi; Hashimoto, Kenji

    2013-05-01

    d-Serine, an endogenous co-agonist of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is synthesized from l-serine by serine racemase (SRR). A previous study of Srr knockout (Srr-KO) mice showed that levels of d-serine in forebrain regions, such as frontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum, but not cerebellum, of mutant mice are significantly lower than those of wild-type (WT) mice, suggesting that SRR is responsible for d-serine production in the forebrain. In this study, we attempted to determine whether SRR affects the level of other amino acids in brain tissue. We found that tissue levels of d-aspartic acid in the forebrains (frontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum) of Srr-KO mice were significantly lower than in WT mice, whereas levels of d-aspartic acid in the cerebellum were not altered. Levels of d-alanine, l-alanine, l-aspartic acid, taurine, asparagine, arginine, threonine, γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) and methionine, remained the same in frontal cortex, hippocampus, striatum and cerebellum of WT and mutant mice. Furthermore, no differences in d-aspartate oxidase (DDO) activity were detected in the forebrains of WT and Srr-KO mice. These results suggest that SRR and/or d-serine may be involved in the production of d-aspartic acid in mouse forebrains, although further detailed studies will be necessary to confirm this finding. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Phosphorylation of serine 248 of C/EBPα is dispensable for myelopoiesis but its disruption leads to a low penetrant myeloid disorder with long latency.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marie S Hasemann

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Transcription factors play a key role in lineage commitment and differentiation of stem cells into distinct mature cells. In hematopoiesis, they regulate lineage-specific gene expression in a stage-specific manner through various physical and functional interactions with regulatory proteins that are simultanously recruited and activated to ensure timely gene expression. The transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα is such a factor and is essential for the development of granulocytic/monocytic cells. The activity of C/EBPα is regulated on several levels including gene expression, alternative translation, protein interactions and posttranslational modifications, such as phosphorylation. In particular, the phosphorylation of serine 248 of the transactivation domain has been shown to be of crucial importance for granulocytic differentiation of 32Dcl3 cells in vitro. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we use mouse genetics to investigate the significance of C/EBPα serine 248 in vivo through the construction and analysis of Cebpa(S248A/S248A knock-in mice. Surprisingly, 8-week old Cebpa(S248A/S248A mice display normal steady-state hematopoiesis including unaltered development of mature myeloid cells. However, over time some of the animals develop a hematopoietic disorder with accumulation of multipotent, megakaryocytic and erythroid progenitor cells and a mild impairment of differentiation along the granulocytic-monocytic lineage. Furthermore, BM cells from Cebpa(S248A/S248A animals display a competitive advantage compared to wild type cells in a transplantation assay. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, our data shows that the substitution of C/EBPα serine 248 to alanine favors the selection of the megakaryocytic/erythroid lineage over the monocytic/granulocytic compartment in old mice and suggests that S248 phosphorylation may be required to maintain proper hematopoietic homeostasis in response to

  19. Phosphorylation of serine 248 of C/EBPα is dispensable for myelopoiesis but its disruption leads to a low penetrant myeloid disorder with long latency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasemann, Marie S; Schuster, Mikkel B; Frank, Anne-Katrine; Theilgaard-Mönch, Kim; Pedersen, Thomas Å; Nerlov, Claus; Porse, Bo T

    2012-01-01

    Transcription factors play a key role in lineage commitment and differentiation of stem cells into distinct mature cells. In hematopoiesis, they regulate lineage-specific gene expression in a stage-specific manner through various physical and functional interactions with regulatory proteins that are simultanously recruited and activated to ensure timely gene expression. The transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) is such a factor and is essential for the development of granulocytic/monocytic cells. The activity of C/EBPα is regulated on several levels including gene expression, alternative translation, protein interactions and posttranslational modifications, such as phosphorylation. In particular, the phosphorylation of serine 248 of the transactivation domain has been shown to be of crucial importance for granulocytic differentiation of 32Dcl3 cells in vitro. Here, we use mouse genetics to investigate the significance of C/EBPα serine 248 in vivo through the construction and analysis of Cebpa(S248A/S248A) knock-in mice. Surprisingly, 8-week old Cebpa(S248A/S248A) mice display normal steady-state hematopoiesis including unaltered development of mature myeloid cells. However, over time some of the animals develop a hematopoietic disorder with accumulation of multipotent, megakaryocytic and erythroid progenitor cells and a mild impairment of differentiation along the granulocytic-monocytic lineage. Furthermore, BM cells from Cebpa(S248A/S248A) animals display a competitive advantage compared to wild type cells in a transplantation assay. Taken together, our data shows that the substitution of C/EBPα serine 248 to alanine favors the selection of the megakaryocytic/erythroid lineage over the monocytic/granulocytic compartment in old mice and suggests that S248 phosphorylation may be required to maintain proper hematopoietic homeostasis in response to changes in the wiring of cellular signalling networks. More broadly, the marked differences

  20. Study of ATM Phosphorylation by Cdk5 in Neuronal Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    She, Hua; Mao, Zixu

    2017-01-01

    The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-like kinase ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) plays a central role in coordinating the DNA damage responses including cell cycle checkpoint control, DNA repair, and apoptosis. Mutations of ATM cause a spectrum of defects ranging from neurodegeneration to cancer predisposition. We previously showed that Cdk5 (cyclin-dependent kinase 5) is activated by DNA damage and directly phosphorylates ATM at serine 794 in postmitotic neurons. Phosphorylation at serine 794 precedes and is required for ATM autophosphorylation at serine 1981, and activates ATM kinase activity. Cdk5-ATM pathway plays a crucial role in DNA damage-induced neuronal injury. This chapter describes protocols used in analyzing ATM phosphorylation by Cdk5 in CGNs (cerebellar granule neurons) and its effects on neuronal survival.

  1. C1qTNF-related protein 1 improve insulin resistance by reducing phosphorylation of serine 1101 in insulin receptor substrate 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xin, Yaping; Zhang, Dongming; Fu, Yanqin; Wang, Chongxian; Li, Qingju; Tian, Chenguang; Zhang, Suhe; Lyu, Xiaodong

    2017-08-30

    C1qTNF-related protein 1 (CTRP1) is independently associated with type 2 diabetes. However, the relationship between CTRP1 and insulin resistance is still not established. This study aimed to explore the role of CTRP1 under the situation of insulin resistance in adipose tissue. Plasma CTRP1 level was investigated in type 2 diabetic subjects (n = 35) and non-diabetic subjects (n = 35). The relationship between CTRP1 and phosphorylation of multi insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) serine (Ser) sites was further explored. Our data showed that Plasma CTRP1 was higher and negative correlation with insulin resistance in diabetic subjects (r = -0.283, p = 0.018). Glucose utilisation test revealed that the glucose utilisation rate of mature adipocytes was improved by CTRP1 in the presence of insulin. CTRP1 was not only related to IRS-1 protein, but also negatively correlated with IRS-1 Ser1101 phosphorylation (r = -0.398, p = 0.031). Furthermore, Phosphorylation levels of IRS-1 Ser1101 were significantly lower after incubation with 40 ng/mL CTRP1 in mature adipocytes than those with no intervention (p insulin resistance by reducing the phosphorylation of IRS-1 Ser1101, induced in the situation of insulin resistance as a feedback adipokine.

  2. Tau Phosphorylation by GSK3 in Different Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jesús Avila

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Almost a 20% of the residues of tau protein are phosphorylatable amino acids: serine, threonine, and tyrosine. In this paper we comment on the consequences for tau of being a phosphoprotein. We will focus on serine/threonine phosphorylation. It will be discussed that, depending on the modified residue in tau molecule, phosphorylation could be protective, in processes like hibernation, or toxic like in development of those diseases known as tauopathies, which are characterized by an hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of tau.

  3. Helicobacter pylori infection-induced H3Ser10 phosphorylation in stepwise gastric carcinogenesis and its clinical implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Tao-Tao; Cao, Na; Zhang, Hai-Hui; Wei, Jian-Bo; Song, Xiao-Xia; Yi, Dong-Min; Chao, Shuai-Heng; Zhang, Li-Da; Kong, Ling-Fei; Han, Shuang-Yin; Yang, Yu-Xiu; Ding, Song-Ze

    2018-04-15

    Our previous works have demonstrated that Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection can alter histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation status in gastric epithelial cells. However, whether Helicobacter pylori-induced histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation participates in gastric carcinogenesis is unknown. We investigate the expression of histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation in various stages of gastric disease and explore its clinical implication. Stomach biopsy samples from 129 patients were collected and stained with histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation, Ki67, and Helicobacter pylori by immunohistochemistry staining, expressed as labeling index. They were categorized into nonatrophic gastritis, chronic atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, and intestinal-type gastric cancer groups. Helicobacter pylori infection was determined by either 13 C-urea breath test or immunohistochemistry staining. In Helicobacter pylori-negative patients, labeling index of histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation was gradually increased in nonatrophic gastritis, chronic atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia groups, peaked at low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, and declined in high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia and gastric cancer groups. In Helicobacter pylori-infected patients, labeling index of histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation followed the similar pattern as above, with increased expression over the corresponding Helicobacter pylori-negative controls except in nonatrophic gastritis patient whose labeling index was decreased when compared with Helicobacter pylori-negative control. Labeling index of Ki67 in Helicobacter pylori-negative groups was higher in gastric cancer than chronic atrophic gastritis and low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia groups, and higher in intestinal metaplasia group compared with chronic atrophic gastritis group. In Helicobacter pylori-positive groups, Ki67 labeling index was increased

  4. Molecular mechanisms for the regulation of histone mRNA stem-loop-binding protein by phosphorylation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Jun; Tan, Dazhi; DeRose, Eugene F.; Perera, Lalith; Dominski, Zbigniew; Marzluff, William F.; Tong, Liang; Tanaka Hall, Traci M. [NIH; (UNC); (Columbia)

    2014-08-06

    Replication-dependent histone mRNAs end with a conserved stem loop that is recognized by stem-loop–binding protein (SLBP). The minimal RNA-processing domain of SLBP is phosphorylated at an internal threonine, and Drosophila SLBP (dSLBP) also is phosphorylated at four serines in its 18-aa C-terminal tail. We show that phosphorylation of dSLBP increases RNA-binding affinity dramatically, and we use structural and biophysical analyses of dSLBP and a crystal structure of human SLBP phosphorylated on the internal threonine to understand the striking improvement in RNA binding. Together these results suggest that, although the C-terminal tail of dSLBP does not contact the RNA, phosphorylation of the tail promotes SLBP conformations competent for RNA binding and thereby appears to reduce the entropic penalty for the association. Increased negative charge in this C-terminal tail balances positively charged residues, allowing a more compact ensemble of structures in the absence of RNA.

  5. Structural basis for cargo binding and autoinhibition of Bicaudal-D1 by a parallel coiled-coil with homotypic registry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Terawaki, Shin-ichi; Yoshikane, Asuka; Higuchi, Yoshiki; Wakamatsu, Kaori

    2015-01-01

    Bicaudal-D1 (BICD1) is an α-helical coiled-coil protein mediating the attachment of specific cargo to cytoplasmic dynein. It plays an essential role in minus end-directed intracellular transport along microtubules. The third C-terminal coiled-coil region of BICD1 (BICD1 CC3) has an important role in cargo sorting, including intracellular vesicles associating with the small GTPase Rab6 and the nuclear pore complex Ran binding protein 2 (RanBP2), and inhibiting the association with cytoplasmic dynein by binding to the first N-terminal coiled-coil region (CC1). The crystal structure of BICD1 CC3 revealed a parallel homodimeric coiled-coil with asymmetry and complementary knobs-into-holes interactions, differing from Drosophila BicD CC3. Furthermore, our binding study indicated that BICD1 CC3 possesses a binding surface for two distinct cargos, Rab6 and RanBP2, and that the CC1-binding site overlaps with the Rab6-binding site. These findings suggest a molecular basis for cargo recognition and autoinhibition of BICD proteins during dynein-dependent intracellular retrograde transport. - Highlights: • BICD1 CC3 is a parallel homodimeric coiled-coil with axial asymmetry. • The coiled-coil packing of BICD1 CC3 is adapted to the equivalent heptad position. • BICD1 CC3 has distinct binding sites for two classes of cargo, Rab6 and RanBP2. • The CC1-binding site of BICD1 CC3 overlaps with the Rab6-binding site

  6. Structural basis for cargo binding and autoinhibition of Bicaudal-D1 by a parallel coiled-coil with homotypic registry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Terawaki, Shin-ichi, E-mail: terawaki@gunma-u.ac.jp [Graduate School of Science and Technology, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515 (Japan); SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, 1-1-1 Koto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan); Yoshikane, Asuka [Graduate School of Science and Technology, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515 (Japan); SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, 1-1-1 Koto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan); Higuchi, Yoshiki [Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Life Science, University of Hyogo, 3-2-1 Koto, Kamigori-cho, Ako-gun, Hyogo 678-1297 (Japan); Department of Picobiology, Graduate School of Life Science, University of Hyogo, 3-2-1 Koto, Kamigori-cho, Ako-gun, Hyogo 678-1297 (Japan); SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, 1-1-1 Koto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan); Wakamatsu, Kaori [Graduate School of Science and Technology, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515 (Japan); SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, 1-1-1 Koto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan)

    2015-05-01

    Bicaudal-D1 (BICD1) is an α-helical coiled-coil protein mediating the attachment of specific cargo to cytoplasmic dynein. It plays an essential role in minus end-directed intracellular transport along microtubules. The third C-terminal coiled-coil region of BICD1 (BICD1 CC3) has an important role in cargo sorting, including intracellular vesicles associating with the small GTPase Rab6 and the nuclear pore complex Ran binding protein 2 (RanBP2), and inhibiting the association with cytoplasmic dynein by binding to the first N-terminal coiled-coil region (CC1). The crystal structure of BICD1 CC3 revealed a parallel homodimeric coiled-coil with asymmetry and complementary knobs-into-holes interactions, differing from Drosophila BicD CC3. Furthermore, our binding study indicated that BICD1 CC3 possesses a binding surface for two distinct cargos, Rab6 and RanBP2, and that the CC1-binding site overlaps with the Rab6-binding site. These findings suggest a molecular basis for cargo recognition and autoinhibition of BICD proteins during dynein-dependent intracellular retrograde transport. - Highlights: • BICD1 CC3 is a parallel homodimeric coiled-coil with axial asymmetry. • The coiled-coil packing of BICD1 CC3 is adapted to the equivalent heptad position. • BICD1 CC3 has distinct binding sites for two classes of cargo, Rab6 and RanBP2. • The CC1-binding site of BICD1 CC3 overlaps with the Rab6-binding site.

  7. Characterization of phosphorylation sites in the cytoplasmic domain of the 300 kDa mannose-6-phosphate receptor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rosorius, O; Mieskes, G; Issinger, O G

    1993-01-01

    The human 300 kDa mannose-6-phosphate receptor (MPR 300) is phosphorylated in vivo at serine residues of its cytoplasmic domain. Two-dimensional separation can resolve tryptic phosphopeptides into four major species. To identify the kinases involved in MPR 300 phosphorylation and the phosphorylat......The human 300 kDa mannose-6-phosphate receptor (MPR 300) is phosphorylated in vivo at serine residues of its cytoplasmic domain. Two-dimensional separation can resolve tryptic phosphopeptides into four major species. To identify the kinases involved in MPR 300 phosphorylation...... and the phosphorylation sites the entire coding sequence of the cytoplasmic tail was expressed in Escherichia coli. The isolated cytoplasmic domain was used as a substrate for four purified serine/threonine kinases [casein kinase II (CK II), protein kinase A (PKA), protein kinase C and Ca2+/calmodulin kinase]. All...... kinases phosphorylate the cytoplasmic tail exclusively on serine residues. Inhibition studies using synthetic peptides, partial sequencing of isolated tryptic phosphopeptides and co-migration with tryptic phosphopeptides from MPR 300 labelled in vivo showed that (i) PKA phosphorylates the cytoplasmic MPR...

  8. Characterization and validation of new tools for measuring site-specific cardiac troponin I phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thoemmes, Stephen F; Stutzke, Crystal A; Du, Yanmei; Browning, Michael D; Buttrick, Peter M; Walker, Lori A

    2014-01-31

    Phosphorylation of cardiac troponin I is a well established mechanism by which cardiac contractility is modulated. However, there are a number of phosphorylation sites on TnI which contribute singly or in combination to influence cardiac function. Accordingly, methods for accurately measuring site-specific TnI phosphorylation are needed. Currently, two strategies are employed: mass spectrometry, which is costly, difficult and has a low throughput; and Western blotting using phospho-specific antibodies, which is limited by the availability of reagents. In this report, we describe a cohort of new site-specific TnI phosphoantibodies, generated against physiologically relevant phosphorylation sites, that are superior to the current commercially available antibodies: to phospho-serine 22/23 which shows a >5-fold phospho-specificity for phosphorylated TnI; to phospho-serine 43, which has >3-fold phospho-specificity for phosphorylated TnI; and phospho-serine 150 which has >2-fold phospho-specificity for phosphorylated TnI. These new antibodies demonstrated greater sensitivity and specificity for the phosphorylated TnI than the most widely used commercially available reagents. For example, at a protein load of 20 μg of total cardiac extract, a commercially available antibody recognized both phosphorylated and dephosphorylated TnI to the same degree. At the same protein load our phospho-serine 22/23 antibody exhibited no cross-reactivity with dephosphorylated TnI. These new tools should allow a more accurate assessment and a better understanding of the role of TnI phosphorylation in the response of the heart to pathologic stress. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Phosphorylation of CPAP by Aurora-A Maintains Spindle Pole Integrity during Mitosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    En-Ju Chou

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available CPAP is required for centriole elongation during S/G2 phase, but the role of CPAP in mitosis is incompletely understood. Here, we show that CPAP maintains spindle pole integrity through its phosphorylation by Aurora-A during mitosis. Depletion of CPAP induced a prolonged delay in mitosis, pericentriolar material (PCM dispersion, and multiple mitotic abnormalities. Further studies demonstrated that CPAP directly interacts with and is phosphorylated by Aurora-A at serine 467 during mitosis. Interestingly, the dispersal of the PCM was effectively rescued by ectopic expression of wild-type CPAP or a phospho-mimic CPAP-S467D mutant, but not a non-phosphorylated CPAP-S467A mutant. Finally, we found that CPAP-S467D has a low affinity for microtubule binding but a high affinity for PCM proteins. Together, our results support a model wherein CPAP is required for proper mitotic progression, and phosphorylation of CPAP by Aurora-A is essential for maintaining spindle pole integrity.

  10. Contraction regulates site-specific phosphorylation of TBC1D1 in skeletal muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vichaiwong, Kanokwan; Purohit, Suneet; An, Ding; Toyoda, Taro; Jessen, Niels; Hirshman, Michael F; Goodyear, Laurie J

    2010-10-15

    TBC1D1 (tre-2/USP6, BUB2, cdc16 domain family member 1) is a Rab-GAP (GTPase-activating protein) that is highly expressed in skeletal muscle, but little is known about TBC1D1 regulation and function. We studied TBC1D1 phosphorylation on three predicted AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) phosphorylation sites (Ser231, Ser660 and Ser700) and one predicted Akt phosphorylation site (Thr590) in control mice, AMPKα2 inactive transgenic mice (AMPKα2i TG) and Akt2-knockout mice (Akt2 KO). Muscle contraction significantly increased TBC1D1 phosphorylation on Ser231 and Ser660, tended to increase Ser700 phosphorylation, but had no effect on Thr590. AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxyamide ribonucleoside) also increased phosphorylation on Ser231, Ser660 and Ser700, but not Thr590, whereas insulin only increased Thr590 phosphorylation. Basal and contraction-stimulated TBC1D1 Ser231, Ser660 and Ser700 phosphorylation were greatly reduced in AMPKα2i TG mice, although contraction still elicited a small increase in phosphorylation. Akt2 KO mice had blunted insulin-stimulated TBC1D1 Thr590 phosphorylation. Contraction-stimulated TBC1D1 Ser231 and Ser660 phosphorylation were normal in high-fat-fed mice. Glucose uptake in vivo was significantly decreased in tibialis anterior muscles overexpressing TBC1D1 mutated on four predicted AMPK phosphorylation sites. In conclusion, contraction causes site-specific phosphorylation of TBC1D1 in skeletal muscle, and TBC1D1 phosphorylation on AMPK sites regulates contraction-stimulated glucose uptake. AMPK and Akt regulate TBC1D1 phosphorylation, but there must be additional upstream kinases that mediate TBC1D1 phosphorylation in skeletal muscle.

  11. Phosphorylation of the Yeast Choline Kinase by Protein Kinase C

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Mal-Gi; Kurnov, Vladlen; Kersting, Michael C.; Sreenivas, Avula; Carman, George M.

    2005-01-01

    The Saccharomyces cerevisiae CKI1-encoded choline kinase catalyzes the committed step in phosphatidylcholine synthesis via the Kennedy pathway. The enzyme is phosphorylated on multiple serine residues, and some of this phosphorylation is mediated by protein kinase A. In this work, we examined the hypothesis that choline kinase is also phosphorylated by protein kinase C. Using choline kinase as a substrate, protein kinase C activity was dose- and time-dependent, and dependent on the concentrations of choline kinase (Km = 27 μg/ml) and ATP (Km = 15 μM). This phosphorylation, which occurred on a serine residue, was accompanied by a 1.6-fold stimulation of choline kinase activity. The synthetic peptide SRSSS25QRRHS (Vmax/Km = 17.5 mM-1 μmol min-1 mg-1) that contains the protein kinase C motif for Ser25 was a substrate for protein kinase C. A Ser25 to Ala (S25A) mutation in choline kinase resulted in a 60% decrease in protein kinase C phosphorylation of the enzyme. Phosphopeptide mapping analysis of the S25A mutant enzyme confirmed that Ser25 was a protein kinase C target site. In vivo, the S25A mutation correlated with a decrease (55%) in phosphatidylcholine synthesis via the Kennedy pathway whereas an S25D phosphorylation site mimic correlated with an increase (44%) in phosphatidylcholine synthesis. Whereas the S25A (protein kinase C site) mutation did not affect the phosphorylation of choline kinase by protein kinase A, the S30A (protein kinase A site) mutation caused a 46% reduction in enzyme phosphorylation by protein kinase C. A choline kinase synthetic peptide (SQRRHS30LTRQ) containing Ser30 was a substrate (Vmax/Km = 3.0 mM−1 μmol min−1 mg−1) for protein kinase C. Comparison of phosphopeptide maps of the wild type and S30A mutant choline kinase enzymes phosphorylated by protein kinase C confirmed that Ser30 was also a target site for protein kinase C. PMID:15919656

  12. D-serine plasma concentration is a potential biomarker of (R,S)-ketamine antidepressant response in subjects with treatment-resistant depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moaddel, Ruin; Luckenbaugh, David A; Xie, Ying; Villaseñor, Alma; Brutsche, Nancy E; Machado-Vieira, Rodrigo; Ramamoorthy, Anuradha; Lorenzo, Maria Paz; Garcia, Antonia; Bernier, Michel; Torjman, Marc C; Barbas, Coral; Zarate, Carlos A; Wainer, Irving W

    2015-01-01

    (R,S)-ketamine is a rapid and effective antidepressant drug that produces a response in two thirds of patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The underlying biochemical differences between a (R,S)-ketamine responder (KET-R) and non-responder (KET-NR) have not been definitively identified but may involve serine metabolism. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between baseline plasma concentrations of D-serine and its precursor L-serine and antidepressant response to (R,S)-ketamine in TRD patients. Plasma samples were obtained from 21 TRD patients at baseline, 60 min before initiation of the (R,S)-ketamine infusion. Patients were classified as KET-Rs (n = 8) or KET-NRs (n = 13) based upon the difference in Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores at baseline and 230 min after infusion, with response defined as a ≥50 % decrease in MADRS score. The plasma concentrations of D-serine and L-serine were determined using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Baseline D-serine plasma concentrations were significantly lower in KET-Rs (3.02 ± 0.21 μM) than in KET-NRs (4.68 ± 0.81 μM), p < 0.001. A significant relationship between baseline D-serine plasma concentrations and percent change in MADRS at 230 min was determined using a Pearson correlation, r = 0.77, p < 0.001, with baseline D-serine explaining 60 % of the variance in (R,S)-ketamine response. The baseline concentrations of L-serine (L-Ser) in KET-Rs were also significantly lower than those measured in KET-NRs (66.2 ± 9.6 μM vs 242.9 ± 5.6 μM, respectively; p < 0.0001). The results demonstrate that the baseline D-serine plasma concentrations were significantly lower in KET-Rs than in KET-NRs and suggest that this variable can be used to predict an antidepressant response following (R,S)-ketamine administration.

  13. Exercise increases TBC1D1 phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jessen, Niels; An, Ding; Lihn, Aina S.; Nygren, Jonas; Hirshman, Michael F.; Thorell, Anders

    2011-01-01

    Exercise and weight loss are cornerstones in the treatment and prevention of type 2 diabetes, and both interventions function to increase insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake into skeletal muscle. Studies in rodents demonstrate that the underlying mechanism for glucose uptake in muscle involves site-specific phosphorylation of the Rab-GTPase-activating proteins AS160 (TBC1D4) and TBC1D1. Multiple kinases, including Akt and AMPK, phosphorylate TBC1D1 and AS160 on distinct residues, regulating their activity and allowing for GLUT4 translocation. In contrast to extensive rodent-based studies, the regulation of AS160 and TBC1D1 in human skeletal muscle is not well understood. In this study, we determined the effects of dietary intervention and a single bout of exercise on TBC1D1 and AS160 site-specific phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle. Ten obese (BMI 33.4 ± 2.4, M-value 4.3 ± 0.5) subjects were studied at baseline and after a 2-wk dietary intervention. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the subjects in the resting (basal) state and immediately following a 30-min exercise bout (70% V̇o2 max). Muscle lysates were analyzed for AMPK activity and Akt phosphorylation and for TBC1D1 and AS160 phosphorylation on known or putative AMPK and Akt sites as follows: AS160 Ser711 (AMPK), TBC1D1 Ser231 (AMPK), TBC1D1 Ser660 (AMPK), TBC1D1 Ser700 (AMPK), and TBC1D1 Thr590 (Akt). The diet intervention that consisted of a major shift in the macronutrient composition resulted in a 4.2 ± 0.4 kg weight loss (P < 0.001) and a significant increase in insulin sensitivity (M value 5.6 ± 0.6), but surprisingly, there was no effect on expression or phosphorylation of any of the muscle-signaling proteins. Exercise increased muscle AMPKα2 activity but did not increase Akt phosphorylation. Exercise increased phosphorylation on AS160 Ser711, TBC1D1 Ser231, and TBC1D1 Ser660 but had no effect on TBC1D1 Ser700. Exercise did not increase TBC1D1 Thr590 phosphorylation or TBC1D1/AS160 PAS

  14. Platelet content of nitric oxide synthase 3 phosphorylated at Serine 1177 is associated with the functional response of platelets to aspirin.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javier Modrego

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To analyse if platelet responsiveness to aspirin (ASA may be associated with a different ability of platelets to generate nitric oxide (NO. PATIENTS/METHODS: Platelets were obtained from 50 patients with stable coronary ischemia and were divided into ASA-sensitive (n = 26 and ASA-resistant (n = 24 using a platelet functionality test (PFA-100. RESULTS: ASA-sensitive platelets tended to release more NO (determined as nitrite + nitrate than ASA-resistant platelets but it did not reach statistical significance. Protein expression of nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3 was higher in ASA-sensitive than in ASA-resistant platelets but there were no differences in the platelet expression of nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2 isoform. The highest NOS3 expression in ASA-sensitive platelets was independent of the presence of T-to-C mutation at nucleotide position -786 (T(-786 → C in the NOS3-coding gene. However, platelet content of phosphorylated NOS3 at Serine (Ser(1177, an active form of NOS3, was higher in ASA-sensitive than in ASA-resistant platelets. The level of platelet NOS3 Ser(1177 phosphorylation was positively associated with the closure time in the PFA-100 test. In vitro, collagen failed to stimulate the aggregation of ASA-sensitive platelets, determined by lumiaggregometry, and it was associated with a significant increase (p = 0.018 of NOS3 phosphorylation at Ser(1177. On the contrary, collagen stimulated the aggregation of ASA-resistant platelets but did not significantly modify the platelet content of phosphorylated NOS3 Ser(1177. During collagen stimulation the release of NO from ASA-sensitive platelets was significantly enhanced but it was not modified in ASA-resistant platelets. CONCLUSIONS: Functional platelet responsiveness to ASA was associated with the platelet content of phosphorylated NOS3 at Ser(1177.

  15. Distribution pattern of histone H3 phosphorylation at serine 10

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    We evaluated the pattern of H3 phosphorylation using immunodetection during mitosis and meiosis in both diploid and tetraploid genotypes of Brachiaria species. Results revealed differences in chromosome distribution of H3S10ph when mitosis and meiosis were compared. Whole chromosomes were phosphorylated ...

  16. Protein phosphorylation during coconut zygotic embryo development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Islas-Flores, I.; Oropeza, C.; Hernandez-Sotomayor, S.M.T.

    1998-01-01

    Evidence was obtained on the occurrence of protein threonine, serine, and tyrosine (Tyr) kinases in developing coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) zygotic embryos, based on in vitro phosphorylation of proteins in the presence of [gamma-32P]ATP, alkaline treatment, and thin-layer chromatography analysis, which showed the presence of [32P]phosphoserine, [32P]phosphothreonine, and [32P]phosphotyrosine in [32P]-labeled protein hydrolyzates. Tyr kinase activity was further confirmed in extracts of embryos at different stages of development using antiphosphotyrosine monoclonal antibodies and the synthetic peptide derived from the amino acid sequence surrounding the phosphorylation site in pp60src (RR-SRC), which is specific for Tyr kinases. Anti-phosphotyrosine western blotting revealed a changing profile of Tyr-phosphorylated proteins during embryo development. Tyr kinase activity, as assayed using RR-SRC, also changed during embryo development, showing two peaks of activity, one during early and another during late embryo development. In addition, the use of genistein, a Tyr kinase inhibitor, diminished the ability of extracts to phosphorylate RR-SRC. Results presented here show the occurrence of threonine, serine, and Tyr kinases in developing coconut zygotic embryos, and suggest that protein phosphorylation, and the possible inference of Tyr phosphorylation in particular, may play a role in the coordination of the development of embryos in this species

  17. Identification of the protein kinase C phosphorylation site in neuromodulin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apel, E.D.; Byford, M.F.; Au, D.; Walsh, K.A.; Storm, D.R.

    1990-01-01

    Neuromodulin (P-57, GAP-43, B-50, F-1) is a neurospecific calmodulin binding protein that is phosphorylated by protein kinase C. Phosphorylation by protein kinase C has been shown to abolish the affinity of neuromodulin for calmodulin and the authors have proposed that the concentration of free CaM in neurons may be regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of neuromodulin. The purpose of this study was to identify the protein kinase C phosphorylation site(s) in neuromodulin using recombinant neuromodulin as a substrate. Toward this end, it was demonstrated that recombinant neuromodulin purified from Escherichia coli and bovine neuromodulin were phosphorylated with similar K m values and stoichiometries and that protein kinase C mediated phosphorylation of both proteins abolished binding to calmodulin-Sepharose. Recombinant neuromodulin was phosphorylated by using protein kinase C and [γ- 32 P]ATP and digested with trypsin, and the resulting peptides were separated by HPLC. Only one 32 P-labeled tryptic peptide was generated from phosphorylated neuromodulin. They conclude that serine-41 is the protein kinase C phosphorylation site of neuromodulin and that phosphorylation of this amino acid residue blocks binding of calmoculin to neuromodulin. The proximity of serine-41 to the calmodulin binding domain in neuromodulin very likely explains the effect of phosphorylation on the affinity of neuromodulin for calmodulin

  18. Differential regulation of the phosphorylation of Trimethyl-lysine27 histone H3 at serine 28 in distinct populations of striatal projection neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonito-Oliva, Alessandra; Södersten, Erik; Spigolon, Giada; Hu, Xiaochen; Hellysaz, Arash; Falconi, Anastasia; Gomes, Ana-Luisa; Broberger, Christian; Hansen, Klaus; Fisone, Gilberto

    2016-08-01

    Phosphorylation of histone H3 (H3) on serine 28 (S28) at genomic regions marked by trimethylation of lysine 27 (H3K27me3) often correlates with increased expression of genes normally repressed by Polycomb group proteins (PcG). We show that amphetamine, an addictive psychostimulant, and haloperidol, a typical antipsychotic drug, increase the phosphorylation of H3 at S28 and that this effect occurs in the context of H3K27me3. The increases in H3K27me3S28p occur in distinct populations of projection neurons located in the striatum, the major component of the basal ganglia. Genetic inactivation of the protein phosphatase-1 inhibitor, dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa (DARPP-32), reduces the phosphorylation of H3K27me3S28 produced by amphetamine and haloperidol. In contrast, knockout of the mitogen- and stress activated kinase 1 (MSK1), which is implicated in the phosphorylation of histone H3, decreases the effect of amphetamine, but not that of haloperidol. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis shows that amphetamine and haloperidol increase the phosphorylation of H3K27me3S28 at the promoter regions of Atf3, Npas4 and Lipg, three genes repressed by PcG. These results identify H3K27me3S28p as a potential mediator of the effects exerted by amphetamine and haloperidol, and suggest that these drugs may act by re-activating PcG repressed target genes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Phosphorylation sites of Arabidopsis MAP Kinase Substrate 1 (MKS1)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Caspersen, M.B.; Qiu, J.-L.; Zhang, X.

    2007-01-01

    The Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 (MPK4) substrate MKS1 was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified, full-length, 6x histidine (His)-tagged MKS1 was phosphorylated in vitro by hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged MPK4 immuno-precipitated from plants. MKS1 phosphorylation was initially verified by electrophore......The Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 (MPK4) substrate MKS1 was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified, full-length, 6x histidine (His)-tagged MKS1 was phosphorylated in vitro by hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged MPK4 immuno-precipitated from plants. MKS1 phosphorylation was initially verified...... phosphopeptide detection. As MAP kinases generally phosphorylate serine or threonine followed by proline (Ser/Thr-Pro), theoretical masses of potentially phosphorylated peptides were calculated and mass spectrometric peaks matching these masses were fragmented and searched for a neutral-loss signal...... at approximately 98 Da indicative of phosphorylation. Additionally, mass spectrometric peaks present in the MPK4-treated MKS1, but not in the control peptide map of untreated MKS1, were fragmented. Fragmentation spectra were subjected to a MASCOT database search which identified three of the twelve Ser-Pro serine...

  20. Phosphorylation of CPAP by Aurora-A Maintains Spindle Pole Integrity during Mitosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, En-Ju; Hung, Liang-Yi; Tang, Chieh-Ju C; Hsu, Wen-Bin; Wu, Hsin-Yi; Liao, Pao-Chi; Tang, Tang K

    2016-03-29

    CPAP is required for centriole elongation during S/G2 phase, but the role of CPAP in mitosis is incompletely understood. Here, we show that CPAP maintains spindle pole integrity through its phosphorylation by Aurora-A during mitosis. Depletion of CPAP induced a prolonged delay in mitosis, pericentriolar material (PCM) dispersion, and multiple mitotic abnormalities. Further studies demonstrated that CPAP directly interacts with and is phosphorylated by Aurora-A at serine 467 during mitosis. Interestingly, the dispersal of the PCM was effectively rescued by ectopic expression of wild-type CPAP or a phospho-mimic CPAP-S467D mutant, but not a non-phosphorylated CPAP-S467A mutant. Finally, we found that CPAP-S467D has a low affinity for microtubule binding but a high affinity for PCM proteins. Together, our results support a model wherein CPAP is required for proper mitotic progression, and phosphorylation of CPAP by Aurora-A is essential for maintaining spindle pole integrity. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Primary Blast-Induced Changes in Akt and GSK3β Phosphorylation in Rat Hippocampus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yushan Wang

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Traumatic brain injury (TBI due to blast from improvised explosive devices has been a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the mechanisms of primary blast-induced TBI are not well understood. The Akt signal transduction pathway has been implicated in various brain pathologies including TBI. In the present study, the effects of simulated primary blast waves on the phosphorylation status of Akt and its downstream effector kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β, in rat hippocampus, were investigated. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD rats (350–400 g were exposed to a single pulse shock wave (25 psi; ~7 ms duration and sacrificed 1 day, 1 week, or 6 weeks after exposure. Total and phosphorylated Akt, as well as phosphorylation of its downstream effector kinase GSK3β (at serine 9, were detected with western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Results showed that Akt phosphorylation at both serine 473 and threonine 308 was increased 1 day after blast on the ipsilateral side of the hippocampus, and this elevation persisted until at least 6 weeks postexposure. Similarly, phosphorylation of GSK3β at serine 9, which inhibits GSK3β activity, was also increased starting at 1 day and persisted until at least 6 weeks after primary blast on the ipsilateral side. In contrast, p-Akt was increased at 1 and 6 weeks on the contralateral side, while p-GSK3β was increased 1 day and 1 week after primary blast exposure. No significant changes in total protein levels of Akt and GSK were observed on either side of the hippocampus at any time points. Immunohistochemical results showed that increased p-Akt was mainly of neuronal origin in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and once phosphorylated, the majority was translocated to the dendritic and plasma membranes. Finally, electrophysiological data showed that evoked synaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA receptor activity was

  2. Mapping of p140Cap phosphorylation sites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Repetto, Daniele; Aramu, Simona; Boeri Erba, Elisabetta

    2013-01-01

    phosphorylation and tunes its interactions with other regulatory molecules via post-translation modification. In this work, using mass spectrometry, we found that p140Cap is in vivo phosphorylated on tyrosine (Y) within the peptide GEGLpYADPYGLLHEGR (from now on referred to as EGLYA) as well as on three serine...... residues. Consistently, EGLYA has the highest score of in silico prediction of p140Cap phosphorylation. To further investigate the p140Cap function, we performed site specific mutagenesis on tyrosines inserted in EGLYA and EPLYA, a second sequence with the same highest score of phosphorylation. The mutant...

  3. Serine biosynthesis and transport defects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El-Hattab, Ayman W

    2016-07-01

    l-serine is a non-essential amino acid that is biosynthesized via the enzymes phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PGDH), phosphoserine aminotransferase (PSAT), and phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP). Besides its role in protein synthesis, l-serine is a potent neurotrophic factor and a precursor of a number of essential compounds including phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, glycine, and d-serine. Serine biosynthesis defects result from impairments of PGDH, PSAT, or PSP leading to systemic serine deficiency. Serine biosynthesis defects present in a broad phenotypic spectrum that includes, at the severe end, Neu-Laxova syndrome, a lethal multiple congenital anomaly disease, intermediately, infantile serine biosynthesis defects with severe neurological manifestations and growth deficiency, and at the mild end, the childhood disease with intellectual disability. A serine transport defect resulting from deficiency of the ASCT1, the main transporter for serine in the central nervous system, has been recently described in children with neurological manifestations that overlap with those observed in serine biosynthesis defects. l-serine therapy may be beneficial in preventing or ameliorating symptoms in serine biosynthesis and transport defects, if started before neurological damage occurs. Herein, we review serine metabolism and transport, the clinical, biochemical, and molecular aspects of serine biosynthesis and transport defects, the mechanisms of these diseases, and the potential role of serine therapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Phosphorylation of NS5A Serine-235 is essential to hepatitis C virus RNA replication and normal replication compartment formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eyre, Nicholas S., E-mail: nicholas.eyre@adelaide.edu.au [School of Biological Sciences and Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology, Adelaide (Australia); Hampton-Smith, Rachel J.; Aloia, Amanda L. [School of Biological Sciences and Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology, Adelaide (Australia); Eddes, James S. [Adelaide Proteomics Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Simpson, Kaylene J. [Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne (Australia); The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Parkville (Australia); Hoffmann, Peter [Adelaide Proteomics Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Beard, Michael R. [School of Biological Sciences and Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology, Adelaide (Australia)

    2016-04-15

    Hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5A protein is essential for HCV RNA replication and virus assembly. Here we report the identification of NS5A phosphorylation sites Ser-222, Ser-235 and Thr-348 during an infectious HCV replication cycle and demonstrate that Ser-235 phosphorylation is essential for HCV RNA replication. Confocal microscopy revealed that both phosphoablatant (S235A) and phosphomimetic (S235D) mutants redistribute NS5A to large juxta-nuclear foci that display altered colocalization with known replication complex components. Using electron microscopy (EM) we found that S235D alters virus-induced membrane rearrangements while EM using ‘APEX2’-tagged viruses demonstrated S235D-mediated enrichment of NS5A in irregular membranous foci. Finally, using a customized siRNA screen of candidate NS5A kinases and subsequent analysis using a phospho-specific antibody, we show that phosphatidylinositol-4 kinase III alpha (PI4KIIIα) is important for Ser-235 phosphorylation. We conclude that Ser-235 phosphorylation of NS5A is essential for HCV RNA replication and normal replication complex formation and is regulated by PI4KIIIα. - Highlights: • NS5A residues Ser-222, Ser-235 and Thr-348 are phosphorylated during HCV infection. • Phosphorylation of Ser-235 is essential to HCV RNA replication. • Mutation of Ser-235 alters replication compartment localization and morphology. • Phosphatidylinositol-4 kinase III alpha is important for Ser-235 phosphorylation.

  5. Cisplatinum and Taxol Induce Different Patterns of p53 Phosphorylation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanna Damia

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available Posttranslational modifications of p53 induced by two widely used anticancer agents, cisplatinum (DDP and taxol were investigated in two human cancer cell lines. Although both drugs were able to induce phosphorylation at serine 20 (Ser20, only DDP treatment induced p53 phosphorylation at serine 15 (Ser15. Moreover, both drug treatments were able to increase p53 levels and consequently the transcription of waf1 and mdm-2 genes, although DDP treatment resulted in a stronger inducer of both genes. Using two ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM cell lines, the role of ATM in druginduced p53 phosphorylations was investigated. No differences in drug-induced p53 phosphorylation could be observed, indicating that ATM is not the kinase involved in these phosphorylation events. In addition, inhibition of DNA-dependent protein kinase activity by wortmannin did not abolish p53 phosphorylation at Ser15 and Ser20, again indicating that DNA-PK is unlikely to be the kinase involved. After both taxol and DDP treatments, an activation of hCHK2 was found and this is likely to be responsible for phosphorylation at Ser20. In contrast, only DDP was able to activate ATR, which is the candidate kinase for phosphorylation of Ser15 by this drug. This data clearly suggests that differential mechanisms are involved in phosphorylation and activation of p53 depending on the drug type.

  6. Regulation of Glioma Cell Migration by Seri ne-Phosphorylated P3111

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wendy S. McDonough

    2005-09-01

    Full Text Available P311, an 8-kDa polypeptide, was previously shown to be highly expressed in invasive glioma cells. Here, we report the functional characteristics of P311 with regard to influencing glioma cell migration. P311 is constitutively serine-phosphorylated; decreased phosphorylation is observed in migration-activated glioma cells. The primary amino acid sequence of P311 indicates a putative serine phosphorylation site (S59 near the PEST domain. Site-directed mutagenesis of S59A retarded P311 degradation, induced glioma cell motility. In contrast, S59D mutation resulted in the rapid degradation of P311, reduced glioma cell migration. Coimmunoprecipitation coupled with matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis identified Filamin A as a binding partner of P311, immunofluorescence studies showed that both proteins colocalized at the cell periphery. Moreover, P311-induced cell migration was abrogated by inhibition of β1 integrin function using TACβ1A, a dominant-negative inhibitor of β1 integrin signaling, suggesting that P311 acts downstream of β1 signaling. Finally, overexpression of P311 or P311 S59A mutant protein activates Raci GTPase; small interfering RNA-mediated depletion of Raci suppresses P311-induced motility. Collectively, these results suggest a role for levels of P311 in regulating glioma motility, invasion through the reorganization of actin cytoskeleton at the cell periphery.

  7. Constitutive phosphorylation of ATM in lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with ICF syndrome without downstream kinase activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldstine, Jimena V; Nahas, Shareef; Gamo, Kristin; Gartler, Stanley M; Hansen, R Scott; Roelfsema, Jeroen H; Gatti, Richard A; Marahrens, York

    2006-04-08

    Double strand DNA breaks in the genome lead to the activation of the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase in a process that requires ATM autophosphorylation at serine-1981. ATM autophosphorylation only occurs if ATM is previously acetylated by Tip60. The activated ATM kinase phosphorylates proteins involved in arresting the cell cycle, including p53, and in repairing the DNA breaks. Chloroquine treatment and other manipulations that produce chromatin defects in the absence of detectable double strand breaks also trigger ATM phosphorylation and the phosphorylation of p53 in primary human fibroblasts, while other downstream substrates of ATM that are involved in the repair of DNA double strand breaks remain unphosphorylated. This raises the issue of whether ATM is constitutively activated in patients with genetic diseases that display chromatin defects. We examined lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) generated from patients with different types of chromatin disorders: Immunodeficiency, Centromeric instability, Facial anomalies (ICF) syndrome, Coffin Lowry syndrome, Rubinstein Taybi syndrome and Fascioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy. We show that ATM is phosphorylated on serine-1981 in LCLs derived from ICF patients but not from the other syndromes. The phosphorylated ATM in ICF cells did not phosphorylate the downstream targets NBS1, SMC1 and H2AX, all of which require the presence of double strand breaks. We demonstrate that ICF cells respond normally to ionizing radiation, ruling out the possibility that genetic deficiency in ICF cells renders activated ATM incapable of phosphorylating its downstream substrates. Surprisingly, p53 was also not phosphorylated in ICF cells or in chloroquine-treated wild type LCLs. In this regard the response to chromatin-altering agents differs between primary fibroblasts and LCLs. Our findings indicate that although phosphorylation at serine-1981 is essential in the activation of the ATM kinase, serine-1981 phosphorylation is

  8. Role of multiple phosphorylation sites in the COOH-terminal tail of aquaporin-2 for water transport: evidence against channel gating

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moeller, Hanne B; Macaulay, Nanna; Knepper, Mark A

    2009-01-01

    demonstrated that lack of phosphorylation at S256, S261, S264, or S269 had no effect on AQP2 unit water transport. Similarly, no effect on AQP2 unit water transport was observed for the 264D and 269D forms, indicating that phosphorylation of the COOH-terminal tail of AQP2 is not involved in gating......Arginine vasopressin (AVP)-regulated phosphorylation of the water channel aquaporin-2 (AQP2) at serine 256 (S256) is essential for its accumulation in the apical plasma membrane of collecting duct principal cells. In this study, we examined the role of additional AVP-regulated phosphorylation sites...... in the COOH-terminal tail of AQP2 on protein function. When expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes, prevention of AQP2 phosphorylation at S256A (S256A-AQP2) reduced osmotic water permeability threefold compared with wild-type (WT) AQP2-injected oocytes. In contrast, prevention of AQP2 single phosphorylation at S...

  9. Serine/threonine/tyrosine phosphorylation regulates DNA binding of bacterial transcriptional regulators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kalantari, Aida; Derouiche, Abderahmane; Shi, Lei

    2015-01-01

    Reversible phosphorylation of bacterial transcriptional regulators (TRs) belonging to the family of two-component systems (TCSs) is a well-established mechanism for regulating gene expression. Recent evidence points to the fact that reversible phosphorylation of bacterial TRs on other types...

  10. A cytoplasmic serine protein kinase binds and may regulate the Fanconi anemia protein FANCA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagasaki, H; Adachi, D; Oda, T; Garcia-Higuera, I; Tetteh, N; D'Andrea, A D; Futaki, M; Asano, S; Yamashita, T

    2001-12-15

    Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disease with congenital anomalies, bone marrow failure, and susceptibility to leukemia. Patient cells show chromosome instability and hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linking agents. At least 8 complementation groups (A-G) have been identified and 6 FA genes (for subtypes A, C, D2, E, F, and G) have been cloned. Increasing evidence indicates that a protein complex assembly of multiple FA proteins, including FANCA and FANCG, plays a crucial role in the FA pathway. Previously, it was reported that FANCA was phosphorylated in lymphoblasts from normal controls, whereas the phosphorylation was defective in those derived from patients with FA of multiple complementation groups. The present study examined phosphorylation of FANCA ectopically expressed in FANCA(-) cells. Several patient-derived mutations abrogated in vivo phosphorylation of FANCA in this system, suggesting that FANCA phosphorylation is associated with its function. In vitro phosphorylation studies indicated that a physiologic protein kinase for FANCA (FANCA-PK) forms a complex with the substrate. Furthermore, at least a part of FANCA-PK as well as phosphorylated FANCA were included in the FANCA/FANCG complex. Thus, FANCA-PK appears to be another component of the FA protein complex and may regulate function of FANCA. FANCA-PK was characterized as a cytoplasmic serine kinase sensitive to wortmannin. Identification of the protein kinase is expected to elucidate regulatory mechanisms that control the FA pathway.

  11. Phosphatase Rtr1 Regulates Global Levels of Serine 5 RNA Polymerase II C-Terminal Domain Phosphorylation and Cotranscriptional Histone Methylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, Gerald O; Fox, Melanie J; Smith-Kinnaman, Whitney R; Gogol, Madelaine; Fleharty, Brian; Mosley, Amber L

    2016-09-01

    In eukaryotes, the C-terminal domain (CTD) of Rpb1 contains a heptapeptide repeat sequence of (Y1S2P3T4S5P6S7)n that undergoes reversible phosphorylation through the opposing action of kinases and phosphatases. Rtr1 is a conserved protein that colocalizes with RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and has been shown to be important for the transition from elongation to termination during transcription by removing RNAPII CTD serine 5 phosphorylation (Ser5-P) at a selection of target genes. In this study, we show that Rtr1 is a global regulator of the CTD code with deletion of RTR1 causing genome-wide changes in Ser5-P CTD phosphorylation and cotranscriptional histone H3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3). Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-resolution microarrays, we show that RTR1 deletion results in global changes in RNAPII Ser5-P levels on genes with different lengths and transcription rates consistent with its role as a CTD phosphatase. Although Ser5-P levels increase, the overall occupancy of RNAPII either decreases or stays the same in the absence of RTR1 Additionally, the loss of Rtr1 in vivo leads to increases in H3K36me3 levels genome-wide, while total histone H3 levels remain relatively constant within coding regions. Overall, these findings suggest that Rtr1 regulates H3K36me3 levels through changes in the number of binding sites for the histone methyltransferase Set2, thereby influencing both the CTD and histone codes. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  12. PhosphoBase: a database of phosphorylation sites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blom, Nikolaj; Kreegipuu, Andres; Brunak, Søren

    1998-01-01

    PhosphoBase is a database of experimentally verified phosphorylation sites. Version 1.0 contains 156 entries and 398 experimentally determined phosphorylation sites. Entries are compiled and revised from the literature and from major protein sequence databases such as SwissProt and PIR. The entries...... provide information about the phosphoprotein and the exact position of its phosphorylation sites. Furthermore, part of the entries contain information about kinetic data obtained from enzyme assays on specific peptides. To illustrate the use of data extracted from PhosphoBase we present a sequence logo...... displaying the overall conservation of positions around serines phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA). PhosphoBase is available on the WWW at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/databases/PhosphoBase/....

  13. Protein kinase C activation and myosin light chain phosphorylation in 32P-labeled arterial smooth muscle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singer, H.A.

    1990-01-01

    Experiments using 32P-labeled strips of swine carotid artery medial smooth muscle were performed to define the relative contribution of myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation as an activation mechanism mediating contractile responses stimulated by phorbol dibutyrate (PDB). Tryptic phosphopeptide mapping of phosphorylated MLC indicated that near-maximal force responses were associated with increases in functional MLC phosphorylation of less than 10% of the total MLC content following tonic (45 min) stimulation by PDB. Significant phosphorylation of MLC residues, consistent with the specificity of protein kinase C, occurred in response to high concentrations of PDB (greater than 0.1 microM). Histamine (10 microM)-induced MLC phosphorylation after 2 min (72.5% of total MLC) or 45 min (61.7%) was restricted to serine residues on peptides thought to contain serine19. Although agonist (histamine)-induced responses were eliminated under conditions of Ca2+ depletion, near-maximal force in response to 10 microM PDB (89.4% of a standard KCl response) was associated with monophosphorylation of less than 9% of the total MLC on peptides interpreted as containing serine19. A substantial fraction of this was localized to threonine residues. The quantitative analysis of the relation between PDB-stimulated force and the residues in MLC phosphorylated supports the concept that PDB stimulation results in activation of arterial smooth muscle cross bridges by MLC-phosphorylation-independent mechanisms

  14. Stromal serine protein kinase activity in spinach chloroplasts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cortez, N.; Lucero, H.A.; Vallejos, R.H.

    1987-01-01

    At least twelve 32 P-labeled stromal proteins were detected by electrophoresis under denaturing conditions when intact chloroplasts were incubated with 32 Pi, in the light but only three were detected in the presence of 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) or in the dark. Incubation of isolated stroma with [gamma- 32 P]ATP resulted in the preferential phosphorylation of one of them, a 70-kDa polypeptide, in serine residues. Thylakoid membranes in the dark promoted the phosphorylation of two additional stromal polypeptides of 55 and 40 kDa. Illumination during the phosphorylation of stroma in the presence of thylakoids stimulated severalfold the labeling of the 40-kDa polypeptide but not when DCMU was added. The protein kinase activity present in isolated stroma phosphorylated exogenous substrates like histone III, phosvitin, histone II, and casein with specific activities of 3, 1.8, 0.7, and 0.2 pmol X mg-1 X min-1. Histone III polypeptides were phosphorylated differently by stroma and by thylakoids in the dark. Moreover, histone III phosphorylated by thylakoids in the dark yielded a pattern of phosphopeptides after V8 protease treatment that was different from the pattern obtained when histone III was phosphorylated by stroma

  15. The in vivo phosphorylation sites of rat brain dynamin I

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Graham, Mark E; Anggono, Victor; Bache, Nicolai

    2007-01-01

    -824). To resolve the discrepancy and to better understand the biological roles of dynI phosphorylation, we undertook a systematic identification of all phosphorylation sites in rat brain nerve terminal dynI. Using phosphoamino acid analysis, exclusively phospho-serine residues were found. Thr(780) phosphorylation...... of their relative abundance and relative responses to depolarization. The multiple phospho-sites suggest subtle regulation of synaptic vesicle endocytosis by new protein kinases and new protein-protein interactions. The homologous dynI and dynIII phosphorylation indicates a high mechanistic similarity. The results...

  16. Increased phosphorylation of histone H3 at serine 10 is involved in Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein-1-induced carcinogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Binbin; Huang, Guoliang; Zhang, Xiangning; Li, Rong; Wang, Jian; Dong, Ziming; He, Zhiwei

    2013-01-01

    Increased histone H3 phosphorylation is an essential regulatory mechanism for neoplastic cell transformation. We aimed to explore the role of histone H3 phosphorylation at serine10 (p-H3Ser10) in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1)-induced carcinogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The expression of p-H3Ser10 was detected by the immunohistochemical analysis in NPC, chronic nasopharyngitis and normal nasopharynx tissues, and its correlation with LMP1 was analyzed in NPC tissues and cell lines. Using the small interfering RNA (siRNA)-H3 and histone H3 mutant (S10A), the effect of histone H3 Ser10 motif on LMP1-induced CNE1 cell proliferation, transformation and activator protein-1 (AP-1) activation were evaluated by CCK-8, focus-forming and reporter gene assay respectively. Mitogen- and stress-activated kinase 1 (MSK1) kinase activity and phosphorylation were detected by in vitro kinase assay and western blot. Using MSK1 inhibitor H89 or siRNA-MSK1, the regulatory role of MSK1 on histone H3 phosphorylation and AP-1 activation were analyzed. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the expression of p-H3Ser10 was significantly higher in the poorly differentiated NPC tissues than that in chronic nasopharyngitis (p <0.05) and normal nasopharynx tissues (p <0.001). Moreover, high level of p-H3Ser10 was positively correlated with the expression of LMP1 in NPC tissues (χ 2 =6.700, p =0.01; C=0.350) and cell lines. The knockdown and mutant (S10A) of histone H3 suppressed LMP1-induced CNE1 cell proliferation, foci formation and AP-1 activation. In addition, LMP1 could increase MSK1 kinase activity and phosphorylation. MSK1 inhibitor H89 or knockdown of MSK1 by siRNA blocked LMP1-induced phosphorylation of histone H3 at Ser10 and AP-1 activation. EBV-LMP1 can induce phosphorylation of histone H3 at Ser10 via MSK1. Increased phosphorylation of histone H3 at Ser10 is likely a crucial regulatory mechanism involved in LMP1-induced carcinogenesis of

  17. D-Serine exposure resulted in gene expression changes indicative of activation of fibrogenic pathways and down-regulation of energy metabolism and oxidative stress response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soto, Armando; DelRaso, Nicholas J.; Schlager, John J.; Chan, Victor T.

    2008-01-01

    , metabolism and transport, inflammatory response, proteasome-mediated degradation of oxidatively damaged cytosolic proteins, Ras protein signal transduction, TGF-beta signaling pathway and mRNA transcription, processing, splicing and transport. On the other hand, major metabolic pathways, which include carbohydrate metabolism, TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, ATP synthesis coupled electron transport, amino acid metabolism and transport, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and vitamin metabolism, and oxidative stress response including induction of antioxidant genes and glutathione metabolism are down-regulated. As tubular epithelia have strong energy demand for normal functions, down-regulation of energy metabolism after D-serine treatment may be related to the mechanism of its nephrotoxicity. In addition, hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species, is produced as a byproduct of the metabolism of D-serine by D-amino acid oxidase in the peroxisomes of the tubular epithelia. Down-regulation of pathways for antioxidant genes induction and glutathione metabolism will likely exacerbate the cytotoxicity of this reactive oxygen species. The observation that the genes involved in apoptosis, DNA repair, proteasome pathway for the degradation of oxidatively damaged cytosolic proteins were up-regulated lends some supports to this premise. Up-regulation of pathways of cell proliferation cycle, DNA replication and gene expression process, including mRNA transcription, processing, splicing, transport, translation initiation, and protein transport along with protein complex assembly, suggests ongoing tissue repair and regeneration. Consistent with the fibrogenic function of the TGF-beta signaling pathway in various experimental renal diseases, genes encoding major extracellular matrix components such as collagens, laminins, fibronectin 1 and tenascins are also strongly up-regulated. Taken together, the results of this study provide important insights into the molecular mechanism

  18. Src kinase regulation by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roskoski, Robert

    2005-01-01

    Src and Src-family protein-tyrosine kinases are regulatory proteins that play key roles in cell differentiation, motility, proliferation, and survival. The initially described phosphorylation sites of Src include an activating phosphotyrosine 416 that results from autophosphorylation, and an inhibiting phosphotyrosine 527 that results from phosphorylation by C-terminal Src kinase (Csk) and Csk homologous kinase. Dephosphorylation of phosphotyrosine 527 increases Src kinase activity. Candidate phosphotyrosine 527 phosphatases include cytoplasmic PTP1B, Shp1 and Shp2, and transmembrane enzymes include CD45, PTPα, PTPε, and PTPλ. Dephosphorylation of phosphotyrosine 416 decreases Src kinase activity. Thus far PTP-BL, the mouse homologue of human PTP-BAS, has been shown to dephosphorylate phosphotyrosine 416 in a regulatory fashion. The platelet-derived growth factor receptor protein-tyrosine kinase mediates the phosphorylation of Src Tyr138; this phosphorylation has no direct effect on Src kinase activity. The platelet-derived growth factor receptor and the ErbB2/HER2 growth factor receptor protein-tyrosine kinases mediate the phosphorylation of Src Tyr213 and activation of Src kinase activity. Src kinase is also a substrate for protein-serine/threonine kinases including protein kinase C (Ser12), protein kinase A (Ser17), and CDK1/cdc2 (Thr34, Thr46, and Ser72). Of the three protein-serine/threonine kinases, only phosphorylation by CDK1/cdc2 has been demonstrated to increase Src kinase activity. Although considerable information on the phosphoprotein phosphatases that catalyze the hydrolysis of Src phosphotyrosine 527 is at hand, the nature of the phosphatases that mediate the hydrolysis of phosphotyrosine 138 and 213, and phosphoserine and phosphothreonine residues has not been determined

  19. Formaldehyde-induced histone H3 phosphorylation via JNK and the expression of proto-oncogenes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Ikuma; Ibuki, Yuko

    2014-01-01

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Formaldehyde modified histones. • The phosphorylation of H3S10 was increased at the promoter regions of proto-oncogenes. • The phosphorylation of H2AXS139 was attributed to FA-induced DNA damage. • The FA-induced initiation and promotion of cancer could be judged by these modifications. - Abstract: Formaldehyde (FA) is a very reactive compound that forms DNA adducts and DNA-protein crosslinks, which are known to contribute to FA-induced mutations and carcinogenesis. Post-translational modifications to histones have recently attracted attention due to their link with cancer. In the present study, we examined histone modifications following a treatment with FA. FA significantly phosphorylated histone H3 at serine 10 (H3S10), and at serine 28 (H3S28), the time-course of which was similar to the phosphorylation of H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX), a marker of DNA double strand breaks. The temporal deacetylation of H3 was observed due to the reaction of FA with the lysine residues of histones. The phosphorylation mechanism was then analyzed by focusing on H3S10. The nuclear distribution of the phosphorylation of H3S10 and γ-H2AX did not overlap, and the phosphorylation of H3S10 could not be suppressed with an inhibitor of ATM/ATR, suggesting that the phosphorylation of H3S10 was independent of the DNA damage response. ERK and JNK in the MAPK pathways were phosphorylated by the treatment with FA, in which the JNK pathway was the main target for phosphorylation. The phosphorylation of H3S10 increased at the promoter regions of c-fos and c-jun, indicating a relationship between FA-induced tumor promotion activity and phosphorylation of H3S10. These results suggested that FA both initiates and promotes cancer, as judged by an analysis of histone modifications

  20. Formaldehyde-induced histone H3 phosphorylation via JNK and the expression of proto-oncogenes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoshida, Ikuma; Ibuki, Yuko, E-mail: ibuki@u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp

    2014-12-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Formaldehyde modified histones. • The phosphorylation of H3S10 was increased at the promoter regions of proto-oncogenes. • The phosphorylation of H2AXS139 was attributed to FA-induced DNA damage. • The FA-induced initiation and promotion of cancer could be judged by these modifications. - Abstract: Formaldehyde (FA) is a very reactive compound that forms DNA adducts and DNA-protein crosslinks, which are known to contribute to FA-induced mutations and carcinogenesis. Post-translational modifications to histones have recently attracted attention due to their link with cancer. In the present study, we examined histone modifications following a treatment with FA. FA significantly phosphorylated histone H3 at serine 10 (H3S10), and at serine 28 (H3S28), the time-course of which was similar to the phosphorylation of H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX), a marker of DNA double strand breaks. The temporal deacetylation of H3 was observed due to the reaction of FA with the lysine residues of histones. The phosphorylation mechanism was then analyzed by focusing on H3S10. The nuclear distribution of the phosphorylation of H3S10 and γ-H2AX did not overlap, and the phosphorylation of H3S10 could not be suppressed with an inhibitor of ATM/ATR, suggesting that the phosphorylation of H3S10 was independent of the DNA damage response. ERK and JNK in the MAPK pathways were phosphorylated by the treatment with FA, in which the JNK pathway was the main target for phosphorylation. The phosphorylation of H3S10 increased at the promoter regions of c-fos and c-jun, indicating a relationship between FA-induced tumor promotion activity and phosphorylation of H3S10. These results suggested that FA both initiates and promotes cancer, as judged by an analysis of histone modifications.

  1. Detection of phosphorylation states by intermolecular sensitization of lanthanide-peptide conjugates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pazos, Elena; Goličnik, Marko; Mascareñas, José L; Vázquez, M Eugenio

    2012-10-04

    The luminescence of a designed peptide equipped with a coordinatively-unsaturated lanthanide complex is modulated by the phosphorylation state of a serine residue in the sequence. While the phosphorylated state is weakly emissive, even in the presence of an external antenna, removal of the phosphate allows coordination of the sensitizer to the metal, yielding a highly emissive supramolecular complex.

  2. Dinitrosopiperazine-Mediated Phosphorylated-Proteins Are Involved in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Metastasis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gongjun Tan

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available N,N'-dinitrosopiperazine (DNP with organ specificity for nasopharyngeal epithelium, is involved in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC metastasis, though its mechanism is unclear. To reveal the pathogenesis of DNP-induced metastasis, immunoprecipitation was used to identify DNP-mediated phosphoproteins. DNP-mediated NPC cell line (6-10B motility and invasion was confirmed. Twenty-six phosphoproteins were increased at least 1.5-fold following DNP exposure. Changes in the expression levels of selected phosphoproteins were verified by Western-blotting analysis. DNP treatment altered the phosphorylation of ezrin (threonine 567, vimentin (serine 55, stathmin (serine 25 and STAT3 (serine 727. Furthermore, it was shown that DNP-dependent metastasis is mediated in part through ezrin at threonine 567, as DNP-mediated metastasis was decreased when threonine 567 of ezrin was mutated. Strikingly, NPC metastatic tumors exhibited a higher expression of phosphorylated-ezrin at threonine 567 than the primary tumors. These findings provide novel insight into DNP-induced NPC metastasis and may contribute to a better understanding of the metastatic mechanisms of NPC tumors.

  3. Importance of tyrosine phosphorylation in receptor kinase complexes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macho, Alberto P; Lozano-Durán, Rosa; Zipfel, Cyril

    2015-05-01

    Tyrosine phosphorylation is an important post-translational modification that is known to regulate receptor kinase (RK)-mediated signaling in animals. Plant RKs are annotated as serine/threonine kinases, but recent work has revealed that tyrosine phosphorylation is also crucial for the activation of RK-mediated signaling in plants. These initial observations have paved the way for subsequent detailed studies on the mechanism of activation of plant RKs and the biological relevance of tyrosine phosphorylation for plant growth and immunity. In this Opinion article we review recent reports on the contribution of RK tyrosine phosphorylation in plant growth and immunity; we propose that tyrosine phosphorylation plays a major regulatory role in the initiation and transduction of RK-mediated signaling in plants. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Dynamic Phosphorylation of VP30 Is Essential for Ebola Virus Life Cycle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biedenkopf, Nadine; Lier, Clemens; Becker, Stephan

    2016-05-15

    Ebola virus is the causative agent of a severe fever with high fatality rates in humans and nonhuman primates. The regulation of Ebola virus transcription and replication currently is not well understood. An important factor regulating viral transcription is VP30, an Ebola virus-specific transcription factor associated with the viral nucleocapsid. Previous studies revealed that the phosphorylation status of VP30 impacts viral transcription. Together with NP, L, and the polymerase cofactor VP35, nonphosphorylated VP30 supports viral transcription. Upon VP30 phosphorylation, viral transcription ceases. Phosphorylation weakens the interaction between VP30 and the polymerase cofactor VP35 and/or the viral RNA. VP30 thereby is excluded from the viral transcription complex, simultaneously leading to increased viral replication which is supported by NP, L, and VP35 alone. Here, we use an infectious virus-like particle assay and recombinant viruses to show that the dynamic phosphorylation of VP30 is critical for the cotransport of VP30 with nucleocapsids to the sites of viral RNA synthesis, where VP30 is required to initiate primary viral transcription. We further demonstrate that a single serine residue at amino acid position 29 was sufficient to render VP30 active in primary transcription and to generate a recombinant virus with characteristics comparable to those of wild-type virus. In contrast, the rescue of a recombinant virus with a single serine at position 30 in VP30 was unsuccessful. Our results indicate critical roles for phosphorylated and dephosphorylated VP30 during the viral life cycle. The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has caused more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 fatalities. Very little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms of how the Ebola virus transcribes and replicates its genome. Previous investigations showed that the transcriptional support activity of VP30 is activated upon VP30 dephosphorylation. The current study reveals that

  5. GABAB receptor phosphorylation regulates KCTD12-induced K+ current desensitization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Adelfinger, L; Turecek, R; Ivankova, K

    2014-01-01

    released from the G-protein. Receptor-activated K+ currents desensitize in the sustained presence of agonist to avoid excessive effects on neuronal activity. Desensitization of K+ currents integrates distinct mechanistic underpinnings. GABAB receptor activity reduces protein kinase-A activity, which...... reduces phosphorylation of serine-892 in GABAB2 and promotes receptor degradation. This form of desensitization operates on the time scale of several minutes to hours. A faster form of desensitization is induced by the auxiliary subunit KCTD12, which interferes with channel activation by binding to the G......-protein βγ subunits. Here we show that the two mechanisms of desensitization influence each other. Serine-892 phosphorylation in heterologous cells rearranges KCTD12 at the receptor and slows KCTD12-induced desensitization. Likewise, protein kinase-A activation in hippocampal neurons slows fast...

  6. A retroviral oncogene, akt, encoding a serine-threonine kinase containing an SH2-like region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellacosa, A; Testa, J R; Staal, S P; Tsichlis, P N

    1991-10-11

    The v-akt oncogene codes for a 105-kilodalton fusion phosphoprotein containing Gag sequences at its amino terminus. Sequence analysis of v-akt and biochemical characterization of its product revealed that it codes for a protein kinase C-related serine-threonine kinase whose cellular homolog is expressed in most tissues, with the highest amount found in thymus. Although Akt is a serine-threonine kinase, part of its regulatory region is similar to the Src homology-2 domain, a structural motif characteristic of cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases that functions in protein-protein interactions. This suggests that Akt may form a functional link between tyrosine and serine-threonine phosphorylation pathways.

  7. C-Terminal Tyrosine Residue Modifications Modulate the Protective Phosphorylation of Serine 129 of α-Synuclein in a Yeast Model of Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleinknecht, Alexandra; Popova, Blagovesta; Lázaro, Diana F; Pinho, Raquel; Valerius, Oliver; Outeiro, Tiago F; Braus, Gerhard H

    2016-06-01

    Parkinson´s disease (PD) is characterized by the presence of proteinaceous inclusions called Lewy bodies that are mainly composed of α-synuclein (αSyn). Elevated levels of oxidative or nitrative stresses have been implicated in αSyn related toxicity. Phosphorylation of αSyn on serine 129 (S129) modulates autophagic clearance of inclusions and is prominently found in Lewy bodies. The neighboring tyrosine residues Y125, Y133 and Y136 are phosphorylation and nitration sites. Using a yeast model of PD, we found that Y133 is required for protective S129 phosphorylation and for S129-independent proteasome clearance. αSyn can be nitrated and form stable covalent dimers originating from covalent crosslinking of two tyrosine residues. Nitrated tyrosine residues, but not di-tyrosine-crosslinked dimers, contributed to αSyn cytotoxicity and aggregation. Analysis of tyrosine residues involved in nitration and crosslinking revealed that the C-terminus, rather than the N-terminus of αSyn, is modified by nitration and di-tyrosine formation. The nitration level of wild-type αSyn was higher compared to that of A30P mutant that is non-toxic in yeast. A30P formed more dimers than wild-type αSyn, suggesting that dimer formation represents a cellular detoxification pathway in yeast. Deletion of the yeast flavohemoglobin gene YHB1 resulted in an increase of cellular nitrative stress and cytotoxicity leading to enhanced aggregation of A30P αSyn. Yhb1 protected yeast from A30P-induced mitochondrial fragmentation and peroxynitrite-induced nitrative stress. Strikingly, overexpression of neuroglobin, the human homolog of YHB1, protected against αSyn inclusion formation in mammalian cells. In total, our data suggest that C-terminal Y133 plays a major role in αSyn aggregate clearance by supporting the protective S129 phosphorylation for autophagy and by promoting proteasome clearance. C-terminal tyrosine nitration increases pathogenicity and can only be partially detoxified by

  8. Efficacy of Glutamate Modulators in Tic Suppression: A Double-Blind, Randomized Control Trial of D-serine and Riluzole in Tourette Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemmon, Monica E; Grados, Marco; Kline, Tina; Thompson, Carol B; Ali, Syed F; Singer, Harvey S

    2015-06-01

    It has been hypothesized that glutamatergic transmission may be altered in Tourette syndrome. In this study, we explored the efficacy of a glutamate agonist (D-serine) and antagonist (riluzole) as tic-suppressing agents in children with Tourette syndrome. We performed a parallel three-arm, 8-week, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled treatment study in children with Tourette syndrome. Each child received 6 weeks of treatment with D-serine (maximum dose 30 mg/kg/day), riluzole (maximum dose 200 mg/day), or placebo, followed by a 2-week taper. The primary outcome measure was effective tic suppression as determined by the differences in the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale score; specifically, the total tic score and the combined score (total tic score + global impairment) between treatment arms after 6 weeks of treatment. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to analyze differences between each group and the placebo group. Twenty-four patients (males = 21, ages 9-18) enrolled in the study; one patient dropped out before completion. Combined Yale Global Tic Severity Scale score and total tic scores improved in all groups. The 6-week mean percent improvement of the riluzole (n = 10), D-serine (n = 9), and placebo (n = 5) groups in the combined Yale Global Tic Severity Scale score were 43.7, 39.5, and 30.2 and for total tic scores were 38.0, 25.0, and 34.0, respectively. There were no significant differences in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale score or total tic score, respectively, between the riluzole and placebo (P = 0.35, 0.85) or D-serine and placebo (P = 0.50, 0.69) groups. Tics diminished by comparable percentages in the riluzole, D-serine, and placebo groups. These preliminary data suggest that D-serine and riluzole are not effective in tic suppression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Subcellular distribution of cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) is regulated through phosphorylation by dual specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oi, Ami; Katayama, Syouichi; Hatano, Naoya; Sugiyama, Yasunori; Kameshita, Isamu; Sueyoshi, Noriyuki

    2017-01-08

    Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) is a Ser/Thr protein kinase primarily expressed in the central nervous system and is known to cause X-linked neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome. However, the mechanisms regulating CDKL5 have not yet been fully clarified. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the protein kinase that directly phosphorylates CDKL5, identifying it as dual specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A), an enzyme binding to and phosphorylating CDKL5. We showed that subcellular distribution of CDKL5 was regulated by its phosphorylation by DYRK1A. In mouse neuroblastoma Neuro2a cells, CDKL5 was localized in both the cytosol and nucleus, whereas DYRK1A showed a typical nuclear localization. When CDKL5 and DYRK1A were co-expressed, the cytosolic localization of CDKL5 was significantly increased. Results of site-directed mutagenesis revealed that the phosphorylation site was Ser-308, in the vicinity of the nuclear localization signal. A mutation mimicking the phosphorylated serine residue by aspartate substitution (S308D) changed CDKL5 localization to the cytosol, whereas the corresponding alanine-substituted analog, CDKL5(S308A), was primarily localized to the nucleus. Taken together, these results strongly suggested that DYRK1A bound to CDKL5 and phosphorylated it on Ser-308, thus interfering with its nuclear localization. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. MyoD undergoes a distinct G2/M-specific regulation in muscle cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batonnet-Pichon, Sabrina; Tintignac, Lionel J.; Castro, Anna; Sirri, Valentina; Leibovitch, Marie Pierre; Lorca, Thierry; Leibovitch, Serge A.

    2006-01-01

    The transcription factors MyoD and Myf5 present distinct patterns of expression during cell cycle progression and development. In contrast to the mitosis-specific disappearance of Myf5, which requires a D-box-like motif overlapping the basic domain, here we describe a stable and inactive mitotic form of MyoD phosphorylated on its serine 5 and serine 200 residues by cyclin B-cdc2. In mitosis, these modifications are required for releasing MyoD from condensed chromosomes and inhibiting its DNA-binding and transcriptional activation ability. Then, nuclear MyoD regains instability in the beginning of G1 phase due to rapid dephosphorylation events. Moreover, a non-phosphorylable MyoD S5A/S200A is not excluded from condensed chromatin and alters mitotic progression with apparent abnormalities. Thus, the drop of MyoD below a threshold level and its displacement from the mitotic chromatin could present another window in the cell cycle for resetting the myogenic transcriptional program and to maintain the myogenic determination of the proliferating cells

  11. MyoD undergoes a distinct G2/M-specific regulation in muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batonnet-Pichon, Sabrina; Tintignac, Lionel J; Castro, Anna; Sirri, Valentina; Leibovitch, Marie Pierre; Lorca, Thierry; Leibovitch, Serge A

    2006-12-10

    The transcription factors MyoD and Myf5 present distinct patterns of expression during cell cycle progression and development. In contrast to the mitosis-specific disappearance of Myf5, which requires a D-box-like motif overlapping the basic domain, here we describe a stable and inactive mitotic form of MyoD phosphorylated on its serine 5 and serine 200 residues by cyclin B-cdc2. In mitosis, these modifications are required for releasing MyoD from condensed chromosomes and inhibiting its DNA-binding and transcriptional activation ability. Then, nuclear MyoD regains instability in the beginning of G1 phase due to rapid dephosphorylation events. Moreover, a non-phosphorylable MyoD S5A/S200A is not excluded from condensed chromatin and alters mitotic progression with apparent abnormalities. Thus, the drop of MyoD below a threshold level and its displacement from the mitotic chromatin could present another window in the cell cycle for resetting the myogenic transcriptional program and to maintain the myogenic determination of the proliferating cells.

  12. Identification of a phosphorylation-dependent nuclear localization motif in interferon regulatory factor 2 binding protein 2.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allen C T Teng

    Full Text Available Interferon regulatory factor 2 binding protein 2 (IRF2BP2 is a muscle-enriched transcription factor required to activate vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGFA expression in muscle. IRF2BP2 is found in the nucleus of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells. During the process of skeletal muscle differentiation, some IRF2BP2 becomes relocated to the cytoplasm, although the functional significance of this relocation and the mechanisms that control nucleocytoplasmic localization of IRF2BP2 are not yet known.Here, by fusing IRF2BP2 to green fluorescent protein and testing a series of deletion and site-directed mutagenesis constructs, we mapped the nuclear localization signal (NLS to an evolutionarily conserved sequence (354ARKRKPSP(361 in IRF2BP2. This sequence corresponds to a classical nuclear localization motif bearing positively charged arginine and lysine residues. Substitution of arginine and lysine with negatively charged aspartic acid residues blocked nuclear localization. However, these residues were not sufficient because nuclear targeting of IRF2BP2 also required phosphorylation of serine 360 (S360. Many large-scale phosphopeptide proteomic studies had reported previously that serine 360 of IRF2BP2 is phosphorylated in numerous human cell types. Alanine substitution at this site abolished IRF2BP2 nuclear localization in C(2C(12 myoblasts and CV1 cells. In contrast, substituting serine 360 with aspartic acid forced nuclear retention and prevented cytoplasmic redistribution in differentiated C(2C(12 muscle cells. As for the effects of these mutations on VEGFA promoter activity, the S360A mutation interfered with VEGFA activation, as expected. Surprisingly, the S360D mutation also interfered with VEGFA activation, suggesting that this mutation, while enforcing nuclear entry, may disrupt an essential activation function of IRF2BP2.Nuclear localization of IRF2BP2 depends on phosphorylation near a conserved NLS. Changes in phosphorylation status

  13. D-Serine rescues the deficits of hippocampal long-term potentiation and learning and memory induced by sodium fluoroacetate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Huili; Peng, Yan; Dong, Zhifang

    2015-06-01

    It is well known that bidirectional glia-neuron interactions play important roles in the neurophysiological and neuropathological processes. It is reported that impairing glial functions with sodium fluoroacetate (FAC) impaired hippocampal long-term depression (LTD) and spatial memory retrieval. However, it remains unknown whether FAC impairs hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and learning and/or memory, and if so, whether pharmacological treatment with exogenous d-serine can recuse the impairment. Here, we reported that systemic administration of FAC (3mg/kg, i.p.) before training resulted in dramatic impairments of spatial learning and memory in water maze and fear memory in contextual fear conditioning. Furthermore, the behavioral deficits were accompanied by impaired LTP induction in the hippocampal CA1 area of brain slices. More importantly, exogenous d-serine treatment succeeded in recusing the deficits of hippocampal LTP and learning and memory induced by FAC. Together, these results suggest that astrocytic d-serine may be essential for hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory, and that alteration of its levels may be relevant to the induction and potentially treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Band 3 Erythrocyte Membrane Protein Acts as Redox Stress Sensor Leading to Its Phosphorylation by p72 Syk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonella Pantaleo

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In erythrocytes, the regulation of the redox sensitive Tyr phosphorylation of band 3 and its functions are still partially defined. A role of band 3 oxidation in regulating its own phosphorylation has been previously suggested. The current study provides evidences to support this hypothesis: (i in intact erythrocytes, at 2 mM concentration of GSH, band 3 oxidation, and phosphorylation, Syk translocation to the membrane and Syk phosphorylation responded to the same micromolar concentrations of oxidants showing identical temporal variations; (ii the Cys residues located in the band 3 cytoplasmic domain are 20-fold more reactive than GSH; (iii disulfide linked band 3 cytoplasmic domain docks Syk kinase; (iv protein Tyr phosphatases are poorly inhibited at oxidant concentrations leading to massive band 3 oxidation and phosphorylation. We also observed that hemichromes binding to band 3 determined its irreversible oxidation and phosphorylation, progressive hemolysis, and serine hyperphosphorylation of different cytoskeleton proteins. Syk inhibitor suppressed the phosphorylation of band 3 also preventing serine phosphorylation changes and hemolysis. Our data suggest that band 3 acts as redox sensor regulating its own phosphorylation and that hemichromes leading to the protracted phosphorylation of band 3 may trigger a cascade of events finally leading to hemolysis.

  15. Raptor is phosphorylated by cdc2 during mitosis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dana M Gwinn

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available The appropriate control of mitotic entry and exit is reliant on a series of interlocking signaling events that coordinately drive the biological processes required for accurate cell division. Overlaid onto these signals that promote orchestrated cell division are checkpoints that ensure appropriate mitotic spindle formation, a lack of DNA damage, kinetochore attachment, and that each daughter cell has the appropriate complement of DNA. We recently discovered that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK modulates the G2/M phase of cell cycle progression in part through its suppression of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR signaling. AMPK directly phosphorylates the critical mTOR binding partner raptor inhibiting mTORC1 (mTOR-raptor rapamycin sensitive mTOR kinase complex 1. As mTOR has been previously tied to mitotic control, we examined further how raptor may contribute to this process.We have discovered that raptor becomes highly phosphorylated in cells in mitosis. Utilizing tandem mass spectrometry, we identified a number of novel phosphorylation sites in raptor, and using phospho-specific antibodies demonstrated that raptor becomes phosphorylated on phospho-serine/threonine-proline sites in mitosis. A combination of site-directed mutagenesis in a tagged raptor cDNA and analysis with a series of new phospho-specific antibodies generated against different sites in raptor revealed that Serine 696 and Threonine 706 represent two key sites in raptor phosphorylated in mitosis. We demonstrate that the mitotic cyclin-dependent kinase cdc2/CDK1 is the kinase responsible for phosphorylating these sites, and its mitotic partner Cyclin B efficiently coimmunoprecipitates with raptor in mitotic cells.This study demonstrates that the key mTOR binding partner raptor is directly phosphorylated during mitosis by cdc2. This reinforces previous studies suggesting that mTOR activity is highly regulated and important for mitotic progression, and points to a direct

  16. A Phosphorylation Switch on Lon Protease Regulates Bacterial Type III Secretion System in Host

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaofeng Zhou

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Most pathogenic bacteria deliver virulence factors into host cytosol through type III secretion systems (T3SS to perturb host immune responses. The expression of T3SS is often repressed in rich medium but is specifically induced in the host environment. The molecular mechanisms underlying host-specific induction of T3SS expression is not completely understood. Here we demonstrate in Xanthomonas citri that host-induced phosphorylation of the ATP-dependent protease Lon stabilizes HrpG, the master regulator of T3SS, conferring bacterial virulence. Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphoproteome analysis revealed that phosphorylation of Lon at serine 654 occurs in the citrus host. In rich medium, Lon represses T3SS by degradation of HrpG via recognition of its N terminus. Genetic and biochemical data indicate that phosphorylation at serine 654 deactivates Lon proteolytic activity and attenuates HrpG proteolysis. Substitution of alanine for Lon serine 654 resulted in repression of T3SS gene expression in the citrus host through robust degradation of HrpG and reduced bacterial virulence. Our work reveals a novel mechanism for distinct regulation of bacterial T3SS in different environments. Additionally, our data provide new insight into the role of protein posttranslational modification in the regulation of bacterial virulence.

  17. Subcellular distribution of cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) is regulated through phosphorylation by dual specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oi, Ami; Katayama, Syouichi; Hatano, Naoya; Sugiyama, Yasunori; Kameshita, Isamu; Sueyoshi, Noriyuki

    2017-01-01

    Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) is a Ser/Thr protein kinase primarily expressed in the central nervous system and is known to cause X-linked neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome. However, the mechanisms regulating CDKL5 have not yet been fully clarified. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the protein kinase that directly phosphorylates CDKL5, identifying it as dual specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A), an enzyme binding to and phosphorylating CDKL5. We showed that subcellular distribution of CDKL5 was regulated by its phosphorylation by DYRK1A. In mouse neuroblastoma Neuro2a cells, CDKL5 was localized in both the cytosol and nucleus, whereas DYRK1A showed a typical nuclear localization. When CDKL5 and DYRK1A were co-expressed, the cytosolic localization of CDKL5 was significantly increased. Results of site-directed mutagenesis revealed that the phosphorylation site was Ser-308, in the vicinity of the nuclear localization signal. A mutation mimicking the phosphorylated serine residue by aspartate substitution (S308D) changed CDKL5 localization to the cytosol, whereas the corresponding alanine-substituted analog, CDKL5(S308A), was primarily localized to the nucleus. Taken together, these results strongly suggested that DYRK1A bound to CDKL5 and phosphorylated it on Ser-308, thus interfering with its nuclear localization. - Highlights: • We investigated the mechanism regulating subcellular localization of CDKL5. • DYRK1A was identified as an enzyme that bound to and phosphorylated CDKL5. • The phosphorylation site of CDKL5 was Ser-308, in the vicinity of the NLS. • When DYRK1A was co-expressed, the cytosolic CDKL5 was significantly increased. • In conclusion, DYRK1A regulates CDKL5 localization via phosphorylation on Ser-308.

  18. Fibronectin phosphorylation by ecto-protein kinase

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imada, Sumi; Sugiyama, Yayoi; Imada, Masaru

    1988-01-01

    The presence of membrane-associated, extracellular protein kinase (ecto-protein kinase) and its substrate proteins was examined with serum-free cultures of Swiss 3T3 fibroblast. When cells were incubated with [γ- 32 ]ATP for 10 min at 37 degree C, four proteins with apparent molecular weights between 150 and 220 kDa were prominently phosphorylated. These proteins were also radiolabeled by lactoperoxidase catalyzed iodination and were sensitive to mild tryptic digestion, suggesting that they localized on the cell surface or in the extracellular matrix. Phosphorylation of extracellular proteins with [γ- 32 P]ATP in intact cell culture is consistent with the existence of ecto-protein kinase. Anti-fibronectin antibody immunoprecipitated one of the phosphoproteins which comigrated with a monomer and a dimer form of fibronectin under reducing and nonreducing conditions of electrophoresis, respectively. The protein had affinity for gelatin as demonstrated by retention with gelatin-conjugated agarose. This protein substrate of ecto-protein kinase was thus concluded to be fibronectin. The sites of phosphorylation by ecto-protein kinase were compared with those of intracellularly phosphorylated fibronectin by the analysis of radiolabeled amino acids and peptides. Ecto-protein kinase phosphorylated fibronectin at serine and threonine residues which were distinct from the sites of intracellular fibronectin phosphorylation

  19. Axin-mediated CKI phosphorylation of beta-catenin at Ser 45

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amit, Sharon; Hatzubai, Ada; Birman, Yaara

    2002-01-01

    The Wnt pathway controls numerous developmental processes via the beta-catenin-TCF/LEF transcription complex. Deregulation of the pathway results in the aberrant accumulation of beta-catenin in the nucleus, often leading to cancer. Normally, cytoplasmic beta-catenin associates with APC and axin...... and is continuously phosphorylated by GSK-3beta, marking it for proteasomal degradation. Wnt signaling is considered to prevent GSK-3beta from phosphorylating beta-catenin, thus causing its stabilization. However, the Wnt mechanism of action has not been resolved. Here we study the regulation of beta......-catenin phosphorylation and degradation by the Wnt pathway. Using mass spectrometry and phosphopeptide-specific antibodies, we show that a complex of axin and casein kinase I (CKI) induces beta-catenin phosphorylation at a single site: serine 45 (S45). Immunopurified axin and recombinant CKI phosphorylate beta...

  20. Unraveling a phosphorylation event in a folded protein by NMR spectroscopy: phosphorylation of the Pin1 WW domain by PKA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smet-Nocca, Caroline; Launay, Hélène; Wieruszeski, Jean-Michel; Lippens, Guy; Landrieu, Isabelle

    2013-01-01

    The Pin1 protein plays a critical role in the functional regulation of the hyperphosphorylated neuronal Tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease and is by itself regulated by phosphorylation. We have used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to both identify the PKA phosphorylation site in the Pin1 WW domain and investigate the functional consequences of this phosphorylation. Detection and identification of phosphorylation on serine/threonine residues in a globular protein, while mostly occurring in solvent-exposed flexible loops, does not lead to chemical shift changes as obvious as in disordered proteins and hence does not necessarily shift the resonances outside the spectrum of the folded protein. Other complications were encountered to characterize the extent of the phosphorylation, as part of the 1 H, 15 N amide resonances around the phosphorylation site are specifically broadened in the unphosphorylated state. Despite these obstacles, NMR spectroscopy was an efficient tool to confirm phosphorylation on S16 of the WW domain and to quantify the level of phosphorylation. Based on this analytical characterization, we show that WW phosphorylation on S16 abolishes its binding capacity to a phosphorylated Tau peptide. A reduced conformational heterogeneity and flexibility of the phospho-binding loop upon S16 phosphorylation could account for part of the decreased affinity for its phosphorylated partner. Additionally, a structural model of the phospho-WW obtained by molecular dynamics simulation and energy minimization suggests that the phosphate moiety of phospho-S16 could compete with the phospho-substrate.

  1. Phosphorylation of CPAP by Aurora-A Maintains Spindle Pole Integrity during Mitosis

    OpenAIRE

    En-Ju Chou; Liang-Yi Hung; Chieh-Ju C. Tang; Wen-Bin Hsu; Hsin-Yi Wu; Pao-Chi Liao; Tang K. Tang

    2016-01-01

    CPAP is required for centriole elongation during S/G2 phase, but the role of CPAP in mitosis is incompletely understood. Here, we show that CPAP maintains spindle pole integrity through its phosphorylation by Aurora-A during mitosis. Depletion of CPAP induced a prolonged delay in mitosis, pericentriolar material (PCM) dispersion, and multiple mitotic abnormalities. Further studies demonstrated that CPAP directly interacts with and is phosphorylated by Aurora-A at serine 467 during mitosis. In...

  2. A P387L variant in protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP-1B) is associated with type 2 diabetes and impaired serine phosphorylation of PTP-1B in vitro

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Echwald, Søren M; Riis, Helle Bach; Vestergaard, Henrik

    2002-01-01

    In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that variability in the protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP-1B) gene is associated with type 2 diabetes. Using single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis, we examined cDNA of PTP-1B from 56 insulin-resistant patients with type 2 diabetes.......0012). In summary, a rare P387L variant of the PTP-1B gene is associated with a 3.7 (CI 1.26-10.93, P = 0.02) genotype relative risk of type 2 diabetes in the examined population of Danish Caucasian subjects and results in impaired in vitro serine phosphorylation of the PTP-1B peptide....

  3. Phosphorylation of varicella-zoster virus glycoprotein gpI by mammalian casein kinase II and casein kinase I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grose, C.; Jackson, W.; Traugh, J.A.

    1989-01-01

    Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) glycoprotein gpI is the predominant viral glycoprotein within the plasma membranes of infected cells. This viral glycoprotein is phosphorylated on its polypeptide backbone during biosynthesis. In this report, the authors investigated the protein kinases which participate in the phosphorylation events. Under in vivo conditions, VZV gpI was phosphorylated on its serine and threonine residues by protein kinases present within lysates of either VZV-infected or uninfected cells. Because this activity was diminished by heparin, a known inhibitor of casein kinase II, isolated gpI was incubated with purified casein kinase II and shown to be phosphorylated in an in vitro assay containing [γ- 32 P]ATP. The same glycoprotein was phosphorylated when [ 32 P]GTP was substituted for [ 32 P]ATP in the protein kinase assay. They also tested whether VZV gpI was phosphorylated by two other ubiquitous mammalian protein kinases--casein kinase I and cyclic AMP-dependent kinase--and found that only casein kinase I modified gpI. When the predicted 623-amino-acid sequence of gpI was examined, two phosphorylation sites known to be optimal for casein kinase II were observed. In summary, this study showed that VZV gpI was phosphorylated by each of two mammalian protein kinases (casein kinase I and casein kinase II) and that potential serine-threonine phosphorylation sites for each of these two kinases were present in the viral glycoprotein

  4. ATM-Dependent Phosphorylation of MEF2D Promotes Neuronal Survival after DNA Damage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Shing Fai; Sances, Sam; Brill, Laurence M.; Okamoto, Shu-ichi; Zaidi, Rameez; McKercher, Scott R.; Akhtar, Mohd W.; Nakanishi, Nobuki

    2014-01-01

    Mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene, which encodes a kinase critical for the normal DNA damage response, cause the neurodegenerative disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (AT). The substrates of ATM in the brain are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that ATM phosphorylates and activates the transcription factor myocyte enhancer factor 2D (MEF2D), which plays a critical role in promoting survival of cerebellar granule cells. ATM associates with MEF2D after DNA damage and phosphorylates the transcription factor at four ATM consensus sites. Knockdown of endogenous MEF2D with a short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) increases sensitivity to etoposide-induced DNA damage and neuronal cell death. Interestingly, substitution of endogenous MEF2D with an shRNA-resistant phosphomimetic MEF2D mutant protects cerebellar granule cells from cell death after DNA damage, whereas an shRNA-resistant nonphosphorylatable MEF2D mutant does not. In vivo, cerebella in Mef2d knock-out mice manifest increased susceptibility to DNA damage. Together, our results show that MEF2D is a substrate for phosphorylation by ATM, thus promoting survival in response to DNA damage. Moreover, dysregulation of the ATM–MEF2D pathway may contribute to neurodegeneration in AT. PMID:24672010

  5. Determinants of RNA binding and translational repression by the Bicaudal-C regulatory protein.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yan; Park, Sookhee; Blaser, Susanne; Sheets, Michael D

    2014-03-14

    Bicaudal-C (Bic-C) RNA binding proteins function as important translational repressors in multiple biological contexts within metazoans. However, their RNA binding sites are unknown. We recently demonstrated that Bic-C functions in spatially regulated translational repression of the xCR1 mRNA during Xenopus development. This repression contributes to normal development by confining the xCR1 protein, a regulator of key signaling pathways, to specific cells of the embryo. In this report, we combined biochemical approaches with in vivo mRNA reporter assays to define the minimal Bic-C target site within the xCR1 mRNA. This 32-nucleotide Bic-C target site is predicted to fold into a stem-loop secondary structure. Mutational analyses provided evidence that this stem-loop structure is important for Bic-C binding. The Bic-C target site was sufficient for Bic-C mediated repression in vivo. Thus, we describe the first RNA binding site for a Bic-C protein. This identification provides an important step toward understanding the mechanisms by which evolutionarily conserved Bic-C proteins control cellular function in metazoans.

  6. ARPP-16 Is a Striatal-Enriched Inhibitor of Protein Phosphatase 2A Regulated by Microtubule-Associated Serine/Threonine Kinase 3 (Mast 3 Kinase).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrade, Erika C; Musante, Veronica; Horiuchi, Atsuko; Matsuzaki, Hideo; Brody, A Harrison; Wu, Terence; Greengard, Paul; Taylor, Jane R; Nairn, Angus C

    2017-03-08

    ARPP-16 (cAMP-regulated phospho-protein of molecular weight 16 kDa) is one of several small acid-soluble proteins highly expressed in medium spiny neurons of striatum that are phosphorylated in response to dopamine acting via D1 receptor/protein kinase A (PKA) signaling. We show here that ARPP-16 is also phosphorylated in vitro and in vivo by microtubule-associated serine/threonine kinase 3 (MAST3 kinase), an enzyme of previously unknown function that is enriched in striatum. We find that ARPP-16 interacts directly with the scaffolding A subunit of the serine/threonine protein phosphatase, PP2A, and that phosphorylation of ARPP-16 at Ser46 by MAST3 kinase converts the protein into a selective inhibitor of B55α- and B56δ-containing heterotrimeric forms of PP2A. Ser46 of ARPP-16 is phosphorylated to a high basal stoichiometry in striatum, suggestive of basal inhibition of PP2A in striatal neurons. In support of this hypothesis, conditional knock-out of ARPP-16 in CaMKIIα::cre/floxed ARPP-16/19 mice results in dephosphorylation of a subset of PP2A substrates including phospho-Thr75-DARPP-32, phospho-T308-Akt, and phospho-T202/Y204-ERK. Conditional knock-out of ARPP-16/19 is associated with increased motivation measured on a progressive ratio schedule of food reinforcement, yet an attenuated locomotor response to acute cocaine. Our previous studies have shown that ARPP-16 is phosphorylated at Ser88 by PKA. Activation of PKA in striatal slices leads to phosphorylation of Ser88, and this is accompanied by marked dephosphorylation of Ser46. Together, these studies suggest that phospho-Ser46-ARPP-16 acts to basally control PP2A in striatal medium spiny neurons but that dopamine acting via PKA inactivates ARPP-16 leading to selective potentiation of PP2A signaling. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We describe a novel mechanism of signal transduction enriched in medium spiny neurons of striatum that likely mediates effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine acting on these cells. We

  7. Unraveling a phosphorylation event in a folded protein by NMR spectroscopy: phosphorylation of the Pin1 WW domain by PKA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Smet-Nocca, Caroline, E-mail: caroline.smet@univ-lille1.fr; Launay, Helene; Wieruszeski, Jean-Michel; Lippens, Guy; Landrieu, Isabelle, E-mail: isabelle.landrieu@univ-lille1.fr [Universite de Lille-Nord de France, Institut Federatif de Recherches 147, CNRS UMR 8576 (France)

    2013-04-15

    The Pin1 protein plays a critical role in the functional regulation of the hyperphosphorylated neuronal Tau protein in Alzheimer's disease and is by itself regulated by phosphorylation. We have used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to both identify the PKA phosphorylation site in the Pin1 WW domain and investigate the functional consequences of this phosphorylation. Detection and identification of phosphorylation on serine/threonine residues in a globular protein, while mostly occurring in solvent-exposed flexible loops, does not lead to chemical shift changes as obvious as in disordered proteins and hence does not necessarily shift the resonances outside the spectrum of the folded protein. Other complications were encountered to characterize the extent of the phosphorylation, as part of the {sup 1}H,{sup 15}N amide resonances around the phosphorylation site are specifically broadened in the unphosphorylated state. Despite these obstacles, NMR spectroscopy was an efficient tool to confirm phosphorylation on S16 of the WW domain and to quantify the level of phosphorylation. Based on this analytical characterization, we show that WW phosphorylation on S16 abolishes its binding capacity to a phosphorylated Tau peptide. A reduced conformational heterogeneity and flexibility of the phospho-binding loop upon S16 phosphorylation could account for part of the decreased affinity for its phosphorylated partner. Additionally, a structural model of the phospho-WW obtained by molecular dynamics simulation and energy minimization suggests that the phosphate moiety of phospho-S16 could compete with the phospho-substrate.

  8. Bad phosphorylation as a target of inhibition in oncology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bui, Ngoc-Linh-Chi; Pandey, Vijay; Zhu, Tao; Ma, Lan; Basappa; Lobie, Peter E

    2018-02-28

    Bcl-2 agonist of cell death (BAD) is a BH3-only member of the Bcl-2 family which possesses important regulatory function in apoptosis. BAD has also been shown to possess many non-apoptotic functions closely linked to cancer including regulation of glycolysis, autophagy, cell cycle progression and immune system development. Interestingly, BAD can be either pro-apoptotic or pro-survival depending on the phosphorylation state of three specific serine residues (human S75, S99 and S118). Expression of BAD and BAD phosphorylation patterns have been shown to influence tumor initiation and progression and play a predictive role in disease prognosis, drug response and chemosensitivity in various cancers. This review aims to summarize the current evidence on the functional role of BAD phosphorylation in human cancer and evaluate the potential utility of modulating BAD phosphorylation in cancer. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Acute exercise and physiological insulin induce distinct phosphorylation signatures on TBC1D1 and TBC1D4 proteins in human skeletal muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Treebak, Jonas T; Pehmøller, Christian; Kristensen, Jonas M; Kjøbsted, Rasmus; Birk, Jesper B; Schjerling, Peter; Richter, Erik A; Goodyear, Laurie J; Wojtaszewski, Jørgen F P

    2014-01-15

    We investigated the phosphorylation signatures of two Rab-GTPase activating proteins TBC1D1 and TBC1D4 in human skeletal muscle in response to physical exercise and physiological insulin levels induced by a carbohydrate rich meal using a paired experimental design. Eight healthy male volunteers exercised in the fasted or fed state and muscle biopsies were taken before and immediately after exercise. We identified TBC1D1/4 phospho-sites that (1) did not respond to exercise or postprandial increase in insulin (TBC1D4: S666), (2) responded to insulin only (TBC1D4: S318), (3) responded to exercise only (TBC1D1: S237, S660, S700; TBC1D4: S588, S751), and (4) responded to both insulin and exercise (TBC1D1: T596; TBC1D4: S341, T642, S704). In the insulin-stimulated leg, Akt phosphorylation of both T308 and S473 correlated significantly with multiple sites on both TBC1D1 (T596) and TBC1D4 (S318, S341, S704). Interestingly, in the exercised leg in the fasted state TBC1D1 phosphorylation (S237, T596) correlated significantly with the activity of the α2/β2/γ3 AMPK trimer, whereas TBC1D4 phosphorylation (S341, S704) correlated with the activity of the α2/β2/γ1 AMPK trimer. Our data show differential phosphorylation of TBC1D1 and TBC1D4 in response to physiological stimuli in human skeletal muscle and support the idea that Akt and AMPK are upstream kinases. TBC1D1 phosphorylation signatures were comparable between in vitro contracted mouse skeletal muscle and exercised human muscle, and we show that AMPK regulated phosphorylation of these sites in mouse muscle. Contraction and exercise elicited a different phosphorylation pattern of TBC1D4 in mouse compared with human muscle, and although different circumstances in our experimental setup may contribute to this difference, the observation exemplifies that transferring findings between species is problematic.

  10. Muscarinic agonists and phorbol esters increase tyrosine phosphorylation of a 40-kilodalton protein in hippocampal slices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stratton, K.R.; Worley, P.F.; Huganir, R.L.; Baraban, J.M.

    1989-01-01

    The authors have used the hippocampal slice preparation to investigate the regulation of protein tyrosine phosphorylation in brain. After pharmacological treatment of intact slices, proteins were separated by electrophoresis, and levels of protein tyrosine phosphorylation were assessed by immunoblotting with specific anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies. Phorbol esters, activators of the serine- and threonine-phosphorylating enzyme protein kinase C, selectively increase tyrosine phosphorylation of a soluble protein with an apparent molecular mass of approximately 40 kilodaltons. Muscarinic agonists such as carbachol and oxotremorine M that strongly activate the inositol phospholipid system also increase tyrosine phosphorylation of this protein. Neurotransmitter activation of the inositol phospholipid system and protein kinase C appears to trigger a cascade leading to increased tyrosine phosphorylation

  11. Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase efficiently phosphorylates serine 15 of cardiac myosin regulatory light chain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Josephson, Matthew P.; Sikkink, Laura A.; Penheiter, Alan R.; Burghardt, Thomas P.; Ajtai, Katalin

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: ► Cardiac myosin regulatory light chain (MYL2) is phosphorylated at S15. ► Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (smMLCK) is a ubiquitous kinase. ► It is a widely believed that MYL2 is a poor substrate for smMLCK. ► In fact, smMLCK efficiently and rapidly phosphorylates S15 in MYL2. ► Phosphorylation kinetics measured by novel fluorescence method without radioactivity. -- Abstract: Specific phosphorylation of the human ventricular cardiac myosin regulatory light chain (MYL2) modifies the protein at S15. This modification affects MYL2 secondary structure and modulates the Ca 2+ sensitivity of contraction in cardiac tissue. Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (smMLCK) is a ubiquitous kinase prevalent in uterus and present in other contracting tissues including cardiac muscle. The recombinant 130 kDa (short) smMLCK phosphorylated S15 in MYL2 in vitro. Specific modification of S15 was verified using the direct detection of the phospho group on S15 with mass spectrometry. SmMLCK also specifically phosphorylated myosin regulatory light chain S15 in porcine ventricular myosin and chicken gizzard smooth muscle myosin (S20 in smooth muscle) but failed to phosphorylate the myosin regulatory light chain in rabbit skeletal myosin. Phosphorylation kinetics, measured using a novel fluorescence method eliminating the use of radioactive isotopes, indicates similar Michaelis–Menten V max and K M for regulatory light chain S15 phosphorylation rates in MYL2, porcine ventricular myosin, and chicken gizzard myosin. These data demonstrate that smMLCK is a specific and efficient kinase for the in vitro phosphorylation of MYL2, cardiac, and smooth muscle myosin. Whether smMLCK plays a role in cardiac muscle regulation or response to a disease causing stimulus is unclear but it should be considered a potentially significant kinase in cardiac tissue on the basis of its specificity, kinetics, and tissue expression.

  12. Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase efficiently phosphorylates serine 15 of cardiac myosin regulatory light chain

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Josephson, Matthew P.; Sikkink, Laura A. [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (United States); Penheiter, Alan R. [Molecular Medicine Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (United States); Burghardt, Thomas P., E-mail: burghardt@mayo.edu [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (United States); Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (United States); Ajtai, Katalin [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (United States)

    2011-12-16

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Cardiac myosin regulatory light chain (MYL2) is phosphorylated at S15. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (smMLCK) is a ubiquitous kinase. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It is a widely believed that MYL2 is a poor substrate for smMLCK. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer In fact, smMLCK efficiently and rapidly phosphorylates S15 in MYL2. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Phosphorylation kinetics measured by novel fluorescence method without radioactivity. -- Abstract: Specific phosphorylation of the human ventricular cardiac myosin regulatory light chain (MYL2) modifies the protein at S15. This modification affects MYL2 secondary structure and modulates the Ca{sup 2+} sensitivity of contraction in cardiac tissue. Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (smMLCK) is a ubiquitous kinase prevalent in uterus and present in other contracting tissues including cardiac muscle. The recombinant 130 kDa (short) smMLCK phosphorylated S15 in MYL2 in vitro. Specific modification of S15 was verified using the direct detection of the phospho group on S15 with mass spectrometry. SmMLCK also specifically phosphorylated myosin regulatory light chain S15 in porcine ventricular myosin and chicken gizzard smooth muscle myosin (S20 in smooth muscle) but failed to phosphorylate the myosin regulatory light chain in rabbit skeletal myosin. Phosphorylation kinetics, measured using a novel fluorescence method eliminating the use of radioactive isotopes, indicates similar Michaelis-Menten V{sub max} and K{sub M} for regulatory light chain S15 phosphorylation rates in MYL2, porcine ventricular myosin, and chicken gizzard myosin. These data demonstrate that smMLCK is a specific and efficient kinase for the in vitro phosphorylation of MYL2, cardiac, and smooth muscle myosin. Whether smMLCK plays a role in cardiac muscle regulation or response to a disease causing stimulus is unclear but it should be considered a potentially significant

  13. An analysis of 3D solvation structure in biomolecules: application to coiled coil serine and bacteriorhodopsin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirano, Kenji; Yokogawa, Daisuke; Sato, Hirofumi; Sakaki, Shigeyoshi

    2010-06-17

    Three-dimensional (3D) solvation structure around coiled coil serine (Coil-Ser) and inner 3D hydration structure in bacteriorhodopsin (bR) were studied using a recently developed method named multicenter molecular Ornstein-Zernike equation (MC-MOZ) theory. In addition, a procedure for analyzing the 3D solvent distribution was proposed. The method enables us to calculate the coordination number of solvent water as well as the strength of hydrogen bonding between the water molecule and the protein. The results for Coil-Ser and bR showed very good agreement with the experimental observations.

  14. A dual phosphorylation switch controls 14-3-3-dependent cell surface expression of TASK-1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kilisch, Markus; Lytovchenko, Olga; Arakel, Eric C.; Bertinetti, Daniela; Schwappach, Blanche

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT The transport of the K+ channels TASK-1 and TASK-3 (also known as KCNK3 and KCNK9, respectively) to the cell surface is controlled by the binding of 14-3-3 proteins to a trafficking control region at the extreme C-terminus of the channels. The current model proposes that phosphorylation-dependent binding of 14-3-3 sterically masks a COPI-binding motif. However, the direct effects of phosphorylation on COPI binding and on the binding parameters of 14-3-3 isoforms are still unknown. We find that phosphorylation of the trafficking control region prevents COPI binding even in the absence of 14-3-3, and we present a quantitative analysis of the binding of all human 14-3-3 isoforms to the trafficking control regions of TASK-1 and TASK-3. Surprisingly, the affinities of 14-3-3 proteins for TASK-1 are two orders of magnitude lower than for TASK-3. Furthermore, we find that phosphorylation of a second serine residue in the C-terminus of TASK-1 inhibits 14-3-3 binding. Thus, phosphorylation of the trafficking control region can stimulate or inhibit transport of TASK-1 to the cell surface depending on the target serine residue. Our findings indicate that control of TASK-1 trafficking by COPI, kinases, phosphatases and 14-3-3 proteins is highly dynamic. PMID:26743085

  15. Tyrosine phosphorylation of Grb14 by Tie2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dumont Daniel J

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Growth factor receptor bound (Grb proteins 7, 10 and 14 are a family of structurally related multi-domain adaptor proteins involved in a variety of biological processes. Grb7, 10 and 14 are known to become serine and/or threonine phosphorylated in response to growth factor (GF stimulation. Grb7 and 10 have also been shown to become tyrosine phosphorylated under certain conditions. Under experimental conditions Grb7 is tyrosine phosphorylated by the Tie2/Tie-2/Tek angiogenic receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK. Furthermore, Grb14 has also been shown to interact with Tie2, however tyrosine phosphorylation of this Grb family member has yet to be reported. Results Here we report for the first time tyrosine phosphorylation of Grb14. This phosphorylation requires a kinase competent Tie2 as well as intact tyrosines 1100 and 1106 (Y1100 and Y1106 on the receptor. Furthermore, a complete SH2 domain on Grb14 is required for Grb14 tyrosine phosphorylation by Tie2. Grb14 was also able to become tyrosine phosphorylated in primary endothelial cells when treated with a soluble and potent variant of the Tie2 ligand, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP Ang1. Conclusion Our results show that Grb14, like its family members Grb7 and Grb10, is able to be tyrosine phosphorylated. Furthermore, our data indicate a role for Grb14 in endothelial signaling downstream of the Tie2 receptor.

  16. The Serine/threonine kinase Stk33 exhibits autophosphorylation and phosphorylates the intermediate filament protein Vimentin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Herrmann Harald

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Colocalization of Stk33 with vimentin by double immunofluorescence in certain cells indicated that vimentin might be a target for phosphorylation by the novel kinase Stk33. We therefore tested in vitro the ability of Stk33 to phosphorylate recombinant full length vimentin and amino-terminal truncated versions thereof. In order to prove that Stk33 and vimentin are also in vivo associated proteins co-immunoprecipitation experiments were carried out. For testing the enzymatic activity of immunoprecipitated Stk33 we incubated precipitated Stk33 with recombinant vimentin proteins. To investigate whether Stk33 binds directly to vimentin, an in vitro co-sedimentation assay was performed. Results The results of the kinase assays demonstrate that Stk33 is able to specifically phosphorylate the non-α-helical amino-terminal domain of vimentin in vitro. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation experiments employing cultured cell extracts indicate that Stk33 and vimentin are associated in vivo. Immunoprecipitated Stk33 has enzymatic activity as shown by successful phosphorylation of recombinant vimentin proteins. The results of the co-sedimentation assay suggest that vimentin binds directly to Stk33 and that no additional protein mediates the association. Conclusion We hypothesize that Stk33 is involved in the in vivo dynamics of the intermediate filament cytoskeleton by phosphorylating vimentin.

  17. Phosphoproteome analysis of E-coli reveals evolutionary conservation of bacterial Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Macek, B.; Gnad, F.; Soufi, Boumediene

    2008-01-01

    Protein phosphorylation on serine, threonine, and tyrosine (Ser/Thr/Tyr) is generally considered the major regulatory posttranslational modification in eukaryotic cells. Increasing evidence at the genome and proteome level shows that this modification is also present and functional in prokaryotes...

  18. Protein kinase CK2 phosphorylates the Fas-associated factor FAF1 in vivo and influences its transport into the nucleus

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Birgitte B; Jessen, Vibeke; Højrup, Peter

    2003-01-01

    We previously identified the Fas-associated factor FAF1 as an in vitro substrate of protein kinase CK2 and determined Ser289 and Ser291 as phosphorylation sites. Here we demonstrate that these two serine residues are the only sites phosphorylated by CK2 in vitro, and that at least one site...... is phosphorylated in vivo. Furthermore, we analyzed putative physiological functions of FAF1 phosphorylation. The ability of FAF1 to potentiate Fas-induced apoptosis is not influenced by the FAF1 phosphorylation status; however, the nuclear import of a phosphorylation-deficient FAF1 mutant was delayed in comparison...

  19. The role of glucocorticoid receptor phosphorylation in Mcl-1 and NOXA gene expression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Demonacos Constantinos

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK mediated phosphorylation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR exerts opposite effects on GR transcriptional activity and affects other posttranslational modifications within this protein. The major phosphorylation site of human GR targeted by MAPK family is the serine 226 and multiple kinase complexes phosphorylate receptor at the serine 211 residue. We hypothesize that GR posttranslational modifications are involved in the determination of the cellular fate in human lymphoblastic leukemia cells. We investigated whether UV signalling through alternative GR phosphorylation determined the cell type specificity of glucocorticoids (GCs mediated apoptosis. Results We have identified putative Glucocorticoid Response Elements (GREs within the promoter regulatory regions of the Bcl-2 family members NOXA and Mcl-1 indicating that they are direct GR transcriptional targets. These genes were differentially regulated in CEM-C7-14, CEM-C1-15 and A549 cells by glucocorticoids and JNK pathway. In addition, our results revealed that the S211 phosphorylation was dominant in CEM-C7-14, whereas the opposite was the case in CEM-C1-15 where prevalence of S226 GR phosphorylation was observed. Furthermore, multiple GR isoforms with cell line specific patterns were identified in CEM-C7-14 cells compared to CEM-C1-15 and A549 cell lines with the same antibodies. Conclusions GR phosphorylation status kinetics, and site specificity as well as isoform variability differ in CEM-C7-14, CEM-C1-15, and A549 cells. The positive or negative response to GCs induced apoptosis in these cell lines is a consequence of the variable equilibrium of NOXA and Mcl-1 gene expression potentially mediated by alternatively phosphorylated GR, as well as the balance of MAPK/CDK pathways controlling GR phosphorylation pattern. Our results provide molecular base and valuable knowledge for improving the GC

  20. Protein kinase a dependent phosphorylation of apical membrane antigen 1 plays an important role in erythrocyte invasion by the malaria parasite.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kerstin Leykauf

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Apicomplexan parasites are obligate intracellular parasites that infect a variety of hosts, causing significant diseases in livestock and humans. The invasive forms of the parasites invade their host cells by gliding motility, an active process driven by parasite adhesion proteins and molecular motors. A crucial point during host cell invasion is the formation of a ring-shaped area of intimate contact between the parasite and the host known as a tight junction. As the invasive zoite propels itself into the host-cell, the junction moves down the length of the parasite. This process must be tightly regulated and signalling is likely to play a role in this event. One crucial protein for tight-junction formation is the apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1. Here we have investigated the phosphorylation status of this key player in the invasion process in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. We show that the cytoplasmic tail of P. falciparum AMA1 is phosphorylated at serine 610. We provide evidence that the enzyme responsible for serine 610 phosphorylation is the cAMP regulated protein kinase A (PfPKA. Importantly, mutation of AMA1 serine 610 to alanine abrogates phosphorylation of AMA1 in vivo and dramatically impedes invasion. In addition to shedding unexpected new light on AMA1 function, this work represents the first time PKA has been implicated in merozoite invasion.

  1. SH3 domain tyrosine phosphorylation--sites, role and evolution.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zuzana Tatárová

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: SH3 domains are eukaryotic protein domains that participate in a plethora of cellular processes including signal transduction, proliferation, and cellular movement. Several studies indicate that tyrosine phosphorylation could play a significant role in the regulation of SH3 domains. RESULTS: To explore the incidence of the tyrosine phosphorylation within SH3 domains we queried the PhosphoSite Plus database of phosphorylation sites. Over 100 tyrosine phosphorylations occurring on 20 different SH3 domain positions were identified. The tyrosine corresponding to c-Src Tyr-90 was by far the most frequently identified SH3 domain phosphorylation site. A comparison of sequences around this tyrosine led to delineation of a preferred sequence motif ALYD(Y/F. This motif is present in about 15% of human SH3 domains and is structurally well conserved. We further observed that tyrosine phosphorylation is more abundant than serine or threonine phosphorylation within SH3 domains and other adaptor domains, such as SH2 or WW domains. Tyrosine phosphorylation could represent an important regulatory mechanism of adaptor domains. CONCLUSIONS: While tyrosine phosphorylation typically promotes signaling protein interactions via SH2 or PTB domains, its role in SH3 domains is the opposite - it blocks or prevents interactions. The regulatory function of tyrosine phosphorylation is most likely achieved by the phosphate moiety and its charge interfering with binding of polyproline helices of SH3 domain interacting partners.

  2. Random mutagenesis of human serine racemase reveals residues important for the enzymatic activity

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hoffman, Hillary Elizabeth; Jirásková, Jana; Zvelebil, M.; Konvalinka, Jan

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 75, č. 1 (2010), s. 59-79 ISSN 0010-0765 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0508 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40550506 Keywords : D-serine * serine racemase * random mutagenesis Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 0.853, year: 2010

  3. Regulation of hemolysin expression and virulence of Staphylococcus aureus by a serine/threonine kinase and phosphatase.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kellie Burnside

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Exotoxins, including the hemolysins known as the alpha (alpha and beta (beta toxins, play an important role in the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus infections. A random transposon library was screened for S. aureus mutants exhibiting altered hemolysin expression compared to wild type. Transposon insertions in 72 genes resulting in increased or decreased hemolysin expression were identified. Mutations inactivating a putative cyclic di-GMP synthetase and a serine/threonine phosphatase (Stp1 were found to reduce hemolysin expression, and mutations in genes encoding a two component regulator PhoR, LysR family transcriptional regulator, purine biosynthetic enzymes and a serine/threonine kinase (Stk1 increased expression. Transcription of the hla gene encoding alpha toxin was decreased in a Deltastp1 mutant strain and increased in a Deltastk1 strain. Microarray analysis of a Deltastk1 mutant revealed increased transcription of additional exotoxins. A Deltastp1 strain is severely attenuated for virulence in mice and elicits less inflammation and IL-6 production than the Deltastk1 strain. In vivo phosphopeptide enrichment and mass spectrometric analysis revealed that threonine phosphorylated peptides corresponding to Stk1, DNA binding histone like protein (HU, serine-aspartate rich fibrinogen/bone sialoprotein binding protein (SdrE and a hypothetical protein (NWMN_1123 were present in the wild type and not in the Deltastk1 mutant. Collectively, these studies suggest that Stk1 mediated phosphorylation of HU, SrdE and NWMN_1123 affects S. aureus gene expression and virulence.

  4. Far-infrared radiation acutely increases nitric oxide production by increasing Ca2+ mobilization and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-mediated phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase at serine 1179

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Jung-Hyun; Lee, Sangmi; Cho, Du-Hyong; Park, Young Mi; Kang, Duk-Hee; Jo, Inho

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •Far-infrared (FIR) radiation increases eNOS-Ser 1179 phosphorylation and NO production in BAEC. •CaMKII and PKA mediate FIR-stimulated increases in eNOS-Ser 1179 phosphorylation. •FIR increases intracellular Ca 2+ levels. •Thermo-sensitive TRPV Ca 2+ channels are unlikely to be involved in the FIR-mediated eNOS-Ser 1179 phosphorylation pathway. -- Abstract: Repeated thermal therapy manifested by far-infrared (FIR) radiation improves vascular function in both patients and mouse model with coronary heart disease, but its underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Using FIR as a thermal therapy agent, we investigate the molecular mechanism of its effect on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity and NO production. FIR increased the phosphorylation of eNOS at serine 1179 (eNOS-Ser 1179 ) in a time-dependent manner (up to 40 min of FIR radiation) in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) without alterations in eNOS expression. This increase was accompanied by increases in NO production and intracellular Ca 2+ levels. Treatment with KN-93, a selective inhibitor of Ca 2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and H-89, a protein kinase A inhibitor, inhibited FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser 1179 phosphorylation. FIR radiation itself also increased the temperature of culture medium. As transient receptors potential vanilloid (TRPV) ion channels are known to be temperature-sensitive calcium channels, we explore whether TRPV channels mediate these observed effects. Reverse transcription-PCR assay revealed two TRPV isoforms in BAEC, TRPV2 and TRPV4. Although ruthenium red, a pan-TRPV inhibitor, completely reversed the observed effect of FIR radiation, a partial attenuation (∼20%) was found in cells treated with Tranilast, TRPV2 inhibitor. However, ectopic expression of siRNA of TRPV2 showed no significant alteration in FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser 1179 phosphorylation. This study suggests that FIR radiation increases NO

  5. Analysis of serine proteases from marine sponges by 2-D zymography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkesman, Jeff G; Schröder, Heinz C

    2007-02-01

    Proteolytic activities isolated from the marine demosponges Geodia cydonium and Suberites domuncula were analyzed by 2-D zymography, a technique that combines IEF and zymography. After purification, a 200 kDa proteolytically active protein band was obtained from G. cydonium when analyzed in gelatin copolymerized 1-D zymograms. The enzymatic activity was quantified using alpha-N-benzoyl-D-arginine p-nitroanilide (BAPNA) as a substrate and corresponded to a serine protease. The protease activity was resistant to urea and SDS. DTT and 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) did not significantly change the protease activity, but induced a shift in molecular mass of the proteolytic band to lower M(r) values as detected by zymography. Under mild denaturing conditions, lower M(r) bands (zymography, the protease from G. cydonium revealed a pI of 8.0 and an M(r) shift from 200 to 66 kDa. To contrast these results, a cytosolic sample from S. domuncula was analyzed. The proteolytic activity of this sponge after 2-D zymography corresponded to an M(r) of 40 kDa and a pI of 4.0. The biological function of both sponge proteases is not yet known. This study demonstrates that mild denaturing conditions required for IEF may alter the interpretation of the 2-D zymography, and care must be taken during sample preparation.

  6. Phorbol ester induced phosphorylation of the estrogen receptor in intact MCF-7 human breast cancer cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knabbe, C.; Lippman, M.E.; Greene, G.L.; Dickson, R.B.

    1986-01-01

    Recent studies with a variety of cellular receptors have shown that phorbol ester induced phosphorylation modulates ligand binding and function. In this study the authors present direct evidence that the estrogen receptor in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells is a phosphoprotein whose phosphorylation state can be enhanced specifically by phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA). Cells were cultured to 6h in the presence of [ 32 P]-orthophosphate. Whole cell extracts were immunoprecipitated with a monoclonal antibody (D58) against the estrogen receptor and subjected to SDS-polyacrylamide electrophoresis. Autoradiography showed a specific band in the region of 60-62 kDa which was significantly increased in preparations from PMA treated cells. Phospho-amino acid analysis demonstrated specific phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues. Cholera toxin or forskolin did not change the phosphorylation state of this protein. In a parallel binding analysis PMA led to a rapid decrease of estrogen binding sites. The estrogen induction of both progesterone receptors and growth in semisolid medium was blocked by PMA, whereas the estrogen induction of the 8kDa protein corresponding to the ps2 gene product and of the 52 kDa protein was not affected. In conclusion, phorbol esters can induce phosphorylation of the estrogen receptor. This process may be associated with the inactivation of certain receptor functions

  7. Phosphorylation of p300 by ATM controls the stability of NBS1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jang, Eun Ryoung; Choi, Jae Duk; Jeong, Gajin; Lee, Jong-Soo

    2010-01-01

    Acetyltransferase, p300 is a transcriptional cofactor of signal-responsive transcriptional regulation. The surveillance kinase ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) plays a central role in regulation of a wide range of cellular DNA damage responses. Here, we investigated whether and how ATM mediates phosphorylation of p300 in response to DNA damage and how p300 phosphorylation is functionally linked to DNA damage. ATM-phosphorylated p300 in vitro and in vivo, in response to DNA damage. Phosphorylation of p300 proteins was observed upon γ-irradiation in ATM + cells but not ATM - cells. Importantly, expression of nonphosphorylatable serine to alanine form of p300 (S106A) destabilized both p300 and NBS1 proteins, after DNA damage. These data demonstrate that ATM transduces a DNA damage signal to p300, and that ATM-dependent phosphorylation of p300 is required for stabilization of NBS1 proteins in response to DNA damage.

  8. Coordinate phosphorylation of insulin-receptor kinase and its 175,000-Mr endogenous substrate in rat hepatocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okamoto, M.; Karasik, A.; White, M.F.; Kahn, C.R.

    1991-01-01

    To investigate the early events in insulin signal transmission in liver, isolated rat hepatocytes were labeled with 32 P, and proteins phosphorylated in response to insulin were detected by immunoprecipitation with anti-phosphotyrosine and anti-receptor antibodies and analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. In these cells, insulin rapidly stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of the 95,000-Mr beta-subunit of the insulin receptor and a 175,000-Mr phosphoprotein (pp175). Both proteins were precipitated by anti-phosphotyrosine antibody, whereas only the insulin receptor was recognized with anti-insulin-receptor antibody. In the insulin-stimulated state, both pp175 and the receptor beta-subunit were found to be phosphorylated on tyrosine and serine residues. Based on precipitation by the two antibodies, receptor phosphorylation was biphasic with an initial increase in tyrosine phosphorylation followed by a more gradual increase in serine phosphorylation over the first 30 min of stimulation. The time course of phosphorylation of pp175 was rapid and paralleled that of the beta-subunit of the insulin receptor. The pp175 was clearly distinguished from the insulin receptor, because it was detected only when boiling SDS was used to extract cellular phosphoproteins, whereas the insulin receptor was extracted with either Triton X-100 or SDS. In addition, the tryptic peptide maps of the two proteins were distinct. The dose-response curve for insulin stimulation was shifted slightly to the left of the insulin receptor, suggesting some signal amplification at this step. These data suggest that pp175 is a major endogenous substrate of the insulin receptor in liver and may be a cytoskeletal-associated protein

  9. Phosphorylation of proteins in Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Londesborough, J.

    1986-01-01

    Cell extracts of the thermophile Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum catalyzed the phosphorylation by (γ- 32 P)ATP of several endogenous proteins with M/sub r/s between 13,000 and 100,000. Serine and tyrosine were the main acceptors. Distinct substrate proteins were found in the soluble (e.g., proteins p66, p63, and p53 of M/sub r/s 66,000, 63,000, and 53,000, respectively) and particulate (p76 and p30) fractions, both of which contained protein kinase and phosphatase activity. The soluble fraction suppressed the phosphorylation of particulate proteins and contained a protein kinase inhibitor. Phosphorylation of p53 was promoted by 10μM fructose 1,6-bisphosphate or glucose 1,6-bisphosphate and suppressed by hexose monophosphates, whereas p30 and p13 were suppressed by 5 μM brain (but not spinach) calmodulin. Polyamines, including the odd polyamines characteristic of thermophiles, modulated the labeling of most of the phosphoproteins. Apart from p66, all the proteins labeled in vitro were also rapidly labeled in intact cells by 32 P/sub i/. Several proteins strongly labeled in vivo were labeled slowly or not at all in vitro

  10. Phosphorylation by CK2 regulates MUS81/EME1 in mitosis and after replication stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palma, Anita; Pugliese, Giusj Monia; Murfuni, Ivana; Marabitti, Veronica; Malacaria, Eva; Rinalducci, Sara; Minoprio, Anna; Sanchez, Massimo; Mazzei, Filomena; Zolla, Lello; Franchitto, Annapaola; Pichierri, Pietro

    2018-06-01

    The MUS81 complex is crucial for preserving genome stability through the resolution of branched DNA intermediates in mitosis. However, untimely activation of the MUS81 complex in S-phase is dangerous. Little is known about the regulation of the human MUS81 complex and how deregulated activation affects chromosome integrity. Here, we show that the CK2 kinase phosphorylates MUS81 at Serine 87 in late-G2/mitosis, and upon mild replication stress. Phosphorylated MUS81 interacts with SLX4, and this association promotes the function of the MUS81 complex. In line with a role in mitosis, phosphorylation at Serine 87 is suppressed in S-phase and is mainly detected in the MUS81 molecules associated with EME1. Loss of CK2-dependent MUS81 phosphorylation contributes modestly to chromosome integrity, however, expression of the phosphomimic form induces DSBs accumulation in S-phase, because of unscheduled targeting of HJ-like DNA intermediates, and generates a wide chromosome instability phenotype. Collectively, our findings describe a novel regulatory mechanism controlling the MUS81 complex function in human cells. Furthermore, they indicate that, genome stability depends mainly on the ability of cells to counteract targeting of branched intermediates by the MUS81/EME1 complex in S-phase, rather than on a correct MUS81 function in mitosis.

  11. A Cytosolic Arabidopsis d-Xylulose Kinase Catalyzes the Phosphorylation of 1-Deoxy-d-Xylulose into a Precursor of the Plastidial Isoprenoid Pathway1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hemmerlin, Andréa; Tritsch, Denis; Hartmann, Michael; Pacaud, Karine; Hoeffler, Jean-François; van Dorsselaer, Alain; Rohmer, Michel; Bach, Thomas J.

    2006-01-01

    Plants are able to integrate exogenous 1-deoxy-d-xylulose (DX) into the 2C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway, implicated in the biosynthesis of plastidial isoprenoids. Thus, the carbohydrate needs to be phosphorylated into 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate and translocated into plastids, or vice versa. An enzyme capable of phosphorylating DX was partially purified from a cell-free Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) protein extract. It was identified by mass spectrometry as a cytosolic protein bearing d-xylulose kinase (XK) signatures, already suggesting that DX is phosphorylated within the cytosol prior to translocation into the plastids. The corresponding cDNA was isolated and enzymatic properties of a recombinant protein were determined. In Arabidopsis, xylulose kinases are encoded by a small gene family, in which only two genes are putatively annotated. The additional gene is coding for a protein targeted to plastids, as was proved by colocalization experiments using green fluorescent protein fusion constructs. Functional complementation assays in an Escherichia coli strain deleted in xk revealed that the cytosolic enzyme could exclusively phosphorylate xylulose in vivo, not the enzyme that is targeted to plastids. xk activities could not be detected in chloroplast protein extracts or in proteins isolated from its ancestral relative Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The gene encoding the plastidic protein annotated as “xylulose kinase” might in fact yield an enzyme having different phosphorylation specificities. The biochemical characterization and complementation experiments with DX of specific Arabidopsis knockout mutants seedlings treated with oxo-clomazone, an inhibitor of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase, further confirmed that the cytosolic protein is responsible for the phosphorylation of DX in planta. PMID:16920870

  12. Phosphorylation of the dimeric cytoplasmic domain of the phytosulfokine receptor, PSKR1

    KAUST Repository

    Muleya, V.

    2016-08-04

    Phytosulfokines (PSKs) are plant peptide hormones that co-regulate plant growth, differentiation and defense responses. PSKs signal through a plasma membrane localized leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (phytosulfokine receptor 1, PSKR1) that also contains a functional cytosolic guanylate cyclase with its cyclase catalytic center embedded within the kinase domain. To functionally characterize this novel type of overlapping dual catalytic function, we investigated the phosphorylation of PSKR1 in vitro Tandem mass spectrometry of the cytoplasmic domain of PSKR1 (PSKR1cd) revealed at least 11 phosphorylation sites (8 serines, 2 threonines and 1 tyrosine) within the PSKR1cd. Phosphomimetic mutations of three serine residues (Ser686, Ser696 and Ser698) in tandem at the juxta-membrane position resulted in enhanced kinase activity in the on-mutant that was suppressed in the off-mutant, but both mutations reduced guanylate cyclase activity. Both the on and off phosphomimetic mutations of the phosphotyrosine (Tyr888) residue in the activation loop suppressed kinase activity, while neither mutation affected guanylate cyclase activity. Size exclusion and analytical ultracentrifugation analysis of the PSKR1cd suggest that it is reversibly dimeric in solution, which was further confirmed by biflourescence complementation. Taken together, these data suggest that in this novel type of receptor domain architecture, specific phosphorylation and dimerization are possibly essential mechanisms for ligand-mediated catalysis and signaling.

  13. Phosphorylation of the dimeric cytoplasmic domain of the phytosulfokine receptor, PSKR1

    KAUST Repository

    Muleya, V.; Marondedze, Claudius; Wheeler, J. I.; Thomas, Ludivine; Mok, Y.-F.; Griffin, M. D. W.; Manallack, D. T.; Kwezi, L.; Lilley, K. S.; Gehring, Christoph A; Irving, H. R.

    2016-01-01

    Phytosulfokines (PSKs) are plant peptide hormones that co-regulate plant growth, differentiation and defense responses. PSKs signal through a plasma membrane localized leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (phytosulfokine receptor 1, PSKR1) that also contains a functional cytosolic guanylate cyclase with its cyclase catalytic center embedded within the kinase domain. To functionally characterize this novel type of overlapping dual catalytic function, we investigated the phosphorylation of PSKR1 in vitro Tandem mass spectrometry of the cytoplasmic domain of PSKR1 (PSKR1cd) revealed at least 11 phosphorylation sites (8 serines, 2 threonines and 1 tyrosine) within the PSKR1cd. Phosphomimetic mutations of three serine residues (Ser686, Ser696 and Ser698) in tandem at the juxta-membrane position resulted in enhanced kinase activity in the on-mutant that was suppressed in the off-mutant, but both mutations reduced guanylate cyclase activity. Both the on and off phosphomimetic mutations of the phosphotyrosine (Tyr888) residue in the activation loop suppressed kinase activity, while neither mutation affected guanylate cyclase activity. Size exclusion and analytical ultracentrifugation analysis of the PSKR1cd suggest that it is reversibly dimeric in solution, which was further confirmed by biflourescence complementation. Taken together, these data suggest that in this novel type of receptor domain architecture, specific phosphorylation and dimerization are possibly essential mechanisms for ligand-mediated catalysis and signaling.

  14. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 levels and phosphorylation undergo large fluctuations in mouse brain during development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beurel, Eléonore; Mines, Marjelo A; Song, Ling; Jope, Richard S

    2012-01-01

    Objectives Dysregulated glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) may contribute to the pathophysiology of mood disorders and other diseases, and appears to be a target of certain therapeutic drugs. The growing recognition of heightened vulnerability during development to many psychiatric diseases, including mood disorders, led us to test if there are developmental changes in mouse brain GSK3 and its regulation by phosphorylation and by therapeutic drugs. Methods GSK3 levels and phosphorylation were measured at seven ages of development in mouse cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Results Two periods of rapid transitions in GSK3 levels were identified, a large rise between postnatal day 1 and two to three weeks of age, where GSK3 levels were as high as four-fold adult mouse brain levels, and a rapid decline between two to four and eight weeks of age, when adult levels were reached. Inhibitory serine-phosphorylation of GSK3, particularly GSK3β, was extremely high in one-day postnatal mouse brain, and rapidly declined thereafter. These developmental changes in GSK3 were equivalent in male and female cerebral cortex, and differed from other signaling kinases, including Akt, ERK1/2, JNK, and p38 levels and phosphorylation. In contrast to adult mouse brain, where administration of lithium or fluoxetine rapidly and robustly increased serine-phosphorylation of GSK3, in young mice these responses were blunted or absent. Conclusions High brain levels of GSK3 and large fluctuations in its levels and phosphorylation in juvenile and adolescent mouse brain raise the possibility that they may contribute to destabilized mood regulation induced by environmental and genetic factors. PMID:23167932

  15. A Proteomic Screen Identified Stress-Induced Chaperone Proteins as Targets of Akt Phosphorylation in Mesangial Cells

    OpenAIRE

    Barati, Michelle T.; Rane, Madhavi J.; Klein, Jon B.; McLeish, Kenneth R.

    2006-01-01

    The serine-threonine kinase Akt regulates mesangial cell apoptosis, proliferation, and hypertrophy. To define Akt signaling pathways in mesangial cells, we performed a functional proteomic screen for rat mesangial cell proteins phosphorylated by Akt. A group of chaperone proteins, heat shock protein (Hsp) 70, Hsp90α, Hsp90β, Glucose-regulated protein (Grp) Grp78, Grp94, and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) were identified as potential Akt substrates by two techniques: (a) in vitro phosphoryl...

  16. Improvement in regional CBF by L-serine contributes to its neuroprotective effect in rats after focal cerebral ischemia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao-Jie Ren

    Full Text Available To investigate the mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective effect of L-serine, permanent focal cerebral ischemia was induced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery while monitoring cerebral blood flow (CBF. Rats were divided into control and L-serine-treated groups after middle cerebral artery occlusion. The neurological deficit score and brain infarct volume were assessed. Nissl staining was used to quantify the cortical injury. L-serine and D-serine levels in the ischemic cortex were analyzed with high performance liquid chromatography. We found that L-serine treatment: 1 reduced the neurological deficit score, infarct volume and cortical neuron loss in a dose-dependent manner; 2 improved CBF in the cortex, and this effect was inhibited in the presence of apamin plus charybdotoxin while the alleviation of both neurological deficit score and infarct volume was blocked; and 3 increased the amount of L-serine and D-serine in the cortex, and inhibition of the conversion of L-serine into D-serine by aminooxyacetic acid did not affect the reduction of neurological deficit score and infarct volume by L-serine. In conclusion, improvement in regional CBF by L-serine may contribute to its neuroprotective effect on the ischemic brain, potentially through vasodilation which is mediated by the small- and intermediate-conductance Ca(2+-activated K(+ channels on the cerebral blood vessel endothelium.

  17. Pervanadate induces Mammalian Ste20 Kinase 3 (MST3) tyrosine phosphorylation but not activation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kan, Wei-Chih; Lu, Te-Ling; Ling, Pin; Lee, Te-Hsiu; Cho, Chien-Yu; Huang, Chi-Ying F; Jeng, Wen-Yih; Weng, Yui-Ping; Chiang, Chun-Yen; Wu, Jin Bin; Lu, Te-Jung

    2016-07-01

    The yeast Ste20 (sterile) protein kinase, which is a serine/threonine kinase, responds to the stimulation of the G proteincoupled receptor (GPCR) pheromone receptor. Ste20 protein kinase serves as the critical component that links signaling from the GPCR/G proteins to the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade in yeast. The yeast Ste20p functions as a MAP kinase kinase kinase kinase (MAP4K) in the pheromone response. Ste20-like kinases are structurally conserved from yeast to mammals. The mechanism by which MAP4K links GPCR to the MAPK pathway is less clearly defined in vertebrates. In addition to MAP4K, the tyrosine kinase cascade bridges G proteins and the MAPK pathway in vertebrate cells. Mammalian Ste20 Kinase 3 (MST3) has been categorized into the Ste20 family and has been reported to function in the regulation of cell polarity and migration. However, whether MST3 tyrosine phosphorylation regulates diverse signaling pathways is unknown. In this study, the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor pervanadate was found to induce MST3 tyrosine phosphorylation in intact cells, and the activity of tyrosine-phosphorylated MST3 was measured. This tyrosine-directed phosphorylation was independent of MST3 activity. Parameters including protein conformation, Triton concentration and ionic concentration influenced the sensitivity of MST3 activity. Taken together, our data suggests that the serine/threonine kinase MST3 undergoes tyrosinedirected phosphorylation. The tyrosine-phosphorylated MST3 may create a docking site for the structurally conserved SH2/SH3 (Src Homology 2 and 3) domains within the Src oncoprotein. The unusual tyrosinephosphorylated MST3 may recruit MST3 to various signaling components. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  18. Identification of a novel phosphorylation site in c-jun directly targeted in vitro by protein kinase D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waldron, Richard T.; Whitelegge, Julian P.; Faull, Kym F.; Rozengurt, Enrique

    2007-01-01

    Protein kinase D (PKD) phosphorylates the c-jun amino-terminal in vitro at site(s) distinct from JNK [C. Hurd, R.T. Waldron, E. Rozengurt, Protein kinase D complexes with c-jun N-terminal kinase via activation loop phosphorylation and phosphorylates the c-jun N-terminus, Oncogene 21 (2002) 2154-2160], but the sites have not been identified. Here, metabolic 32 P-labeling of c-jun protein in COS-7 cells indicated that PKD phosphorylates c-jun in vivo at a site(s) between aa 43-93, a region containing important functional elements. On this basis, the PKD-mediated phosphorylation site(s) was further characterized in vitro using GST-c-jun fusion proteins. PKD did not incorporate phosphate into Ser63 and Ser73, the JNK sites in GST-c-jun(1-89). Rather, PKD and JNK could sequentially phosphorylate distinct site(s) simultaneously. By mass spectrometry of tryptic phosphopeptides, Ser58 interposed between the JNK-binding portion of the delta domain and the adjacent TAD1 was identified as a prominent site phosphorylated in vitro by PKD. These data were further supported by kinase reactions using truncations or point-mutations of GST-c-jun. Together, these data suggest that PKD-mediated phosphorylation modulates c-jun at the level of its N-terminal functional domains

  19. Role of XRCC4 phosphorylation by DNA-PK in the regulation of NHEJ repair pathway of DNA double strand break

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharma, Mukesh Kumar; Imamichi, Shoji; Fukuchi, Mikoto; Kamdar, Radhika P.; Sicheng, Liu; Wanotayan, Rujira; Matsumoto, Yoshihisa

    2014-01-01

    Non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) is the predominant pathway of DNA double strand breaks in higher eukaryotes and is active throughout the cell cycle. NHEJ repair includes many factors as Ku70/86, DNA-PKcs, XRCC4-Ligase IV complex and XLF (also known as Cernunnos). In these factors, DNA-PKcs acts as central regulator in NHEJ repair. It recruited at the DNA damages site after DNA damage and after association with Ku its kinase activity is activated. It phosphorylates many of important NHEJ proteins in vitro including XRCC4, Ku 70/86, Artemis, and even DNA-PKcs but till now, very less studies have been done to know the role and significance of phosphorylation in the NHEJ repair. Studies by other researchers identified various phosphorylation sites in XRCC4 by DNA-PK using mass spectrometry but these phosphorylation sites were shown to be dispensable for DSB repair. In the present investigation, we identified 3 serine and one new threonine phosphorylation sites in XRCC4 protein by DNA-PK. In vivo phosphorylation at these sites was verified by generating phosphorylation specific antibodies and the requirement for DNA-PK therein was verified by using DNA-PK inhibitor and DNA-PK proficient and deficient cell lines in response to radiation and zeocin treatment. We have also found that phosphorylation at these sites showed dose dependency in response to radiation treatment. The two serine and one threonine phosphorylation site is also biological important as their mutation into alanine significantly elevated radiosensitivity as measured by colony formation assay. Neutral comet assay showed delayed kinetics in DSB repair of these mutants. Furthermore, we have found a protein, with putative DSB repair function, which interacts with domain including the phosphorylation sites.These results indicate that these phosphorylation sites would mediate functional link between XRCC4 and DNA-PK. (author)

  20. Far-infrared radiation acutely increases nitric oxide production by increasing Ca(2+) mobilization and Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-mediated phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase at serine 1179.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jung-Hyun; Lee, Sangmi; Cho, Du-Hyong; Park, Young Mi; Kang, Duk-Hee; Jo, Inho

    2013-07-12

    Repeated thermal therapy manifested by far-infrared (FIR) radiation improves vascular function in both patients and mouse model with coronary heart disease, but its underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Using FIR as a thermal therapy agent, we investigate the molecular mechanism of its effect on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity and NO production. FIR increased the phosphorylation of eNOS at serine 1179 (eNOS-Ser(1179)) in a time-dependent manner (up to 40min of FIR radiation) in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) without alterations in eNOS expression. This increase was accompanied by increases in NO production and intracellular Ca(2+) levels. Treatment with KN-93, a selective inhibitor of Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and H-89, a protein kinase A inhibitor, inhibited FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser(1179) phosphorylation. FIR radiation itself also increased the temperature of culture medium. As transient receptors potential vanilloid (TRPV) ion channels are known to be temperature-sensitive calcium channels, we explore whether TRPV channels mediate these observed effects. Reverse transcription-PCR assay revealed two TRPV isoforms in BAEC, TRPV2 and TRPV4. Although ruthenium red, a pan-TRPV inhibitor, completely reversed the observed effect of FIR radiation, a partial attenuation (∼20%) was found in cells treated with Tranilast, TRPV2 inhibitor. However, ectopic expression of siRNA of TRPV2 showed no significant alteration in FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser(1179) phosphorylation. This study suggests that FIR radiation increases NO production via increasing CaMKII-mediated eNOS-Ser(1179) phosphorylation but TRPV channels may not be involved in this pathway. Our results may provide the molecular mechanism by which FIR radiation improves endothelial function. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Phosphorylation of a specific cdk site in E2F-1 affects its electrophoretic mobility and promotes pRB-binding in vitro

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Peeper, D S; Keblusek, P; Helin, K

    1995-01-01

    of the retinoblastoma gene (pRB). We find that E2F-1 proteins are heterogeneously phosphorylated in insect cells, as a result of which they migrate as a doublet on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. This electrophoretic shift is shown to be dependent upon specific phosphorylation of E2F-1 on serine-375 (S375), near the p...

  2. Prevention of pulmonary vascular and myocardial remodeling by the combined tyrosine and serine-/threonine kinase inhibitor, sorafenib, in pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Klein

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Inhibition of tyrosine kinases can reverse pulmonary hypertension but little is known about the role of serine-/threonine kinases in vascular and myocardial remodeling. We investigated the effects of sorafenib, an inhibitor of the tyrosine kinases VEGFR, PDGFR and c-kit as well as the serine-/threonine kinase Raf-1, in pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular (RV pressure overload. In monocrotaline treated rats, sorafenib (10 mg·kg–1·d–1 p.o. reduced pulmonary arterial pressure, pulmonary artery muscularization and RV hypertrophy, and improved systemic hemodynamics (table 1. Sorafenib prevented phosphorylation of Raf-1 and suppressed activation of downstream signaling pathways (Erk 1/2. After pulmonary banding, sorafenib, but not the PDGFR/c-KIT/ABL-inhibitor imatinib reduced RV mass and RV filling pressure significantly. Congruent with these results, sorafenib only prevented ERK phosphorylation and vasopressin induced hypertrophy of the cardiomyocyte cell line H9c2 dose dependently (IC50 = 300 nM. Combined inhibition of tyrosine and serine-/threonine kinases by sorafenib prevents vascular and cardiac remodeling in pulmonary hypertension, which is partly mediated via inhibition of the Raf kinase pathway.

  3. IRS-1 serine phosphorylation and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle from pancreas tranplant recipient

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bouzakri, K; Karlsson, HRK; Vestergaard, Henrik

    2006-01-01

    Insulin-dependent diabetic recipients of successful pancreas allografts achieve self-regulatory insulin secretion and discontinue exogenous insulin therapy; however, chronic hyperinsulinemia and impaired insulin sensitivity generally develop. To determine whether insulin resistance is accompanied...... by altered signal transduction, skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained from pancreas-kidney transplant recipients (n = 4), nondiabetic kidney transplant recipients (receiving the same immunosuppressive drugs; n = 5), and healthy subjects (n = 6) before and during a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp. Basal...... insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 Ser (312) and Ser (616) phosphorylation, IRS-1-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 phosphorylation were elevated in pancreas-kidney transplant recipients, coincident with fasting hyperinsulinemia. Basal...

  4. IRS-1 serine phosphorylation and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle from pancreas transplant recipients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bouzakri, Karim; Karlsson, Håkan K R; Vestergaard, Henrik

    2006-01-01

    Insulin-dependent diabetic recipients of successful pancreas allografts achieve self-regulatory insulin secretion and discontinue exogenous insulin therapy; however, chronic hyperinsulinemia and impaired insulin sensitivity generally develop. To determine whether insulin resistance is accompanied...... by altered signal transduction, skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained from pancreas-kidney transplant recipients (n = 4), nondiabetic kidney transplant recipients (receiving the same immunosuppressive drugs; n = 5), and healthy subjects (n = 6) before and during a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp. Basal...... insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 Ser (312) and Ser (616) phosphorylation, IRS-1-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 phosphorylation were elevated in pancreas-kidney transplant recipients, coincident with fasting hyperinsulinemia. Basal...

  5. Obesity-Linked Phosphorylation of SIRT1 by Casein Kinase 2 Inhibits Its Nuclear Localization and Promotes Fatty Liver.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Sung E; Kwon, Sanghoon; Seok, Sunmi; Xiao, Zhen; Lee, Kwan-Woo; Kang, Yup; Li, Xiaoling; Shinoda, Kosaku; Kajimura, Shingo; Kemper, Byron; Kemper, Jongsook Kim

    2017-08-01

    Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) deacetylase delays and improves many obesity-related diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and diabetes, and has received great attention as a drug target. SIRT1 function is aberrantly low in obesity, so understanding the underlying mechanisms is important for drug development. Here, we show that obesity-linked phosphorylation of SIRT1 inhibits its function and promotes pathological symptoms of NAFLD. In proteomic analysis, Ser-164 was identified as a major serine phosphorylation site in SIRT1 in obese, but not lean, mice, and this phosphorylation was catalyzed by casein kinase 2 (CK2), the levels of which were dramatically elevated in obesity. Mechanistically, phosphorylation of SIRT1 at Ser-164 substantially inhibited its nuclear localization and modestly affected its deacetylase activity. Adenovirus-mediated liver-specific expression of SIRT1 or a phosphor-defective S164A-SIRT1 mutant promoted fatty acid oxidation and ameliorated liver steatosis and glucose intolerance in diet-induced obese mice, but these beneficial effects were not observed in mice expressing a phosphor-mimic S164D-SIRT1 mutant. Remarkably, phosphorylated S164-SIRT1 and CK2 levels were also highly elevated in liver samples of NAFLD patients and correlated with disease severity. Thus, inhibition of phosphorylation of SIRT1 by CK2 may serve as a new therapeutic approach for treatment of NAFLD and other obesity-related diseases. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

  6. Far-infrared radiation acutely increases nitric oxide production by increasing Ca{sup 2+} mobilization and Ca{sup 2+}/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-mediated phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase at serine 1179

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Jung-Hyun; Lee, Sangmi [Department of Molecular Medicine and Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University Medical School, Seoul 158-710 (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Du-Hyong [Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Seoul 143-701 (Korea, Republic of); Park, Young Mi [Department of Molecular Medicine and Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University Medical School, Seoul 158-710 (Korea, Republic of); Kang, Duk-Hee [Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Ewha Womans University Medical School, Seoul 158-710 (Korea, Republic of); Jo, Inho, E-mail: inhojo@ewha.ac.kr [Department of Molecular Medicine and Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University Medical School, Seoul 158-710 (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-07-12

    Highlights: •Far-infrared (FIR) radiation increases eNOS-Ser{sup 1179} phosphorylation and NO production in BAEC. •CaMKII and PKA mediate FIR-stimulated increases in eNOS-Ser{sup 1179} phosphorylation. •FIR increases intracellular Ca{sup 2+} levels. •Thermo-sensitive TRPV Ca{sup 2+} channels are unlikely to be involved in the FIR-mediated eNOS-Ser{sup 1179} phosphorylation pathway. -- Abstract: Repeated thermal therapy manifested by far-infrared (FIR) radiation improves vascular function in both patients and mouse model with coronary heart disease, but its underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Using FIR as a thermal therapy agent, we investigate the molecular mechanism of its effect on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity and NO production. FIR increased the phosphorylation of eNOS at serine 1179 (eNOS-Ser{sup 1179}) in a time-dependent manner (up to 40 min of FIR radiation) in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) without alterations in eNOS expression. This increase was accompanied by increases in NO production and intracellular Ca{sup 2+} levels. Treatment with KN-93, a selective inhibitor of Ca{sup 2+}/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and H-89, a protein kinase A inhibitor, inhibited FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser{sup 1179} phosphorylation. FIR radiation itself also increased the temperature of culture medium. As transient receptors potential vanilloid (TRPV) ion channels are known to be temperature-sensitive calcium channels, we explore whether TRPV channels mediate these observed effects. Reverse transcription-PCR assay revealed two TRPV isoforms in BAEC, TRPV2 and TRPV4. Although ruthenium red, a pan-TRPV inhibitor, completely reversed the observed effect of FIR radiation, a partial attenuation (∼20%) was found in cells treated with Tranilast, TRPV2 inhibitor. However, ectopic expression of siRNA of TRPV2 showed no significant alteration in FIR radiation-stimulated eNOS-Ser{sup 1179} phosphorylation. This

  7. Identification of okadaic acid-induced phosphorylation events by a mass spectrometry approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, Jennifer J.; Callaghan, Deborah A.; Ding Wen; Kelly, John F.; Chakravarthy, Balu R.

    2006-01-01

    Okadaic acid (OA) is a widely used small-molecule phosphatase inhibitor that is thought to selectively inhibit protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). Multiple studies have demonstrated that PP2A activity is compromised in Brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. Thus, we set out to determine changes in phosphorylation that occur upon OA treatment of neuronal cells. Utilizing isotope-coded affinity tags and mass spectrometry analysis, we determined the relative abundance of proteins in a phosphoprotein enriched fraction from control and OA-treated primary cortical neurons. We identified many proteins whose phosphorylation state is regulated by OA, including glycogen synthase kinase 3β, collapsin-response mediator proteins (DRP-2, DPYSL-5, and CRMP-4), and the B subunit of PP2A itself. Most interestingly, we have found that complexin 2, an important regulator of neurotransmitter release and synaptic plasticity, is phosphorylated at serine 93 upon OA treatment of neurons. This is First report of a phosphorylation site on complexin 2

  8. Regulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3{beta} (GSK-3{beta}) after ionizing radiation; Regulation der Glykogen Synthase Kinase-3{beta} (GSK-3{beta}) nach ionisierender Strahlung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boehme, K.A.

    2006-12-15

    Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3{beta} (GSK-3{beta}) phosphorylates the Mdm2 protein in the central domain. This phosphorylation is absolutely required for p53 degradation. Ionizing radiation inactivates GSK-3{beta} by phosphorylation at serine 9 and in consequence prevents Mdm2 mediated p53 degradation. During the work for my PhD I identified Akt/PKB as the kinase that phosphorylates GSK-3{beta} at serine 9 after ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation leads to phosphorylation of Akt/PKB at threonine 308 and serine 473. The PI3 Kinase inhibitor LY294002 completely abolished Akt/PKB serine 473 phosphorylation and prevented the induction of GSK-3{beta} serine 9 phosphorylation after ionizing radiation. Interestingly, the most significant activation of Akt/PKB after ionizing radiation occurred in the nucleus while cytoplasmic Akt/PKB was only weakly activated after radiation. By using siRNA, I showed that Akt1/PKBa, but not Akt2/PKB{beta}, is required for phosphorylation of GSK- 3{beta} at serine 9 after ionizing radiation. Phosphorylation and activation of Akt/PKB after ionizing radiation depends on the DNA dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), a member of the PI3 Kinase family, that is activated by free DNA ends. Both, in cells from SCID mice and after knockdown of the catalytic subunit of DNA-PK by siRNA in osteosarcoma cells, phosphorylation of Akt/PKB at serine 473 and of GSK-3{beta} at serine 9 was completely abolished. Consistent with the principle that phosphorylation of GSK-3 at serine 9 contributes to p53 stabilization after radiation, the accumulation of p53 in response to ionizing radiation was largely prevented by downregulation of DNA-PK. From these results I conclude, that ionizing radiation induces a signaling cascade that leads to Akt1/PKBa activation mediated by DNA-PK dependent phosphorylation of serine 473. After activation Akt1/PKBa phosphorylates and inhibits GSK-3{beta} in the nucleus. The resulting hypophosphorylated form of Mdm2 protein is no longer

  9. Regulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) after ionizing radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boehme, K.A.

    2006-12-01

    Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β (GSK-3β) phosphorylates the Mdm2 protein in the central domain. This phosphorylation is absolutely required for p53 degradation. Ionizing radiation inactivates GSK-3β by phosphorylation at serine 9 and in consequence prevents Mdm2 mediated p53 degradation. During the work for my PhD I identified Akt/PKB as the kinase that phosphorylates GSK-3β at serine 9 after ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation leads to phosphorylation of Akt/PKB at threonine 308 and serine 473. The PI3 Kinase inhibitor LY294002 completely abolished Akt/PKB serine 473 phosphorylation and prevented the induction of GSK-3β serine 9 phosphorylation after ionizing radiation. Interestingly, the most significant activation of Akt/PKB after ionizing radiation occurred in the nucleus while cytoplasmic Akt/PKB was only weakly activated after radiation. By using siRNA, I showed that Akt1/PKBa, but not Akt2/PKBβ, is required for phosphorylation of GSK- 3β at serine 9 after ionizing radiation. Phosphorylation and activation of Akt/PKB after ionizing radiation depends on the DNA dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), a member of the PI3 Kinase family, that is activated by free DNA ends. Both, in cells from SCID mice and after knockdown of the catalytic subunit of DNA-PK by siRNA in osteosarcoma cells, phosphorylation of Akt/PKB at serine 473 and of GSK-3β at serine 9 was completely abolished. Consistent with the principle that phosphorylation of GSK-3 at serine 9 contributes to p53 stabilization after radiation, the accumulation of p53 in response to ionizing radiation was largely prevented by downregulation of DNA-PK. From these results I conclude, that ionizing radiation induces a signaling cascade that leads to Akt1/PKBa activation mediated by DNA-PK dependent phosphorylation of serine 473. After activation Akt1/PKBa phosphorylates and inhibits GSK-3β in the nucleus. The resulting hypophosphorylated form of Mdm2 protein is no longer able to degrade p53 which in

  10. Selective Sensing of Tyrosine Phosphorylation in Peptides Using Terbium(III Complexes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Sumaoka

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Phosphorylation of tyrosine residues in proteins, as well as their dephosphorylation, is closely related to various diseases. However, this phosphorylation is usually accompanied by more abundant phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues in the proteins and covers only 0.05% of the total phosphorylation. Accordingly, highly selective detection of phosphorylated tyrosine in proteins is an urgent subject. In this review, recent developments in this field are described. Monomeric and binuclear TbIII complexes, which emit notable luminescence only in the presence of phosphotyrosine (pTyr, have been developed. There, the benzene ring of pTyr functions as an antenna and transfers its photoexcitation energy to the TbIII ion as the emission center. Even in the coexistence of phosphoserine (pSer and phosphothreonine (pThr, pTyr can be efficintly detected with high selectivity. Simply by adding these TbIII complexes to the solutions, phosphorylation of tyrosine in peptides by protein tyrosine kinases and dephosphorylation by protein tyrosine phosphatases can be successfully visualized in a real-time fashion. Furthermore, the activities of various inhibitors on these enzymes are quantitatively evaluated, indicating a strong potential of the method for efficient screening of eminent inhibitors from a number of candidates.

  11. Protein Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in the Archaea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennelly, Peter J

    2014-04-04

    The third domain of life, the Archaea (formerly Archaebacteria), is populated by a physiologically diverse set of microorganisms, many of which reside at the ecological extremes of our global environment. Although ostensibly prokaryotic in morphology, the Archaea share much closer evolutionary ties with the Eukarya than with the superficially more similar Bacteria. Initial genomic, proteomic, and biochemical analyses have revealed the presence of "eukaryotic" protein kinases and phosphatases and an intriguing set of serine-, threonine-, and tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins in the Archaea that may offer new insights into this important regulatory mechanism.

  12. A highly phosphorylated subpopulation of insulin-like growth factor II/mannose 6-phosphate receptors is concentrated in a clathrin-enriched plasma membrane fraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corvera, S.; Folander, K.; Clairmont, K.B.; Czech, M.P.

    1988-01-01

    Insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II)/mannose 6-phosphate (Man-6-P) receptors immunoprecipitated from purified plasma membranes of 32 P-labeled rat adipocytes are markedly heterogenous in their phosphorylation state. Approximately 80% of the plasma membrane receptors are solubilized in 1% (vol/vol) Triton X-100 and are phosphorylated on serine residues at a stoichiometry of ∼ 0.1-0.2 mol of phosphate per mol of receptor. In contrast, 15-20% of the receptors are Triton X-100-insoluble and are phosphorylated on serine and threonine residues at ∼ 4 or 5 mol of phosphate per mol of receptor. This Triton X-100-insoluble membrane subfraction contains only 5% of the total plasma membrane protein and yet contains all of the clathrin heavy chain associated with plasma membrane. Based on the relative yields of protein in the detergent-insoluble material, IGF-II/Man-6-P receptors are concentrated ∼ 3-fold in this clathrin-enriched subfraction. Taken together, these results indicate that insulin decreases the phosphorylation state of a highly phosphorylated subpopulation of IGF-II/Man-6-P receptors on the plasma membrane. In addition, insulin action may prevent the concentration of these receptors in a clathrin-enriched membrane subfraction

  13. Carboxyl-terminal multi-site phosphorylation regulates internalization and desensitization of the human sst2 somatostatin receptor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehmann, Andreas; Kliewer, Andrea; Schütz, Dagmar; Nagel, Falko; Stumm, Ralf; Schulz, Stefan

    2014-04-25

    The somatostatin receptor 2 (sst2) is the pharmacological target of somatostatin analogs that are widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of human neuroendocrine tumors. We have recently shown that the stable somatostatin analogs octreotide and pasireotide (SOM230) stimulate distinct patterns of sst2 receptor phosphorylation and internalization. Like somatostatin, octreotide promotes the phosphorylation of at least six carboxyl-terminal serine and threonine residues namely S341, S343, T353, T354, T356 and T359, which in turn leads to a robust receptor endocytosis. Unlike somatostatin, pasireotide stimulates a selective phosphorylation of S341 and S343 of the human sst2 receptor followed by a partial receptor internalization. Here, we show that exchange of S341 and S343 by alanine is sufficient to block pasireotide-driven internalization, whereas mutation of T353, T354, T356 and T359 to alanine is required to strongly inhibited both octreotide- and somatostatin-induced internalization. Yet, combined mutation of T353, T354, T356 and T359 is not sufficient to prevent somatostatin-driven β-arrestin mobilization and receptor desensitization. Replacement of all fourteen carboxyl-terminal serine and threonine residues by alanine completely abrogates sst2 receptor internalization and β-arrestin mobilization in HEK293 cells. Together, our findings demonstrate for the first time that agonist-selective sst2 receptor internalization is regulated by multi-site phosphorylation of its carboxyl-terminal tail. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Method for the production of l-serine using genetically engineered microorganisms deficient in serine degradation pathways

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2016-01-01

    The present invention generally relates to the microbiological industry, and specifically to the production of L-serine using genetically modified bacteria. The present invention provides genetically modified microorganisms, such as bacteria, wherein the expression of genes encoding for enzymes...... concentrations of serine. The present invention also provides methods for the production of L-serine or L-serine derivative using such genetically modified microorganisms....

  15. High mobility group box-1 is phosphorylated by protein kinase C zeta and secreted in colon cancer cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Hanna; Park, Minhee; Shin, Nara; Kim, Gamin; Kim, Yun Gi; Shin, Jeon-Soo; Kim, Hoguen

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Specific enzyme for HMGB1 phosphorylation and its secretion is proposed. ► Inhibition of PKC-ζ leads to significant reduction of the secreted HMGB1. ► Phosphorylation of specific site of HMGB1 redirects its secretion in cancer cells. ► Activation of PKC-ζ in cancers explains the enhanced HMGB1 secretion. -- Abstract: High mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), a nuclear protein, is overexpressed and secreted in cancer cells. Phosphorylation on two different nuclear localization signal regions are known to be important for the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic transport and secretion of HMGB1. However, little is known about the biochemical mechanism of HMGB1 modifications and its subsequent secretion from cancer cells. To identify the specific enzyme and important sites for HMGB1 phosphorylation, we screened the protein kinase C (PKC) family in a colon cancer cell line (HCT116) for HMGB1 binding by pull-down experiments using a 3XFLAG-HMGB1 construct. Strong interactions between atypical PKCs (PKC-ζ, λ, and ι) and cytoplasmic HMGB1 were observed in HCT116 cells. We further identified the most critical PKC isotype that regulates HMGB1 secretion is PKC-ζ by using PKC inhibitors and siRNA experiments. The serine residues at S39, S53 and S181 of HMGB1 were related to enhancing HMGB1 secretion. We also demonstrated overexpression and activation of PKC-ζ in colon cancer tissues. Our findings suggest that PKC-ζ is involved in the phosphorylation of HMGB1, and the phosphorylation of specific serine residues in the nuclear localization signal regions is related to enhanced HMGB1 secretion in colon cancer cells.

  16. Structural and Functional Adaptation of Vancomycin Resistance VanT Serine Racemases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meziane-Cherif, Djalal; Stogios, Peter J; Evdokimova, Elena; Egorova, Olga; Savchenko, Alexei; Courvalin, Patrice

    2015-08-11

    Vancomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria results from the replacement of the D-alanyl-D-alanine target of peptidoglycan precursors with D-alanyl-D-lactate or D-alanyl-D-serine (D-Ala-D-Ser), to which vancomycin has low binding affinity. VanT is one of the proteins required for the production of D-Ala-D-Ser-terminating precursors by converting L-Ser to D-Ser. VanT is composed of two domains, an N-terminal membrane-bound domain, likely involved in L-Ser uptake, and a C-terminal cytoplasmic catalytic domain which is related to bacterial alanine racemases. To gain insight into the molecular function of VanT, the crystal structure of the catalytic domain of VanTG from VanG-type resistant Enterococcus faecalis BM4518 was determined. The structure showed significant similarity to type III pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent alanine racemases, which are essential for peptidoglycan synthesis. Comparative structural analysis between VanTG and alanine racemases as well as site-directed mutagenesis identified three specific active site positions centered around Asn696 which are responsible for the L-amino acid specificity. This analysis also suggested that VanT racemases evolved from regular alanine racemases by acquiring additional selectivity toward serine while preserving that for alanine. The 4-fold-lower relative catalytic efficiency of VanTG against L-Ser versus L-Ala implied that this enzyme relies on its membrane-bound domain for L-Ser transport to increase the overall rate of d-Ser production. These findings illustrate how vancomycin pressure selected for molecular adaptation of a housekeeping enzyme to a bifunctional enzyme to allow for peptidoglycan remodeling, a strategy increasingly observed in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Vancomycin is one of the drugs of last resort against Gram-positive antibiotic-resistant pathogens. However, bacteria have evolved a sophisticated mechanism which remodels the drug target, the D-alanine ending precursors in cell wall

  17. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-Activated ATM-Dependent Phosphorylation of Cytoplasmic Substrates Identified by Large-Scale Phosphoproteomics Screen*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kozlov, Sergei V.; Waardenberg, Ashley J.; Engholm-Keller, Kasper; Arthur, Jonathan W.; Graham, Mark E.; Lavin, Martin

    2016-01-01

    Ataxia-telangiectasia, mutated (ATM) protein plays a central role in phosphorylating a network of proteins in response to DNA damage. These proteins function in signaling pathways designed to maintain the stability of the genome and minimize the risk of disease by controlling cell cycle checkpoints, initiating DNA repair, and regulating gene expression. ATM kinase can be activated by a variety of stimuli, including oxidative stress. Here, we confirmed activation of cytoplasmic ATM by autophosphorylation at multiple sites. Then we employed a global quantitative phosphoproteomics approach to identify cytoplasmic proteins altered in their phosphorylation state in control and ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) cells in response to oxidative damage. We demonstrated that ATM was activated by oxidative damage in the cytoplasm as well as in the nucleus and identified a total of 9,833 phosphorylation sites, including 6,686 high-confidence sites mapping to 2,536 unique proteins. A total of 62 differentially phosphorylated peptides were identified; of these, 43 were phosphorylated in control but not in A-T cells, and 19 varied in their level of phosphorylation. Motif enrichment analysis of phosphopeptides revealed that consensus ATM serine glutamine sites were overrepresented. When considering phosphorylation events, only observed in control cells (not observed in A-T cells), with predicted ATM sites phosphoSerine/phosphoThreonine glutamine, we narrowed this list to 11 candidate ATM-dependent cytoplasmic proteins. Two of these 11 were previously described as ATM substrates (HMGA1 and UIMCI/RAP80), another five were identified in a whole cell extract phosphoproteomic screens, and the remaining four proteins had not been identified previously in DNA damage response screens. We validated the phosphorylation of three of these proteins (oxidative stress responsive 1 (OSR1), HDGF, and ccdc82) as ATM dependent after H2O2 exposure, and another protein (S100A11) demonstrated ATM

  18. Tyrosine Phosphorylation of the Human Serotonin Transporter: A Role in the Transporter Stability and Function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Annamalai, Balasubramaniam; Mannangatti, Padmanabhan; Arapulisamy, Obulakshmi; Shippenberg, Toni S.; Jayanthi, Lankupalle D.

    2012-01-01

    The serotonin (5-HT) transporter (SERT) regulates serotoninergic neurotransmission by clearing 5-HT released into the synaptic space. Phosphorylation of SERT on serine and threonine mediates SERT regulation. Whether tyrosine phosphorylation regulates SERT is unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that tyrosine-phosphorylation of SERT regulates 5-HT transport. In support of this, alkali-resistant 32P-labeled SERT was found in rat platelets, and Src-tyrosine kinase inhibitor 4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-7-(t-butyl)pyrazolo [3,4,d]pyrimidine (PP2) decreased platelet SERT function and expression. In human placental trophoblast cells expressing SERT, PP2 reduced transporter function, expression, and stability. Although siRNA silencing of Src expression decreased SERT function and expression, coexpression of Src resulted in PP2-sensitive increases in SERT function and expression. PP2 treatment markedly decreased SERT protein stability. Compared with WT-SERT, SERT tyrosine mutants Y47F and Y142F exhibited reduced 5-HT transport despite their higher total and cell surface expression levels. Moreover, Src-coexpression increased total and cell surface expression of Y47F and Y142F SERT mutants without affecting their 5-HT transport capacity. It is noteworthy that Y47F and Y142F mutants exhibited higher protein stability compared with WT-SERT. However, similar to WT-SERT, PP2 treatment decreased the stability of Y47F and Y142F mutants. Furthermore, compared with WT-SERT, Y47F and Y142F mutants exhibited lower basal tyrosine phosphorylation and no further enhancement of tyrosine phosphorylation in response to Src coexpression. These results provide the first evidence that SERT tyrosine phosphorylation supports transporter protein stability and 5HT transport. PMID:21992875

  19. HSF1 phosphorylation by ERK/GSK3 suppresses RNF126 to sustain IGF-IIR expression for hypertension-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chih-Yang; Lee, Fa-Lun; Peng, Shu-Fen; Lin, Kuan-Ho; Chen, Ray-Jade; Ho, Tsung-Jung; Tsai, Fu-Jen; Padma, Vijaya V; Kuo, Wei-Wen; Huang, Chih-Yang

    2018-02-01

    Hypertension-induced cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis are major characteristics of early-stage heart failure (HF). Inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) efficaciously suppressed angiotensin II (ANG II)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis by blocking insulin-like growth factor II receptor (IGF-IIR) signaling. However, the detailed mechanism by which ANG II induces ERK-mediated IGF-IIR signaling remains elusive. Here, we found that ANG II activated ERK to upregulate IGF-IIR expression via the angiotensin II type I receptor (AT 1 R). ERK activation subsequently phosphorylates HSF1 at serine 307, leading to a secondary phosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase III (GSK3) at serine 303. Moreover, we found that ANG II mediated ERK/GSK3-induced IGF-IIR protein stability by downregulating the E3 ubiquitin ligase of IGF-IIR RING finger protein CXXVI (RNF126). The expression of RNF126 decreased following ANG II-induced HSF1 S303 phosphorylation, resulting in IGF-IIR protein stability and increased cardiomyocyte injury. Inhibition of GSK3 significantly alleviated ANG II-induced cardiac hypertrophy in vivo and in vitro. Taken together, these results suggest that HSF1 phosphorylation stabilizes IGF-IIR protein stability by downregulating RNF126 during cardiac hypertrophy. ANG II activates ERK/GSK3 to phosphorylate HSF1, resulting in RNF126 degradation, which stabilizes IGF-IIR protein expression and eventually results in cardiac hypertrophy. HSF1 could be a valuable therapeutic target for cardiac diseases among hypertensive patients. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. dDYRK2 and Minibrain interact with the chromatin remodelling factors SNR1 and TRX.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinstrie, Ross; Lochhead, Pamela A; Sibbet, Gary; Morrice, Nick; Cleghon, Vaughn

    2006-08-15

    The DYRKs (dual specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinases) are a conserved family of protein kinases that autophosphorylate a tyrosine residue in their activation loop by an intra-molecular mechanism and phosphorylate exogenous substrates on serine/threonine residues. Little is known about the identity of true substrates for DYRK family members and their binding partners. To address this question, we used full-length dDYRK2 (Drosophila DYRK2) as bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen of a Drosophila embryo cDNA library. Of 14 independent dDYRK2 interacting clones identified, three were derived from the chromatin remodelling factor, SNR1 (Snf5-related 1), and three from the essential chromatin component, TRX (trithorax). The association of dDYRK2 with SNR1 and TRX was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation studies. Deletion analysis showed that the C-terminus of dDYRK2 modulated the interaction with SNR1 and TRX. DYRK family member MNB (Minibrain) was also found to co-precipitate with SNR1 and TRX, associations that did not require the C-terminus of the molecule. dDYRK2 and MNB were also found to phosphorylate SNR1 at Thr102 in vitro and in vivo. This phosphorylation required the highly conserved DH-box (DYRK homology box) of dDYRK2, whereas the DH-box was not essential for phosphorylation by MNB. This is the first instance of phosphorylation of SNR1 or any of its homologues and implicates the DYRK family of kinases with a role in chromatin remodelling.

  1. Erection capability is potentiated by long-term sildenafil treatment: role of blood flow-induced endothelial nitric-oxide synthase phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musicki, Biljana; Champion, Hunter C; Becker, Robyn E; Liu, Tongyun; Kramer, Melissa F; Burnett, Arthur L

    2005-07-01

    Despite demonstrated clinical efficacy of sildenafil for the temporary treatment of erectile dysfunction, the possibility that sildenafil used long-term durably augments erectile ability remains unclear. We investigated whether continuous long-term administration of sildenafil at clinically relevant levels to aged rats "primes" the penis for improved erectile ability and involves nitric oxide (NO) or RhoA/Rho-kinase signaling pathways. In aged, but not young rats, sildenafil prolonged erection and increased the protein expressions of phosphorylated endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) at serine-1177 and phosphorylated Akt at serine-473 in penes. Only in the young rat penis, protein expressions of phosphodiesterase-5 and phosphomyosin phosphatase target subunit 1, a marker of Rho-kinase activity, were increased by sildenafil. Sildenafil inhibited phosphodiesterase-5 activity in penes of young and aged rats coincident with assayed free plasma levels of the drug equivalent to clinically therapeutic measurements. We conclude that erectile ability can be enhanced under preconditions of erectile impairment by long-term inhibition of phosphodiesterase-5 and that the effect is mediated by Akt-dependent eNOS phosphorylation. The lack of erectile ability enhancement in young rats by long-term phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition may relate to restrained NO signaling by phosphodiesterase-5 up-regulation, lack of incremental Akt and eNOS phosphorylation, and heightened Rho-kinase signaling in the penis.

  2. Obesity does not Lead to Imbalance Between Myocardial Phospholamban Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Freire, Paula Paccielli, E-mail: freirepp@hotmail.com; Alves, Carlos Augusto Barnabe; Deus, Adriana Fernandes de [Departamento de Clínica Médica - Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu - Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP (Brazil); Leopoldo, Ana Paula Lima; Leopoldo, André Soares [Centro de Educação Física e Desportos - Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, ES (Brazil); Silva, Danielle Cristina Tomaz da; Tomasi, Loreta Casquel de; Campos, Dijon Henrique Salomé; Cicogna, Antonio Carlos [Departamento de Clínica Médica - Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu - Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP (Brazil)

    2014-07-15

    The activation of the beta-adrenergic system promotes G protein stimulation that, via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), alters the structure of protein kinase A (PKA) and leads to phospholamban (PLB) phosphorylation. This protein participates in the system that controls intracellular calcium in muscle cells, and it is the primary regulator of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump activity. In obesity, the beta-adrenergic system is activated by the influence of increased leptin, therefore, resulting in higher myocardial phospholamban phosphorylation via cAMP-PKA. To investigate the involvement of proteins which regulate the degree of PLB phosphorylation due to beta-adrenergic activation in obesity. In the present study, we hypothesized that there is an imbalance between phospholamban phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, with prevalence of protein phosphorylation. Male Wistar rats were randomly distributed into two groups: control (n = 14), fed with normocaloric diet; and obese (n = 13), fed with a cycle of four unsaturated high-fat diets. Obesity was determined by the adiposity index, and protein expressions of phosphatase 1 (PP-1), PKA, PLB, phosphorylated phospholamban at serine16 (PPLB-Ser16) were assessed by Western blot. Obesity caused glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperleptinemia and did not alter the protein expression of PKA, PP-1, PLB, PPLB-Ser16. Obesity does not promote an imbalance between myocardial PLB phosphorylation and dephosphorylation via beta-adrenergic system.

  3. Obesity does not Lead to Imbalance Between Myocardial Phospholamban Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freire, Paula Paccielli; Alves, Carlos Augusto Barnabe; Deus, Adriana Fernandes de; Leopoldo, Ana Paula Lima; Leopoldo, André Soares; Silva, Danielle Cristina Tomaz da; Tomasi, Loreta Casquel de; Campos, Dijon Henrique Salomé; Cicogna, Antonio Carlos

    2014-01-01

    The activation of the beta-adrenergic system promotes G protein stimulation that, via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), alters the structure of protein kinase A (PKA) and leads to phospholamban (PLB) phosphorylation. This protein participates in the system that controls intracellular calcium in muscle cells, and it is the primary regulator of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump activity. In obesity, the beta-adrenergic system is activated by the influence of increased leptin, therefore, resulting in higher myocardial phospholamban phosphorylation via cAMP-PKA. To investigate the involvement of proteins which regulate the degree of PLB phosphorylation due to beta-adrenergic activation in obesity. In the present study, we hypothesized that there is an imbalance between phospholamban phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, with prevalence of protein phosphorylation. Male Wistar rats were randomly distributed into two groups: control (n = 14), fed with normocaloric diet; and obese (n = 13), fed with a cycle of four unsaturated high-fat diets. Obesity was determined by the adiposity index, and protein expressions of phosphatase 1 (PP-1), PKA, PLB, phosphorylated phospholamban at serine16 (PPLB-Ser16) were assessed by Western blot. Obesity caused glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperleptinemia and did not alter the protein expression of PKA, PP-1, PLB, PPLB-Ser16. Obesity does not promote an imbalance between myocardial PLB phosphorylation and dephosphorylation via beta-adrenergic system

  4. Obesity does not Lead to Imbalance Between Myocardial Phospholamban Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paula Paccielli Freire

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: The activation of the beta-adrenergic system promotes G protein stimulation that, via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP, alters the structure of protein kinase A (PKA and leads to phospholamban (PLB phosphorylation. This protein participates in the system that controls intracellular calcium in muscle cells, and it is the primary regulator of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump activity. In obesity, the beta-adrenergic system is activated by the influence of increased leptin, therefore, resulting in higher myocardial phospholamban phosphorylation via cAMP-PKA. Objective: To investigate the involvement of proteins which regulate the degree of PLB phosphorylation due to beta-adrenergic activation in obesity. In the present study, we hypothesized that there is an imbalance between phospholamban phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, with prevalence of protein phosphorylation. Methods: Male Wistar rats were randomly distributed into two groups: control (n = 14, fed with normocaloric diet; and obese (n = 13, fed with a cycle of four unsaturated high-fat diets. Obesity was determined by the adiposity index, and protein expressions of phosphatase 1 (PP-1, PKA, PLB, phosphorylated phospholamban at serine16 (PPLB-Ser16 were assessed by Western blot. Results: Obesity caused glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperleptinemia and did not alter the protein expression of PKA, PP-1, PLB, PPLB-Ser16. Conclusion: Obesity does not promote an imbalance between myocardial PLB phosphorylation and dephosphorylation via beta-adrenergic system.

  5. bicaudal-C is required for the formation of anterior neurogenic ectoderm in the sea urchin embryo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yaguchi, Shunsuke; Yaguchi, Junko; Inaba, Kazuo

    2014-10-31

    bicaudal-C (bicC) mRNA encodes a protein containing RNA-binding domains that is reported to be maternally present with deflection in the oocytes/eggs of some species. The translated protein plays a critical role in the regulation of cell fate specification along the body axis during early embryogenesis in flies and frogs. However, it is unclear how it functions in eggs in which bicC mRNA is uniformly distributed, for instance, sea urchin eggs. Here, we show the function of BicC in the formation of neurogenic ectoderm of the sea urchin embryo. Loss-of-function experiments reveal that BicC is required for serotonergic neurogenesis and for expression of ankAT-1 gene, which is essential for the formation of apical tuft cilia in the neurogenic ectoderm of the sea urchin embryo. In contrast, the expression of FoxQ2, the neurogenic ectoderm specification transcription factor, is invariant in BicC morphants. Because FoxQ2 is an upstream factor of serotonergic neurogenesis and ankAT-1 expression, these data indicate that BicC functions in regulating the events that are coordinated by FoxQ2 during sea urchin embryogenesis.

  6. Cdk5 phosphorylates non-genotoxically overexpressed p53 following inhibition of PP2A to induce cell cycle arrest/apoptosis and inhibits tumor progression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kumari Ratna

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background p53 is the most studied tumor suppressor and its overexpression may or may not cause cell death depending upon the genetic background of the cells. p53 is degraded by human papillomavirus (HPV E6 protein in cervical carcinoma. Several stress activated kinases are known to phosphorylate p53 and, among them cyclin dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5 is one of the kinase studied in neuronal cell system. Recently, the involvement of Cdk5 in phosphorylating p53 has been shown in certain cancer types. Phosphorylation at specific serine residues in p53 is essential for it to cause cell growth inhibition. Activation of p53 under non stress conditions is poorly understood. Therefore, the activation of p53 and detection of upstream kinases that phosphorylate non-genotoxically overexpressed p53 will be of therapeutic importance for cancer treatment. Results To determine the non-genotoxic effect of p53; Tet-On system was utilized and p53 inducible HPV-positive HeLa cells were developed. p53 overexpression in HPV-positive cells did not induce cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. However, we demonstrate that overexpressed p53 can be activated to upregulate p21 and Bax which causes G2 arrest and apoptosis, by inhibiting protein phosphatase 2A. Additionally, we report that the upstream kinase cyclin dependent kinase 5 interacts with p53 to phosphorylate it at Serine20 and Serine46 residues thereby promoting its recruitment on p21 and bax promoters. Upregulation and translocation of Bax causes apoptosis through intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. Interestingly, overexpressed activated p53 specifically inhibits cell-growth and causes regression in vivo tumor growth as well. Conclusion Present study details the mechanism of activation of p53 and puts forth the possibility of p53 gene therapy to work in HPV positive cervical carcinoma.

  7. High mobility group box-1 is phosphorylated by protein kinase C zeta and secreted in colon cancer cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Hanna; Park, Minhee; Shin, Nara; Kim, Gamin [Department of Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Sciences, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Yun Gi [Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Jeon-Soo [Department of Microbiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Hoguen, E-mail: hkyonsei@yuhs.ac [Department of Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Sciences, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-07-27

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Specific enzyme for HMGB1 phosphorylation and its secretion is proposed. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Inhibition of PKC-{zeta} leads to significant reduction of the secreted HMGB1. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Phosphorylation of specific site of HMGB1 redirects its secretion in cancer cells. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Activation of PKC-{zeta} in cancers explains the enhanced HMGB1 secretion. -- Abstract: High mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), a nuclear protein, is overexpressed and secreted in cancer cells. Phosphorylation on two different nuclear localization signal regions are known to be important for the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic transport and secretion of HMGB1. However, little is known about the biochemical mechanism of HMGB1 modifications and its subsequent secretion from cancer cells. To identify the specific enzyme and important sites for HMGB1 phosphorylation, we screened the protein kinase C (PKC) family in a colon cancer cell line (HCT116) for HMGB1 binding by pull-down experiments using a 3XFLAG-HMGB1 construct. Strong interactions between atypical PKCs (PKC-{zeta}, {lambda}, and {iota}) and cytoplasmic HMGB1 were observed in HCT116 cells. We further identified the most critical PKC isotype that regulates HMGB1 secretion is PKC-{zeta} by using PKC inhibitors and siRNA experiments. The serine residues at S39, S53 and S181 of HMGB1 were related to enhancing HMGB1 secretion. We also demonstrated overexpression and activation of PKC-{zeta} in colon cancer tissues. Our findings suggest that PKC-{zeta} is involved in the phosphorylation of HMGB1, and the phosphorylation of specific serine residues in the nuclear localization signal regions is related to enhanced HMGB1 secretion in colon cancer cells.

  8. Identification of Ser-543 as the major regulatory phosphorylation site in spinach leaf nitrate reductase

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachmann, M.; Shiraishi, N.; Campbell, W. H.; Yoo, B. C.; Harmon, A. C.; Huber, S. C.; Davies, E. (Principal Investigator)

    1996-01-01

    Spinach leaf NADH:nitrate reductase (NR) responds to light/dark signals and photosynthetic activity in part as a result of rapid regulation by reversible protein phosphorylation. We have identified the major regulatory phosphorylation site as Ser-543, which is located in the hinge 1 region connecting the cytochrome b domain with the molybdenum-pterin cofactor binding domain of NR, using recombinant NR fragments containing or lacking the phosphorylation site sequence. Studies with NR partial reactions indicated that the block in electron flow caused by phosphorylation also could be localized to the hinge 1 region. A synthetic peptide (NR6) based on the phosphorylation site sequence was phosphorylated readily by NR kinase (NRk) in vitro. NR6 kinase activity tracked the ATP-dependent inactivation of NR during several chromatographic steps and completely inhibited inactivation/phosphorylation of native NR in vitro. Two forms of NRk were resolved by using anion exchange chromatography. Studies with synthetic peptide analogs indicated that both forms of NRk had similar specificity determinants, requiring a basic residue at P-3 (i.e., three amino acids N-terminal to the phosphorylated serine) and a hydrophobic residue at P-5. Both forms are strictly calcium dependent but belong to distinct families of protein kinases because they are distinct immunochemically.

  9. LRRK2 Kinase Activity and Biology are Not Uniformly Predicted by its Autophosphorylation and Cellular Phosphorylation Site Status

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    April eReynolds

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Missense mutations in the Leucine Rich Repeat protein Kinase 2 (LRRK2 gene are the most common genetic predisposition to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD LRRK2 is a large multi-domain phosphoprotein with a GTPase domain and a serine/threonine protein kinase domain whose activity is implicated in neuronal toxicity; however the precise mechanism is unknown. LRRK2 autophosphorylates on several serine/threonine residues across the enzyme and is found constitutively phosphorylated on Ser910, Ser935, Ser955 and Ser973, which are proposed to be regulated by upstream kinases. Here we investigate the phosphoregulation at these sites by analyzing the effects of disease-associated mutations Arg1441Cys, Arg1441Gly, Ala1442Pro, Tyr1699Cys, Ile2012Thr, Gly2019Ser, and Ile2020Thr. We also studied alanine substitutions of phosphosite serines 910, 935, 955 and 973 and specific LRRK2 inhibition on autophosphorylation of LRRK2 Ser1292, Thr1491, Thr2483 and phosphorylation at the cellular sites. We found that mutants in the Roc-COR domains, including Arg1441Cys, Arg1441His, Ala1442Pro and Tyr1699Cys, can positively enhance LRRK2 kinase activity while concomitantly inducing the dephosphorylation of the cellular sites. Mutation of the cellular sites individually did not affect LRRK2 intrinsic kinase activity; however, Ser910/935/955/973Ala mutations trended toward increased kinase activity of LRRK2. Increased cAMP levels did not lead to increased LRRK2 cellular site phosphorylation, 14-3-3 binding or kinase activity. In cells, inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity leads to dephosphorylation of Ser1292 by Calyculin A and okadaic acid sensitive phosphatases, while the cellular sites are dephosphorylated by Calyculin A sensitive phosphatases. These findings indicate that comparative analysis of both Ser1292 and Ser910/935/955/973 phosphorylation sites will provide important and distinct measures of LRRK2 kinase and biological activity in vitro and in vivo.

  10. Crystal Structure of Human Dual-Specificity Tyrosine-Regulated Kinase 3 Reveals New Structural Features and Insights into its Auto-phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kuglae; Cha, Jeong Seok; Cho, Yong-Soon; Kim, Hoyoung; Chang, Nienping; Kim, Hye-Jung; Cho, Hyun-Soo

    2018-04-07

    Dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinases (DYRKs) auto-phosphorylate a critical tyrosine residue in their activation loop and phosphorylate their substrate on serine and threonine residues. The auto-phosphorylation occurs intramolecularly and is a one-off event. DYRK3 is selectively expressed at a high level in hematopoietic cells and attenuates erythroblast development, leading to anemia. In the present study, we determined the crystal structure of the mature form of human DYRK3 in complex with harmine, an ATP competitive inhibitor. The crystal structure revealed a phosphorylation site, residue S350, whose phosphorylation increases the stability of DYRK3 and enhances its kinase activity. In addition, our structural and biochemical assays suggest that the N-terminal auto-phosphorylation accessory domain stabilizes the DYRK3 protein, followed by auto-phosphorylation of the tyrosine of the activation loop, which is important for kinase activity. Finally, our docking analysis provides information for the design of novel and potent therapeutics to treat anemia. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Phosphorylation of αB-crystallin: Role in stress, aging and patho-physiological conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bakthisaran, Raman; Akula, Kranthi Kiran; Tangirala, Ramakrishna; Rao, Ch Mohan

    2016-01-01

    αB-crystallin, once thought to be a lenticular protein, is ubiquitous and has critical roles in several cellular processes that are modulated by phosphorylation. Serine residues 19, 45 and 59 of αB-crystallin undergo phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of S45 is mediated by p44/42 MAP kinase, whereas S59 phosphorylation is mediated by MAPKAP kinase-2. Pathway involved in S19 phosphorylation is not known. The review highlights the role of phosphorylation in (i) oligomeric structure, stability and chaperone activity, (ii) cellular processes such as apoptosis, myogenic differentiation, cell cycle regulation and angiogenesis, and (iii) aging, stress, cardiomyopathy-causing αB-crystallin mutants, and in other diseases. Depending on the context and extent of phosphorylation, αB-crystallin seems to confer beneficial or deleterious effects. Phosphorylation alters structure, stability, size distribution and dynamics of the oligomeric assembly, thus modulating chaperone activity and various cellular processes. Phosphorylated αB-crystallin has a tendency to partition to the cytoskeleton and hence to the insoluble fraction. Low levels of phosphorylation appear to be protective, while hyperphosphorylation has negative implications. Mutations in αB-crystallin, such as R120G, Q151X and 464delCT, associated with inherited myofibrillar myopathy lead to hyperphosphorylation and intracellular inclusions. An ongoing study in our laboratory with phosphorylation-mimicking mutants indicates that phosphorylation of R120GαB-crystallin increases its propensity to aggregate. Phosphorylation of αB-crystallin has dual role that manifests either beneficial or deleterious consequences depending on the extent of phosphorylation and interaction with cytoskeleton. Considering that disease-causing mutants of αB-crystallin are hyperphosphorylated, moderation of phosphorylation may be a useful strategy in disease management. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Crystallin

  12. The function of the inner nuclear envelope protein SUN1 in mRNA export is regulated by phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ping; Stumpf, Maria; Müller, Rolf; Eichinger, Ludwig; Glöckner, Gernot; Noegel, Angelika A

    2017-08-22

    SUN1, a component of the LINC (Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton) complex, functions in mammalian mRNA export through the NXF1-dependent pathway. It associates with mRNP complexes by direct interaction with NXF1. It also binds to the NPC through association with the nuclear pore component Nup153, which is involved in mRNA export. The SUN1-NXF1 association is at least partly regulated by a protein kinase C (PKC) which phosphorylates serine 113 (S113) in the N-terminal domain leading to reduced interaction. The phosphorylation appears to be important for the SUN1 function in nuclear mRNA export since GFP-SUN1 carrying a S113A mutation was less efficient in restoring mRNA export after SUN1 knockdown as compared to the wild type protein. By contrast, GFP-SUN1-S113D resembling the phosphorylated state allowed very efficient export of poly(A)+RNA. Furthermore, probing a possible role of the LINC complex component Nesprin-2 in this process we observed impaired mRNA export in Nesprin-2 knockdown cells. This effect might be independent of SUN1 as expression of a GFP tagged SUN-domain deficient SUN1, which no longer can interact with Nesprin-2, did not affect mRNA export.

  13. AMP-activated protein kinase phosphorylates CtBP1 and down-regulates its activity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jae-Hwan; Choi, Soo-Youn; Kang, Byung-Hee; Lee, Soon-Min [National Creative Research Center for Epigenome Reprogramming Network, Departments of Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ischemic/Hypoxic Disease Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799 (Korea, Republic of); Park, Hyung Soon; Kang, Gum-Yong; Bang, Joo Young [Center for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry, Diatech Korea Co., Ltd., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Eun-Jung [National Research Laboratory for Chromatin Dynamics, College of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746 (Korea, Republic of); Youn, Hong-Duk, E-mail: hdyoun@snu.ac.kr [National Creative Research Center for Epigenome Reprogramming Network, Departments of Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ischemic/Hypoxic Disease Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799 (Korea, Republic of); WCU Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-02-01

    Highlights: ► AMPK phosphorylates CtBP1 on serine 158. ► AMPK-mediated phosphorylation of CtBP1 causes the ubiquitination and nuclear export of CtBP1. ► AMPK downregulates the CtBP1-mediated repression of Bax transcription. -- Abstract: CtBP is a transcriptional repressor which plays a significant role in the regulation of cell proliferation and tumor progression. It was reported that glucose withdrawal causes induction of Bax due to the dissociation of CtBP from the Bax promoter. However, the precise mechanism involved in the regulation of CtBP still remains unclear. In this study, we found that an activated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylates CtBP1 on Ser-158 upon metabolic stresses. Moreover, AMPK-mediated phosphorylation of CtBP1 (S158) attenuates the repressive function of CtBP1. We also confirmed that triggering activation of AMPK by various factors resulted in an increase of Bax gene expression. These findings provide connections of AMPK with CtBP1-mediated regulation of Bax expression for cell death under metabolic stresses.

  14. Cotinine improves visual recognition memory and decreases cortical Tau phosphorylation in the Tg6799 mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grizzell, J Alex; Patel, Sagar; Barreto, George E; Echeverria, Valentina

    2017-08-01

    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with the progressive aggregation of hyperphosphorylated forms of the microtubule associated protein Tau in the central nervous system. Cotinine, the main metabolite of nicotine, reduced working memory deficits, synaptic loss, and amyloid β peptide aggregation into oligomers and plaques as well as inhibited the cerebral Tau kinase, glycogen synthase 3β (GSK3β) in the transgenic (Tg)6799 (5XFAD) mice. In this study, the effect of cotinine on visual recognition memory and cortical Tau phosphorylation at the GSK3β sites Serine (Ser)-396/Ser-404 and phospho-CREB were investigated in the Tg6799 and non-transgenic (NT) littermate mice. Tg mice showed short-term visual recognition memory impairment in the novel object recognition test, and higher levels of Tau phosphorylation when compared to NT mice. Cotinine significantly improved visual recognition memory performance increased CREB phosphorylation and reduced cortical Tau phosphorylation. Potential mechanisms underlying theses beneficial effects are discussed. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  15. Filamentous fungal-specific septin AspE is phosphorylated in vivo and interacts with actin, tubulin and other septins in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Juvvadi, Praveen Rao; Belina, Detti; Soderblom, Erik J.; Moseley, M. Arthur; Steinbach, William J.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► In vivo interactions of the novel septin AspE were identified by GFP-Trap® affinity purification. ► Septins AspA, AspB, AspC and AspD interacted with AspE in vivo. ► Actin and tubulin interacted with AspE in vivo. ► AspE is phosphorylated at six serine residues in vivo. -- Abstract: We previously analyzed the differential localization patterns of five septins (AspA–E), including a filamentous fungal-specific septin, AspE, in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Here we utilized the A. fumigatus strain expressing an AspE–EGFP fusion protein and show that this novel septin with a tubular localization pattern in hyphae is phosphorylated in vivo and interacts with the other septins, AspA, AspB, AspC and AspD. The other major proteins interacting with AspE included the cytoskeletal proteins, actin and tubulin, which may be involved in the organization and transport of the septins. This is the first report analyzing the phosphorylation of AspE and localizing the sites of phosphorylation, and opens opportunities for further analysis on the role of post-translational modifications in the assembly and organization of A. fumigatus septins. This study also describes the previously unknown interaction of AspE with the actin-microtubule network. Furthermore, the novel GFP-Trap® affinity purification method used here complements widely-used GFP localization studies in fungal systems

  16. Filamentous fungal-specific septin AspE is phosphorylated in vivo and interacts with actin, tubulin and other septins in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Juvvadi, Praveen Rao; Belina, Detti [Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (United States); Soderblom, Erik J.; Moseley, M. Arthur [Duke Proteomics Core Facility, Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC (United States); Steinbach, William J., E-mail: bill.steinbach@duke.edu [Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (United States); Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (United States)

    2013-02-15

    Highlights: ► In vivo interactions of the novel septin AspE were identified by GFP-Trap® affinity purification. ► Septins AspA, AspB, AspC and AspD interacted with AspE in vivo. ► Actin and tubulin interacted with AspE in vivo. ► AspE is phosphorylated at six serine residues in vivo. -- Abstract: We previously analyzed the differential localization patterns of five septins (AspA–E), including a filamentous fungal-specific septin, AspE, in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Here we utilized the A. fumigatus strain expressing an AspE–EGFP fusion protein and show that this novel septin with a tubular localization pattern in hyphae is phosphorylated in vivo and interacts with the other septins, AspA, AspB, AspC and AspD. The other major proteins interacting with AspE included the cytoskeletal proteins, actin and tubulin, which may be involved in the organization and transport of the septins. This is the first report analyzing the phosphorylation of AspE and localizing the sites of phosphorylation, and opens opportunities for further analysis on the role of post-translational modifications in the assembly and organization of A. fumigatus septins. This study also describes the previously unknown interaction of AspE with the actin-microtubule network. Furthermore, the novel GFP-Trap® affinity purification method used here complements widely-used GFP localization studies in fungal systems.

  17. Cloning and sequence analysis of serine proteinase of Gloydius ussuriensis venom gland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun Dejun; Liu Shanshan; Yang Chunwei; Zhao Yizhuo; Chang Shufang; Yan Weiqun

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To construct a cDNA library by using mRNA from Gloydius ussuriensis (G. Ussuriensis) venom gland, to clone and analyze serine proteinase gene from the cDNA library. Methods: Total RNA was isolated from venom gland of G. ussuriensis, mRNA was purified by using mRNA isolation Kit. The whole length cDNA was synthesized by means of smart cDNA synthesis strategy, and amplified by long distance PCR procedure, lately cDAN was cloned into vector pBluescrip-sk. The recombinant cDNA was transformed into E. coli DH5α. The cDNA of serine proteinase gene in the venom gland of G. ussuriensis was detected and amplified using the in situ hybridization. The cDNA fragment was inserted into pGEMT vector, cloned and its nucleotide sequence was determined. Results: The capacity of cDNA library of venom gland was above 2.3 x 10 6 . Its open reading frame was composed of 702 nucleotides and coded a protein pre-zymogen of 234 amino acids. It contained 12 cysteine residues. The sequence analysis indicated that the deduced amino acid sequence of the cDNA fragment shared high identity with the thrombin-like enzyme genes of other snakes in the GenBank. the query sequence exhibited strong amino acid sequence homology of 85% to the serine proteas of T. gramineus, thrombin-like serine proteinase I of D. acutus and serine protease catroxase II of C. atrox respectively. Based on the amino acid sequences of other thrombin-like enzymes, the catalytic residues and disulfide bridges of this thrombin-like enzyme were deduced as follows: catalytic residues, His 41 , Asp 86 , Ser 180 ; and six disulfide bridges Cys 7 -Cys 139 , Cys 26 -Cys 42 , Cys 74 -Cys 232 , Cys 118 -Cys 186 , Cys 150 -Cys 165 , Cys 176 -Cys 201 . Conclusion: The capacity of cDNA library of venom gland is above 2.3 x 10 6 , overtop the level of 10 5 capicity. The constructed cDNA library of G. ussuriensis venom gland would be helpful platform to detect new target genes and further gene manipulate. The cloned serine

  18. Interleukin 1β induces rapid phosphorylation and redistribution of talin: A possible mechanism for modulation of fibroblast focal adhesion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qwarnstroem, E.E.; MacFarlane, S.A.; Page, R.C.; Dower, S.K.

    1991-01-01

    The majority of interleukin 1 (IL-1) receptors in human fibroblasts has been shown to be localized at focal adhesions. This study describes rapid alterations caused by IL-1β/IL-1-receptor interaction at these sites. Fibroblast monolayers, incubated with IL-1β and prepared for electron microscopy, showed successive loss of cell-substratum contact and fewer and less-pronounced processes. Immunocytochemistry revealed loss and redistribution of the talin staining initially observed after 5-15 min of IL-1β incubation. Similarly, the cytoskeleton showed a decrease in staining and a disorganization starting from 15 to 30 min after IL-1 addition, whereas extracellular fibronectin appeared largely unaffected. Prelabeling with [ 32 P]phosphate showed a 2- to 3-fold increase in the level of talin phosphorylation, peaking at 15 min. Phospho amino acid analyses revealed a higher level of serine and threonine phosphorylation. The data suggest that the action of IL-1β on fibroblasts may be partially mediated by direct phosphorylation of talin via activation of a protein serine/threonine kinase, leading to changes in transmembrane linkage proteins and the cytoskeleton. Such alterations at focal adhesions may provide a mechanism by which IL-1 can rapidly modulate cell-matrix interactions during inflammation and wound healing

  19. Pea DNA topoisomerase I is phosphorylated and stimulated by casein kinase 2 and protein kinase C.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuteja, Narendra; Reddy, Malireddy Kodandarami; Mudgil, Yashwanti; Yadav, Badam Singh; Chandok, Meena Rani; Sopory, Sudhir Kumar

    2003-08-01

    DNA topoisomerase I catalyzes the relaxation of superhelical DNA tension and is vital for DNA metabolism; therefore, it is essential for growth and development of plants. Here, we have studied the phosphorylation-dependent regulation of topoisomerase I from pea (Pisum sativum). The purified enzyme did not show autophosphorylation but was phosphorylated in an Mg(2+)-dependent manner by endogenous protein kinases present in pea nuclear extracts. This phosphorylation was abolished with calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase and lambda phosphatase. It was also phosphorylated by exogenous casein kinase 2 (CK2), protein kinase C (PKC; from animal sources), and an endogenous pea protein, which was purified using a novel phorbol myristate acetate affinity chromatography method. All of these phosphorylations were inhibited by heparin (inhibitor of CK2) and calphostin (inhibitor of PKC), suggesting that pea topoisomerase I is a bona fide substrate for these kinases. Spermine and spermidine had no effect on the CK2-mediated phosphorylation, suggesting that it is polyamine independent. Phospho-amino acid analysis showed that only serine residues were phosphorylated, which was further confirmed using antiphosphoserine antibody. The topoisomerase I activity increased after phosphorylation with exogenous CK2 and PKC. This study shows that these kinases may contribute to the physiological regulation of DNA topoisomerase I activity and overall DNA metabolism in plants.

  20. The in vivo phosphorylation sites in multiple isoforms of amphiphysin I from rat brain nerve terminals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Craft, George E; Graham, Mark E; Bache, Nicolai

    2008-01-01

    : serines 250, 252, 262, 268, 272, 276, 285, 293, 496, 514, 539, and 626 and Thr-310. These were distributed into two clusters around the proline-rich domain and the C-terminal Src homology 3 domain. Hierarchical phosphorylation of Ser-262 preceded phosphorylation of Ser-268, -272, -276, and -285. Off......, incorporating 16 and 23% of the 32P. The multiple phosphopeptides containing Ser-268, Ser-276, Ser-272, and Ser-285 had 27% of the 32P. Evidence for a role for at least one proline-directed protein kinase and one non-proline-directed kinase was obtained. Four phosphosites predicted for non-proline...... that are either dynamically turning over or constitutively phosphorylated in nerve terminals and improve understanding of the role of individual amphI sites or phosphosite clusters in synaptic SVE....

  1. Simultaneous analysis of D-alanine, D-aspartic acid, and D-serine using chiral high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and its application to the rat plasma and tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karakawa, Sachise; Shimbo, Kazutaka; Yamada, Naoyuki; Mizukoshi, Toshimi; Miyano, Hiroshi; Mita, Masashi; Lindner, Wolfgang; Hamase, Kenji

    2015-11-10

    A highly sensitive and selective chiral LC-MS/MS method for D-alanine, D-aspartic acid and D-serine has been developed using the precolumn derivatization reagents, 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate (AccQ-Tag) or p-N,N,N-trimethylammonioanilyl N'-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate iodide (TAHS). The thus N-tagged enantiomers of the derivatized amino acids were nicely separated within 20min using the cinchona alkaloid-based zwittterionic ion-exchange type enantioselective column, Chiralpak ZWIX(+). The selected reaction monitoring was applied for detecting the target d-amino acids in biological matrices. By using the present chiral LC-MS/MS method, the three d-amino acids and their l-forms could be simultaneously determined in the range of 0.1-500nmol/mL. Finally, the technique was successfully applied to rat plasma and tissue samples. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Hepatitis C Virus Particle Assembly Involves Phosphorylation of NS5A by the c-Abl Tyrosine Kinase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamauchi, Shota; Takeuchi, Kenji; Chihara, Kazuyasu; Sun, Xuedong; Honjoh, Chisato; Yoshiki, Hatsumi; Hotta, Hak; Sada, Kiyonao

    2015-09-04

    Hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) is thought to regulate the replication of viral RNA and the assembly of virus particles in a serine/threonine phosphorylation-dependent manner. However, the host kinases that phosphorylate NS5A have not been fully identified. Here, we show that HCV particle assembly involves the phosphorylation of NS5A by the c-Abl tyrosine kinase. Pharmacological inhibition or knockdown of c-Abl reduces the production of infectious HCV (J6/JFH1) particles in Huh-7.5 cells without markedly affecting viral RNA translation and replication. NS5A is tyrosine-phosphorylated in HCV-infected cells, and this phosphorylation is also reduced by the knockdown of c-Abl. Mutational analysis reveals that NS5A tyrosine phosphorylation is dependent, at least in part, on Tyr(330) (Tyr(2306) in polyprotein numbering). Mutation of this residue to phenylalanine reduces the production of infectious HCV particles but does not affect the replication of the JFH1 subgenomic replicon. These findings suggest that c-Abl promotes HCV particle assembly by phosphorylating NS5A at Tyr(330). © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  3. AKT phosphorylates H3-threonine 45 to facilitate termination of gene transcription in response to DNA damage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jong-Hyuk; Kang, Byung-Hee; Jang, Hyonchol; Kim, Tae Wan; Choi, Jinmi; Kwak, Sojung; Han, Jungwon; Cho, Eun-Jung; Youn, Hong-Duk

    2015-05-19

    Post-translational modifications of core histones affect various cellular processes, primarily through transcription. However, their relationship with the termination of transcription has remained largely unknown. In this study, we show that DNA damage-activated AKT phosphorylates threonine 45 of core histone H3 (H3-T45). By genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis, H3-T45 phosphorylation was distributed throughout DNA damage-responsive gene loci, particularly immediately after the transcription termination site. H3-T45 phosphorylation pattern showed close-resemblance to that of RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) serine 2 phosphorylation, which establishes the transcription termination signal. AKT1 was more effective than AKT2 in phosphorylating H3-T45. Blocking H3-T45 phosphorylation by inhibiting AKT or through amino acid substitution limited RNA decay downstream of mRNA cleavage sites and decreased RNA polymerase II release from chromatin. Our findings suggest that AKT-mediated phosphorylation of H3-T45 regulates the processing of the 3' end of DNA damage-activated genes to facilitate transcriptional termination. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  4. Identifying protein phosphorylation sites with kinase substrate specificity on human viruses.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neil Arvin Bretaña

    Full Text Available Viruses infect humans and progress inside the body leading to various diseases and complications. The phosphorylation of viral proteins catalyzed by host kinases plays crucial regulatory roles in enhancing replication and inhibition of normal host-cell functions. Due to its biological importance, there is a desire to identify the protein phosphorylation sites on human viruses. However, the use of mass spectrometry-based experiments is proven to be expensive and labor-intensive. Furthermore, previous studies which have identified phosphorylation sites in human viruses do not include the investigation of the responsible kinases. Thus, we are motivated to propose a new method to identify protein phosphorylation sites with its kinase substrate specificity on human viruses. The experimentally verified phosphorylation data were extracted from virPTM--a database containing 301 experimentally verified phosphorylation data on 104 human kinase-phosphorylated virus proteins. In an attempt to investigate kinase substrate specificities in viral protein phosphorylation sites, maximal dependence decomposition (MDD is employed to cluster a large set of phosphorylation data into subgroups containing significantly conserved motifs. The experimental human phosphorylation sites are collected from Phospho.ELM, grouped according to its kinase annotation, and compared with the virus MDD clusters. This investigation identifies human kinases such as CK2, PKB, CDK, and MAPK as potential kinases for catalyzing virus protein substrates as confirmed by published literature. Profile hidden Markov model is then applied to learn a predictive model for each subgroup. A five-fold cross validation evaluation on the MDD-clustered HMMs yields an average accuracy of 84.93% for Serine, and 78.05% for Threonine. Furthermore, an independent testing data collected from UniProtKB and Phospho.ELM is used to make a comparison of predictive performance on three popular kinase

  5. Identifying protein phosphorylation sites with kinase substrate specificity on human viruses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bretaña, Neil Arvin; Lu, Cheng-Tsung; Chiang, Chiu-Yun; Su, Min-Gang; Huang, Kai-Yao; Lee, Tzong-Yi; Weng, Shun-Long

    2012-01-01

    Viruses infect humans and progress inside the body leading to various diseases and complications. The phosphorylation of viral proteins catalyzed by host kinases plays crucial regulatory roles in enhancing replication and inhibition of normal host-cell functions. Due to its biological importance, there is a desire to identify the protein phosphorylation sites on human viruses. However, the use of mass spectrometry-based experiments is proven to be expensive and labor-intensive. Furthermore, previous studies which have identified phosphorylation sites in human viruses do not include the investigation of the responsible kinases. Thus, we are motivated to propose a new method to identify protein phosphorylation sites with its kinase substrate specificity on human viruses. The experimentally verified phosphorylation data were extracted from virPTM--a database containing 301 experimentally verified phosphorylation data on 104 human kinase-phosphorylated virus proteins. In an attempt to investigate kinase substrate specificities in viral protein phosphorylation sites, maximal dependence decomposition (MDD) is employed to cluster a large set of phosphorylation data into subgroups containing significantly conserved motifs. The experimental human phosphorylation sites are collected from Phospho.ELM, grouped according to its kinase annotation, and compared with the virus MDD clusters. This investigation identifies human kinases such as CK2, PKB, CDK, and MAPK as potential kinases for catalyzing virus protein substrates as confirmed by published literature. Profile hidden Markov model is then applied to learn a predictive model for each subgroup. A five-fold cross validation evaluation on the MDD-clustered HMMs yields an average accuracy of 84.93% for Serine, and 78.05% for Threonine. Furthermore, an independent testing data collected from UniProtKB and Phospho.ELM is used to make a comparison of predictive performance on three popular kinase-specific phosphorylation site

  6. Glycine serine interconversion in the rooster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugahara, Michihiro; Kandatsu, Makoto

    1976-01-01

    Serine was isolated by the column chromatography from the hydrolyzates of proteins of the serum, the liver and the pectoral muscle which were obtained from the roosters fed a diet containing 2- 14 C glycine for 16 - 17 days. The carbon chain of serine was cut off by treating with sodium periodate. The specific activity of each carbon (as barium carbonate) was estimated. Carboxyl carbon had little radioactivity. The specific activity of hydroxymethyl carbon was 10 - 19% of that of methylene carbon. Glycine isolated from the same hydrolyzates was degraded by ninhydrin oxidation. Formaldehyde produced from 2-C was oxidized to carbon dioxide by treating with mercuric chloride. Carboxyl carbon had little radioactivity. The specific activities of 2-C of glycine and 2-C of serine in the same tissue protein were compared. The ratio of serine 2-C/glycine 2-C was between 0.7 - 1.5. These results seem to indicate that glycine directly converts to serine in the rooster. The quantitative significance of the pathways of glycine (serine) biosynthesis is discussed. (auth.)

  7. Characterization and modelling of VanT: a novel, membrane-bound, serine racemase from vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus gallinarum BM4174.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arias, C A; Martín-Martinez, M; Blundell, T L; Arthur, M; Courvalin, P; Reynolds, P E

    1999-03-01

    Sequence determination of a region downstream from the vanXYc gene in Enterococcus gallinarum BM4174 revealed an open reading frame, designated vanT, that encodes a 698-amino-acid polypeptide with an amino-terminal domain containing 10 predicted transmembrane segments. The protein contained a highly conserved pyridoxal phosphate attachment site in the C-terminal domain, typical of alanine racemases. The protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, and serine racemase activity was detected in the membrane but not in the cytoplasmic fraction after centrifugation of sonicated cells, whereas alanine racemase activity was located almost exclusively in the cytoplasm. When the protein was overexpressed as a polypeptide lacking the predicted transmembrane domain, serine racemase activity was detected in the cytoplasm. The serine racemase activity was partially (64%) inhibited by D-cycloserine, whereas host alanine racemase activity was almost totally inhibited (97%). Serine racemase activity was also detected in membrane preparations of constitutively vancomycin-resistant E. gallinarum BM4174 but not in BM4175, in which insertional inactivation of the vanC-1 D-Ala:D-Ser ligase gene probably had a polar effect on expression of the vanXYc and vanT genes. Comparative modelling of the deduced C-terminal domain was based on the alignment of VanT with the Air alanine racemase from Bacillus stearothermophilus. The model revealed that almost all critical amino acids in the active site of Air were conserved in VanT, indicating that the C-terminal domain of VanT is likely to adopt a three-dimensional structure similar to that of Air and that the protein could exist as a dimer. These results indicate that the source of D-serine for peptidoglycan synthesis in vancomycin-resistant enterococci expressing the VanC phenotype involves racemization of L- to D-serine by a membrane-bound serine racemase.

  8. Phosphorylation of Krüppel-like factor 3 (KLF3/BKLF) and C-terminal binding protein 2 (CtBP2) by homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) modulates KLF3 DNA binding and activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewi, Vitri; Kwok, Alister; Lee, Stella; Lee, Ming Min; Tan, Yee Mun; Nicholas, Hannah R; Isono, Kyo-ichi; Wienert, Beeke; Mak, Ka Sin; Knights, Alexander J; Quinlan, Kate G R; Cordwell, Stuart J; Funnell, Alister P W; Pearson, Richard C M; Crossley, Merlin

    2015-03-27

    Krüppel-like factor 3 (KLF3/BKLF), a member of the Krüppel-like factor (KLF) family of transcription factors, is a widely expressed transcriptional repressor with diverse biological roles. Although there is considerable understanding of the molecular mechanisms that allow KLF3 to silence the activity of its target genes, less is known about the signal transduction pathways and post-translational modifications that modulate KLF3 activity in response to physiological stimuli. We observed that KLF3 is modified in a range of different tissues and found that the serine/threonine kinase homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) can both bind and phosphorylate KLF3. Mass spectrometry identified serine 249 as the primary phosphorylation site. Mutation of this site reduces the ability of KLF3 to bind DNA and repress transcription. Furthermore, we also determined that HIPK2 can phosphorylate the KLF3 co-repressor C-terminal binding protein 2 (CtBP2) at serine 428. Finally, we found that phosphorylation of KLF3 and CtBP2 by HIPK2 strengthens the interaction between these two factors and increases transcriptional repression by KLF3. Taken together, our results indicate that HIPK2 potentiates the activity of KLF3. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  9. PEST Motif Serine and Tyrosine Phosphorylation Controls Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 Stability and Downregulation ▿

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Rosana D.; Srinivasan, Srimathi; Singh, Amrik J.; Mahoney, John E.; Gharahassanlou, Kobra Rezazadeh; Rahimi, Nader

    2011-01-01

    The internalization and degradation of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2), a potent angiogenic receptor tyrosine kinase, is a central mechanism for the regulation of the coordinated action of VEGF in angiogenesis. Here, we show that VEGFR-2 is ubiquitinated in response to VEGF, and Lys 48-linked polyubiquitination controls its degradation via the 26S proteosome. The degradation and ubiquitination of VEGFR-2 is controlled by its PEST domain, and the phosphorylation of Ser1188/Ser1191 is required for the ubiquitination of VEGFR-2. F-box-containing β-Trcp1 ubiquitin E3 ligase is recruited to S1188/S1191 VEGFR-2 and mediates the ubiquitination and degradation of VEGFR-2. The PEST domain also controls the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) through phospho-Y1173. The activation of p38 stabilizes VEGFR-2, and its inactivation accelerates VEGFR-2 downregulation. The VEGFR-2-mediated activation of p38 is established through the protein kinase A (PKA)/MKK6 pathway. PKA is recruited to VEGFR-2 through AKAP1/AKAP149, and its phosphorylation requires Y1173 of VEGFR-2. The study has identified a unique mechanism in which VEGFR-2 stability and degradation is modulated. The PEST domain acts as a dual modulator of VEGFR-2; the phosphorylation of S1188/S1191 controls ubiquitination and degradation via β-Trcp1, where the phosphorylation of Y1173 through PKA/p38 MAPK controls the stability of VEGFR-2. PMID:21402774

  10. Phosphorylation of hormone-sensitive lipase by protein kinase A in vitro promotes an increase in its hydrophobic surface area

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krintel, Christian; Mörgelin, Matthias; Logan, Derek T

    2009-01-01

    Hormone-sensitive lipase (EC 3.1.1.79; HSL) is a key enzyme in the mobilization of fatty acids from stored triacylglycerols. HSL activity is controlled by phosphorylation of at least four serines. In rat HSL, Ser563, Ser659 and Ser660 are phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA) in vitro as well......, the hydrophobic fluorescent probe 4,4'-dianilino-1,1'-binaphthyl-5,5'-disulfonic acid (bis-ANS) was found to inhibit the hydrolysis of triolein by purified recombinant rat adipocyte HSL, with a decrease in the effect of bis-ANS upon PKA phosphorylation of HSL. The interaction of HSL with bis-ANS was found to have...... a Kd of 1 microM in binding assays. Upon PKA phosphorylation, the interactions of HSL with both bis-ANS and the alternative probe SYPRO Orange were increased. By negative stain transmission electron microscopy, phosphorylated HSL was found to have a closer interaction with phospholipid vesicles than...

  11. A mass spectrometry-based proteomic approach for identification of serine/threonine-phosphorylated proteins by enrichment with phospho-specific antibodies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grønborg, Mads; Kristiansen, Troels Zakarias; Stensballe, Allan

    2002-01-01

    /threonine-phosphorylated proteins including drebrin 1, alpha-actinin 4, and filamin-1. We also identified a protein, poly(A)-binding protein 2, which was previously not known to be phosphorylated, in addition to a novel protein without any obvious domains that we designate as Frigg. Frigg is widely expressed and was demonstrated...

  12. Multiple phosphorylation sites at the C-terminus regulate nuclear import of HCMV DNA polymerase processivity factor ppUL44

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alvisi, Gualtiero; Marin, Oriano; Pari, Gregory; Mancini, Manuela; Avanzi, Simone; Loregian, Arianna; Jans, David A.; Ripalti, Alessandro

    2011-01-01

    The processivity factor of human cytomegalovirus DNA polymerase, phosphoprotein ppUL44, is essential for viral replication. During viral infection ppUL44 is phosphorylated by the viral kinase pUL97, but neither the target residues on ppUL44 nor the effect of phosphorylation on ppUL44's activity are known. We report here that ppUL44 is phosphorylated when transiently expressed in mammalian cells and coimmunoprecipitates with cellular kinases. Of three potential phosphorylation sites (S413, S415, S418) located upstream of ppUL44's nuclear localization signal (NLS) and one (T427) within the NLS itself, protein kinase CK2 (CK2) specifically phosphorylates S413, to trigger a cascade of phosphorylation of S418 and S415 by CK1 and CK2, respectively. Negative charge at the CK2/CK1 target serine residues facilitates optimal nuclear accumulation of ppUL44, whereas negative charge on T427, a potential cyclin-dependent 1 phosphorylation site, strongly decreases nuclear accumulation. Thus, nuclear transport of ppUL44 is finely tuned during viral infection through complex phosphorylation events.

  13. Effects of kinase inhibitors and potassium phosphate (KPi) on site-specific phosphorylation of branched chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKDH)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuntz, M.J.; Shimomura, Y.; Ozawa, T.; Harris, R.A.

    1987-01-01

    BCKDH is phosphorylated by a copurifying kinase at two serine residues on the Elα subunit. Phosphorylation of both sites occurs at about the same rate initially, but inactivation is believed associated only with site 1 phosphorylation. The effects of KPi and known inhibitors of BCKDH kinase, α-chloroisocaproate (CIC) and branched chain α-ketoacids (BCKA), on the phosphorylation of purified rat liver BCKDH were studied. Site-specific phosphorylation was quantitated by thin-layer electrophoresis of tryptic peptides followed by densitometric scanning of autoradiograms. Addition of 5 mM KPi was found necessary to stabilize the BCKDH activity at 37 0 C. Increasing the KPi to 50 mM dramatically increased the CIC and BCKA inhibition of site 1 and site 2 phosphorylation. The finding of enhanced sensitivity of inhibitors with 50 mM KPi may facilitate identification of physiologically important kinase effectors. Regardless of the KPi concentration, CIC and the BCKA showed much more effective inhibition of site 2 than site 1 phosphorylation. Although site 1 is the primary inactivating site, predominant inhibition of site 2 phosphorylation may provide a means of modulating kinase/phosphatase control of BCKDH activity under steady state conditions

  14. Serine protease from midgut of Bombus terrestris males

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Brabcová, Jana; Kindl, Jiří; Valterová, Irena; Pichová, Iva; Zarevúcka, Marie; Brabcová, J.; Jágr, Michal; Mikšík, Ivan

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 82, č. 3 (2013), s. 117-128 ISSN 0739-4462 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA203/09/1446; GA TA ČR TA01020969 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 ; RVO:67985823 Keywords : Bombus terrestris * midgut * serine protease * bumblebee Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry; CE - Biochemistry (FGU-C) Impact factor: 1.160, year: 2013

  15. PKCδ-mediated phosphorylation of BAG3 at Ser187 site induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition and enhances invasiveness in thyroid cancer FRO cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, N; Du, Z-X; Zong, Z-H; Liu, B-Q; Li, C; Zhang, Q; Wang, H-Q

    2013-09-19

    Protein kinase C delta (PKCδ) is a serine (Ser)/threonine kinase, which regulates numerous cellular processes, including proliferation, differentiation, migration and apoptosis. In the current study, Chinese hamster ovary cells were transfected with either a constitutively activated PKCδ or a dominant negative PKCδ, phosphoprotein enrichment, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry was combined to globally identified candidates of PKCδ cascade. We found that Bcl-2 associated athanogene 3 (BAG3) was one of the targets of PKCδ cascade, and BAG3 interacted with PKCδ in vivo. In addition, we clarified that BAG3 was phosphorylate at Ser187 site in a PKCδ-dependent manner in vivo. BAG3 has been implicated in multiple cellular functions, including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, macroautophagy and so on. We generated wild-type (WT)-, Ser187Ala (S187A)- or Ser187Asp (S187D)-BAG3 stably expressing FRO cells, and noticed that phosphorylation state of BAG3 influenced FRO morphology. Finally, for the first time, we showed that BAG3 was implicated in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) procedure, and phosphorylation state at Ser187 site had a critical role in EMT regulation by BAG3. Collectively, the current study indicates that BAG3 is a novel substrate of PKCδ, and PKCδ-mediated phosphorylation of BAG3 is implicated in EMT and invasiveness of thyroid cancer cells.

  16. Akt regulates the subcellular localization of the Rab27a-binding protein JFC1 by phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Jennifer L; Pacquelet, Sandrine; Lane, William S; Eam, Boreth; Catz, Sergio D

    2005-08-01

    Here, we show that the Rab27a-binding protein JFC1/Slp1 (synaptotagmin-like protein) is regulated by Akt-mediated phosphorylation. Using the phosphatase and tensin homolog-null LNCaP cells and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002, we show that the phosphorylation of endogenous JFC1 is dependent on the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt pathway. JFC1 was phosphorylated in cells expressing a constitutively active Akt, confirming that it is an Akt substrate in vivo. Direct phosphorylation of JFC1 by Akt was confirmed in vitro. Using microcapillary high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, we identified five Akt-phosphorylation sites in JFC1. By mutagenesis analysis and subsequent immunoprecipitation (IP), we established that Akt phosphorylates JFC1 at serine 241. JFC1 and Rab27a colocalize in the proximity of the plasma membrane in LNCaP cells. The interaction was confirmed by IP analysis and was abolished by the point mutation W83S in JFC1. Phosphorylation did not alter the ability of JFC1 to bind to Rab27a. Instead, phosphorylation by Akt dramatically decreased when JFC1 was bound to Rab27a. Finally, we show that as a consequence of in vivo phosphorylation, JFC1 dissociates from the membrane, promoting JFC1 redistribution to the cytosol. Our results suggest that Akt regulates JFC1/Slp1 function by phosphorylation and may have implications on Rab27a-containing vesicle secretion.

  17. Mutation of the regulatory phosphorylation site of tobacco nitrate reductase results in high nitrite excretion and NO emission from leaf and root tissue

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lea, US; ten Hoopen, F; Provan, F; Kaiser, WM; Meyer, C; Lillo, C

    In wild-type Nicotiana plumbaginifolia Viv. and other higher plants, nitrate reductase (NR) is regulated at the post-translational level and is rapidly inactivated in response to, for example, a light-to-dark transition. This inactivation is caused by phosphorylation of a conserved regulatory serine

  18. Insulin stimulation regulates AS160 and TBC1D1 phosphorylation sites in human skeletal muscle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Middelbeek, R J W; Chambers, M A; Tantiwong, P

    2013-01-01

    Individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are typically insulin resistant, exhibiting impaired skeletal muscle glucose uptake. Animal and cell culture experiments have shown that site-specific phosphorylation of the Rab-GTPase-activating proteins AS160 and TBC1D1 is critical for GLUT4 tr...

  19. The O-β-linked N-acetylglucosaminylation of the Lamin B receptor and its impact on DNA binding and phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smet-Nocca, Caroline; Page, Adeline; Cantrelle, François-Xavier; Nikolakaki, Eleni; Landrieu, Isabelle; Giannakouros, Thomas

    2018-04-01

    Lamin B Receptor (LBR) is an integral protein of the interphase inner nuclear membrane that is implicated in chromatin anchorage to the nuclear envelope. Phosphorylation of a stretch of arginine-serine (RS) dipeptides in the amino-terminal nucleoplasmic domain of LBR regulates the interactions of the receptor with other nuclear proteins, DNA and RNA and thus modulates tethering of heterochromatin to the nuclear envelope. While phosphorylation has been extensively studied, very little is known about other post-translational modifications of the protein. There is only one report on the O-β-linked N-acetyl-glucosaminylation (O-GlcNAcylation) of a serine residue downstream of the RS domain of rat LBR. In the present study we identify additional O-GlcNAcylation sites by using as substrates of O-β-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (OGT) a set of peptides containing the entire LBR RS domain or parts of it as well as flanking sequences. The in vitro activity of OGT was assessed by tandem mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, we provide evidence that O-GlcNAcylation hampers DNA binding while it marginally affects RS domain phosphorylation mediated by SRPK1, Akt2 and cdk1 kinases. Our methodology providing a quantitative description of O-GlcNAc patterns based on a combination of mass spectrometry and high resolution NMR spectroscopy on short peptide substrates allows subsequent functional analyses. Hence, our approach is of general interest to a wide audience of biologists aiming at deciphering the functional role of O-GlcNAc glycosylation and its crosstalk with phosphorylation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Basal Levels of AMPA Receptor GluA1 Subunit Phosphorylation at Threonine 840 and Serine 845 in Hippocampal Neurons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babiec, Walter E.; Guglietta, Ryan; O'Dell, Thomas J.

    2016-01-01

    Dephosphorylation of AMPA receptor (AMPAR) GluA1 subunits at two sites, serine 845 (S845) and threonine 840 (T840), is thought to be involved in NMDA receptor-dependent forms of long-term depression (LTD). Importantly, the notion that dephosphorylation of these sites contributes to LTD assumes that a significant fraction of GluA1 subunits are…

  1. A Clostridium difficile alanine racemase affects spore germination and accommodates serine as a substrate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shrestha, Ritu; Lockless, Steve W; Sorg, Joseph A

    2017-06-23

    Clostridium difficile has become one of the most common bacterial pathogens in hospital-acquired infections in the United States. Although C. difficile is strictly anaerobic, it survives in aerobic environments and transmits between hosts via spores. C. difficile spore germination is triggered in response to certain bile acids and glycine. Although glycine is the most effective co-germinant, other amino acids can substitute with varying efficiencies. Of these, l-alanine is an effective co-germinant and is also a germinant for most bacterial spores. Many endospore-forming bacteria embed alanine racemases into their spore coats, and these enzymes are thought to convert the l-alanine germinant into d-alanine, a spore germination inhibitor. Although the C. difficile Alr2 racemase is the sixth most highly expressed gene during C. difficile spore formation, a previous study reported that Alr2 has little to no role in germination of C. difficile spores in rich medium. Here, we hypothesized that Alr2 could affect C. difficile l-alanine-induced spore germination in a defined medium. We found that alr2 mutant spores more readily germinate in response to l-alanine as a co-germinant. Surprisingly, d-alanine also functioned as a co-germinant. Moreover, we found that Alr2 could interconvert l- and d-serine and that Alr2 bound to l- and d-serine with ∼2-fold weaker affinity to that of l- and d-alanine. Finally, we demonstrate that l- and d-serine are also co-germinants for C. difficile spores. These results suggest that C. difficile spores can respond to a diverse set of amino acid co-germinants and reveal that Alr2 can accommodate serine as a substrate. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  2. Acute exercise and physiological insulin induce distinct phosphorylation signatures on TBC1D1 and TBC1D4 in human skeletal muscle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Treebak, Jonas Thue; Pehmøller, Christian; Kristensen, Jonas Møller

    2014-01-01

    We investigated the phosphorylation signatures of two Rab GTPase activating proteins TBC1D1 and TBC1D4 in human skeletal muscle in response to physical exercise and physiological insulin levels induced by a carbohydrate rich meal using a paired experimental design. Eight healthy male volunteers e...

  3. Stat1 phosphorylation determines Ras oncogenicity by regulating p27 kip1.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuo Wang

    Full Text Available Inactivation of p27 Kip1 is implicated in tumorigenesis and has both prognostic and treatment-predictive values for many types of human cancer. The transcription factor Stat1 is essential for innate immunity and tumor immunosurveillance through its ability to act downstream of interferons. Herein, we demonstrate that Stat1 functions as a suppressor of Ras transformation independently of an interferon response. Inhibition of Ras transformation and tumorigenesis requires the phosphorylation of Stat1 at tyrosine 701 but is independent of Stat1 phosphorylation at serine 727. Stat1 induces p27 Kip1 expression in Ras transformed cells at the transcriptional level through mechanisms that depend on Stat1 phosphorylation at tyrosine 701 and activation of Stat3. The tumor suppressor properties of Stat1 in Ras transformation are reversed by the inactivation of p27 Kip1. Our work reveals a novel functional link between Stat1 and p27 Kip1, which act in coordination to suppress the oncogenic properties of activated Ras. It also supports the notion that evaluation of Stat1 phosphorylation in human tumors may prove a reliable prognostic factor for patient outcome and a predictor of treatment response to anticancer therapies aimed at activating Stat1 and its downstream effectors.

  4. Myosin Light Chain Kinase and the Role of Myosin Light Chain Phosphorylation in Skeletal Muscle

    OpenAIRE

    Stull, James T.; Kamm, Kristine E.; Vandenboom, Rene

    2011-01-01

    Skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase (skMLCK) is a dedicated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent serine-threonine protein kinase that phosphorylates the regulatory light chain (RLC) of sarcomeric myosin. It is expressed from the MYLK2 gene specifically in skeletal muscle fibers with most abundance in fast contracting muscles. Biochemically, activation occurs with Ca2+ binding to calmodulin forming a (Ca2+)4•calmodulin complex sufficient for activation with a diffusion limited, stoichiometic bindin...

  5. Sphingoid bases and the serine catabolic enzyme CHA1 define a novel feedforward/feedback mechanism in the response to serine availability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montefusco, David J; Newcomb, Benjamin; Gandy, Jason L; Brice, Sarah E; Matmati, Nabil; Cowart, L Ashley; Hannun, Yusuf A

    2012-03-16

    Targets of bioactive sphingolipids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were previously identified using microarray experiments focused on sphingolipid-dependent responses to heat stress. One of these heat-induced genes is the serine deamidase/dehydratase Cha1 known to be regulated by increased serine availability. This study investigated the hypothesis that sphingolipids may mediate the induction of Cha1 in response to serine availability. The results showed that inhibition of de novo synthesis of sphingolipids, pharmacologically or genetically, prevented the induction of Cha1 in response to increased serine availability. Additional studies implicated the sphingoid bases phytosphingosine and dihydrosphingosine as the likely mediators of Cha1 up-regulation. The yeast protein kinases Pkh1 and Pkh2, known sphingoid base effectors, were found to mediate CHA1 up-regulation via the transcription factor Cha4. Because the results disclosed a role for sphingolipids in negative feedback regulation of serine metabolism, we investigated the effects of disrupting this mechanism on sphingolipid levels and on cell growth. Intriguingly, exposure of the cha1Δ strain to high serine resulted in hyperaccumulation of endogenous serine and in turn a significant accumulation of sphingoid bases and ceramides. Under these conditions, the cha1Δ strain displayed a significant growth defect that was sphingolipid-dependent. Together, this work reveals a feedforward/feedback loop whereby the sphingoid bases serve as sensors of serine availability and mediate up-regulation of Cha1 in response to serine availability, which in turn regulates sphingolipid levels by limiting serine accumulation.

  6. Phosphorylation of pRb by cyclin D kinase is necessary for development of cardiac hypertrophy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hinrichsen, Rebecca; Hansen, A.H.; Haunsø, S.

    2008-01-01

    /6-phosphorylated retinoblastoma protein (pRb) during hypertrophy and expression of an unphosphorylatable pRb mutant impaired hypertrophic growth in cardiomyocytes. Transcription factor E2F was activated by hypertrophic elicitors but activation was impaired by pharmacological inhibition of cyclin D-cdk4...

  7. Understanding serine proteases implications on Leishmania spp lifecycle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alves, Carlos Roberto; Souza, Raquel Santos de; Charret, Karen Dos Santos; Côrtes, Luzia Monteiro de Castro; Sá-Silva, Matheus Pereira de; Barral-Veloso, Laura; Oliveira, Luiz Filipe Gonçalves; da Silva, Franklin Souza

    2018-01-01

    Serine proteases have significant functions over a broad range of relevant biological processes to the Leishmania spp lifecycle. Data gathered here present an update on the Leishmania spp serine proteases and the status of these enzymes as part of the parasite degradome. The serine protease genes (n = 26 to 28) in Leishmania spp, which encode proteins with a wide range of molecular masses (35 kDa-115 kDa), are described along with their degrees of chromosomal and allelic synteny. Amid 17 putative Leishmania spp serine proteases, only ∼18% were experimentally demonstrated, as: signal peptidases that remove the signal peptide from secretory pre-proteins, maturases of other proteins and with metacaspase-like activity. These enzymes include those of clans SB, SC and SF. Classical inhibitors of serine proteases are used as tools for the characterization and investigation of Leishmania spp. Endogenous serine protease inhibitors, which are ecotin-like, can act modulating host actions. However, crude or synthetic based-natural serine protease inhibitors, such as potato tuber extract, Stichodactyla helianthus protease inhibitor I, fukugetin and epoxy-α-lapachone act on parasitic serine proteases and are promising leishmanicidal agents. The functional interrelationship between serine proteases and other Leishmania spp proteins demonstrate essential functions of these enzymes in parasite physiology and therefore their value as targets for leishmaniasis treatment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Increased tolerance towards serine obtained by adaptive laboratory evolution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mundhada, Hemanshu; Seoane, Jose Miguel; Koza, Anna

    2014-01-01

    The amino acid serine has previously been identified as one of the top 30 candidates of value added chemicals, making the production of serine from glucose attractive. Production of serine have previously been attempted in E. coli and C. glutamicum, however, titers sufficient for commercial...... by glyA), the conversion of serine to pyruvate (encoded by sdaA, sdaB and tdcG) was also deleted. As expected, the resulting strain turned out to be susceptible to even low concentrations of serine in the media. In order to improve the tolerance of the strain towards serine, adaptive laboratory evolution....... During the evolution experiment, the serine tolerance was increased substantially. Genome re-sequencing was subsequently used to analyze the genotype of a number of selected strains. These results reveal insights towards the adaptation process as well as the mechanism of serine tolerance....

  9. Serine racemase is expressed in islets and contributes to the regulation of glucose homeostasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lockridge, Amber D; Baumann, Daniel C; Akhaphong, Brian; Abrenica, Alleah; Miller, Robert F; Alejandro, Emilyn U

    2016-11-01

    NMDA receptors (NMDARs) have recently been discovered as functional regulators of pancreatic β-cell insulin secretion. While these excitatory receptor channels have been extensively studied in the brain for their role in synaptic plasticity and development, little is known about how they work in β-cells. In neuronal cells, NMDAR activation requires the simultaneous binding of glutamate and a rate-limiting co-agonist, such as D-serine. D-serine levels and availability in most of the brain rely on endogenous synthesis by the enzyme serine racemase (Srr). Srr transcripts have been reported in human and mouse islets but it is not clear whether Srr is functionally expressed in β-cells or what its role in the pancreas might be. In this investigation, we reveal that Srr protein is highly expressed in primary human and mouse β-cells. Mice with whole body deletion of Srr (Srr KO) show improved glucose tolerance through enhanced insulin secretory capacity, possibly through Srr-mediated alterations in islet NMDAR expression and function. We observed elevated insulin sensitivity in some animals, suggesting Srr metabolic regulation in other peripheral organs as well. Srr expression in neonatal and embryonic islets, and adult deficits in Srr KO pancreas weight and islet insulin content, point toward a potential role for Srr in pancreatic development. These data reveal the first evidence that Srr may regulate glucose homeostasis in peripheral tissues and provide circumstantial evidence that D-serine may be an endogenous islet NMDAR co-agonist in β-cells.

  10. In vitro phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 by protein kinase C-zeta: functional analysis and identification of novel phosphorylation sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sommerfeld, Mark R; Metzger, Sabine; Stosik, Magdalene; Tennagels, Norbert; Eckel, Jürgen

    2004-05-18

    Protein kinase C-zeta (PKC-zeta) participates both in downstream insulin signaling and in the negative feedback control of insulin action. Here we used an in vitro approach to identify PKC-zeta phosphorylation sites within insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and to characterize the functional implications. A recombinant IRS-1 fragment (rIRS-1(449)(-)(664)) containing major tyrosine motifs for interaction with phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase strongly associated to the p85alpha subunit of PI 3-kinase after Tyr phosphorylation by the insulin receptor. Phosphorylation of rIRS-1(449)(-)(664) by PKC-zeta induced a prominent inhibition of this process with a mixture of classical PKC isoforms being less effective. Both PKC-zeta and the classical isoforms phosphorylated rIRS-1(449)(-)(664) on Ser(612). However, modification of this residue did not reduce the affinity of p85alpha binding to pTyr-containing peptides (amino acids 605-615 of rat IRS-1), as determined by surface plasmon resonance. rIRS-1(449)(-)(664) was then phosphorylated by PKC-zeta using [(32)P]ATP and subjected to tryptic phosphopeptide mapping based on two-dimensional HPLC coupled to mass spectrometry. Ser(498) and Ser(570) were identified as novel phosphoserine sites targeted by PKC-zeta. Both sites were additionally confirmed by phosphopeptide mapping of the corresponding Ser --> Ala mutants of rIRS-1(449)(-)(664). Ser(570) was specifically targeted by PKC-zeta, as shown by immunoblotting with a phosphospecific antiserum against Ser(570) of IRS-1. Binding of p85alpha to the S570A mutant was less susceptible to inhibition by PKC-zeta, when compared to the S612A mutant. In conclusion, our in vitro data demonstrate a strong inhibitory action of PKC-zeta at the level of IRS-1/PI 3-kinase interaction involving multiple serine phosphorylation sites. Whereas Ser(612) appears not to participate in the negative control of insulin signaling, Ser(570) may at least partly contribute to this process.

  11. Identification of phosphorylated butyrylcholinesterase in human plasma using immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aryal, Uma K.; Lin, Chiann Tso; Kim, Jong Seo; Heibeck, Tyler H.; Wang, Jun; Qian, Weijun; Lin, Yuehe

    2012-04-20

    Paraoxon (diethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate) is an active metabolite of the common insecticide parathion and is acutely toxic due to the inhibition of cholinesterase (ChE) activity in the nervous systems. The Inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity by paraoxon is due to the formation of phosphorylated BChE adduct, and the detection of the phosphorylated BChE adduct in human plasma can serve as an exposure biomarker of organophosphate pesticides and nerve agents. In this study, we performed immunoaffinity purification and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis for identifying phosphorylated BChE in human plasma treated by paraoxon. BChE was captured by biotinylated anti-BChE polyclonal antibodies conjugated to streptavidin magnetic beads. Western blot analysis showed that the antibody was effective to recognize both native and modified BChE with high specificity. The exact phosphorylation site of BChE was confirmed on Serine 198 by MS/MS with a 108 Da modification mass and accurately measured parent ion masses. The phosphorylated BChE peptide was also successfully detected in the immunoaffinity purified sample from paraoxon treated human plasma. Thus, immunoaffinity purification combined with mass spectrometry represents a viable approach for the detection of paraoxon-modified BChE and other forms of modified BChE as exposure biomarkers of organophosphates and nerve agents.

  12. Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of two Streptococcus agalactiae proteins: the family II inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rantanen, Mika K.; Lehtiö, Lari; Rajagopal, Lakshmi; Rubens, Craig E.; Goldman, Adrian

    2006-01-01

    Two S. agalactiae proteins, the inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase, were crystallized and diffraction data were collected and processed from these crystals. The data from the two protein crystals extended to 2.80 and 2.65 Å, respectively. Streptococcus agalactiae, which infects human neonates and causes sepsis and meningitis, has recently been shown to possess a eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein phosphorylation signalling cascade. Through their target proteins, the S. agalactiae Ser/Thr kinase and Ser/Thr phosphatase together control the growth as well as the morphology and virulence of this organism. One of the targets is the S. agalactiae family II inorganic pyrophosphatase. The inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase have therefore been purified and crystallized and diffraction data have been collected from their crystals. The data were processed using XDS. The inorganic pyrosphosphatase crystals diffracted to 2.80 Å and the Ser/Thr phosphatase crystals to 2.65 Å. Initial structure-solution experiments indicate that structure solution will be successful in both cases. Solving the structure of the proteins involved in this cascade is the first step towards understanding this phenomenon in atomic detail

  13. Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of two Streptococcus agalactiae proteins: the family II inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rantanen, Mika K.; Lehtiö, Lari [Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65, FIN-00014, Helsinki (Finland); Rajagopal, Lakshmi; Rubens, Craig E. [Division of Infectious Disease, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington 98105 (United States); Goldman, Adrian, E-mail: adrian.goldman@helsinki.fi [Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65, FIN-00014, Helsinki (Finland)

    2006-09-01

    Two S. agalactiae proteins, the inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase, were crystallized and diffraction data were collected and processed from these crystals. The data from the two protein crystals extended to 2.80 and 2.65 Å, respectively. Streptococcus agalactiae, which infects human neonates and causes sepsis and meningitis, has recently been shown to possess a eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein phosphorylation signalling cascade. Through their target proteins, the S. agalactiae Ser/Thr kinase and Ser/Thr phosphatase together control the growth as well as the morphology and virulence of this organism. One of the targets is the S. agalactiae family II inorganic pyrophosphatase. The inorganic pyrophosphatase and the serine/threonine phosphatase have therefore been purified and crystallized and diffraction data have been collected from their crystals. The data were processed using XDS. The inorganic pyrosphosphatase crystals diffracted to 2.80 Å and the Ser/Thr phosphatase crystals to 2.65 Å. Initial structure-solution experiments indicate that structure solution will be successful in both cases. Solving the structure of the proteins involved in this cascade is the first step towards understanding this phenomenon in atomic detail.

  14. Energetics of the molecular interactions of L-alanine and L-serine with xylitol, D-sorbitol, and D-mannitol in aqueous solutions at 298.15 K

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mezhevoi, I. N.; Badelin, V. G.

    2013-04-01

    Integral enthalpies of dissolution Δsol H m of L-alanine and L-serine are measured via the calorimetry of dissolution in aqueous solutions of xylitol, D-sorbitol, and D-mannitol. Standard enthalpies of dissolution (Δsol H ○) and the transfer (Δtr H ○) of amino acids from water to binary solvent are calculated from the experimental data. Using the McMillan-Mayer theory, enthalpy coefficients of pairwise interactions h xy of amino acids with molecules of polyols are calculated that are negative. The obtained results are discussed within the theory of the prevalence of different types of interactions in mixed solutions and the effect of the structural features of interacting biomolecules on the thermochemical parameters of dissolution of amino acids.

  15. Characterization and Prediction of Protein Phosphorylation Hotspots in Arabidopsis thaliana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christian, Jan-Ole; Braginets, Rostyslav; Schulze, Waltraud X; Walther, Dirk

    2012-01-01

    The regulation of protein function by modulating the surface charge status via sequence-locally enriched phosphorylation sites (P-sites) in so called phosphorylation "hotspots" has gained increased attention in recent years. We set out to identify P-hotspots in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We analyzed the spacing of experimentally detected P-sites within peptide-covered regions along Arabidopsis protein sequences as available from the PhosPhAt database. Confirming earlier reports (Schweiger and Linial, 2010), we found that, indeed, P-sites tend to cluster and that distributions between serine and threonine P-sites to their respected closest next P-site differ significantly from those for tyrosine P-sites. The ability to predict P-hotspots by applying available computational P-site prediction programs that focus on identifying single P-sites was observed to be severely compromised by the inevitable interference of nearby P-sites. We devised a new approach, named HotSPotter, for the prediction of phosphorylation hotspots. HotSPotter is based primarily on local amino acid compositional preferences rather than sequence position-specific motifs and uses support vector machines as the underlying classification engine. HotSPotter correctly identified experimentally determined phosphorylation hotspots in A. thaliana with high accuracy. Applied to the Arabidopsis proteome, HotSPotter-predicted 13,677 candidate P-hotspots in 9,599 proteins corresponding to 7,847 unique genes. Hotspot containing proteins are involved predominantly in signaling processes confirming the surmised modulating role of hotspots in signaling and interaction events. Our study provides new bioinformatics means to identify phosphorylation hotspots and lays the basis for further investigating novel candidate P-hotspots. All phosphorylation hotspot annotations and predictions have been made available as part of the PhosPhAt database at http://phosphat.mpimp-golm.mpg.de.

  16. ATM phosphorylation of Mdm2 Ser394 regulates the amplitude and duration of the DNA damage response in mice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gannon, Hugh S.; Woda, Bruce A.; Jones, Stephen N.

    2012-01-01

    Summary DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation (IR) activates the ATM kinase, which subsequently stabilizes and activates the p53 tumor suppressor protein. Although phosphorylation of p53 by ATM was found previously to modulate p53 levels and transcriptional activities in vivo, it does not appear to be a major regulator of p53 stability. We have utilized mice bearing altered Mdm2 alleles to demonstrate that ATM phosphorylation of Mdm2 serine 394 is required for robust p53 stabilization and activation after DNA damage. In addition, we demonstrate that dephosphorylation of Mdm2 Ser394 regulates attenuation of the p53-mediated response to DNA damage. Therefore, the phosphorylation status of Mdm2 Ser394 governs p53 protein levels and functions in cells undergoing DNA damage. PMID:22624716

  17. Serine proteinases and their inhibitors in fertilization

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Jonáková, Věra; Jelínková-Slavíčková, Petra

    2004-01-01

    Roč. 8, 3,4 (2004), s. 108-110 ISSN 1211-8869. [Central European Conference on Human Tumor Markers /5./. Praha, 01.10.2004-03.10.2004] R&D Projects: GA ČR GA303/02/0433; GA ČR GP303/02/P069; GA ČR GP303/04/P070; GA MZd NJ7463 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z5052915 Keywords : serine proteinase * proteinase inhibitors * fertilization Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry

  18. p38α phosphorylates serine 258 within the cytoplasmic domain of tissue factor and prevents its incorporation into cell-derived microparticles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ettelaie, Camille; Elkeeb, Azza M; Maraveyas, Anthony; Collier, Mary Elizabeth W

    2013-03-01

    We previously showed that the phosphorylation of Ser253 within the cytoplasmic domain of human tissue factor (TF) initiates the incorporation and release of this protein into cell-derived microparticles. Furthermore, subsequent phosphorylation of Ser258 terminates this process. However, the identity of the kinase responsible for the phosphorylation of Ser258 and mode of action of this enzyme remain unknown. In this study, p38α was identified as the proline-directed kinase capable of phosphorylating Ser258 specifically, and without any detectable activity towards Ser253. Furthermore, using synthetic peptides, it was shown that the Km for the reaction decreased by approximately 10 fold on substitution of Ser253 with phospho-Ser253. Either inhibition of p38 using SB202190 or knockdown of p38α expression in coronary artery endothelial cells overexpressing wild-type TF, resulted in decreased phosphorylation of Ser258, following activation of cells with PAR2-agonist peptide (PAR2-AP). In agreement with our previous data, inhibition of phosphorylation of this residue maintained the release of TF. Activation of PAR2 in cells transfected to overexpress TF, resulted in two separate peaks of p38 activity at approximately 40 and 120 min post-activation. Furthermore, overexpression of Ala253-substituted TF enhanced the second p38 activation peak. However, the second peak was absent in cells devoid of TF or in cells overexpressing the Asp253-substituted TF. Our data clearly identifies p38α as a kinase capable of phosphorylating Ser258 within the cytoplasmic domain of TF. Moreover, it appears that the presence of TF within the cells regulates the late activation of p38 and consequently the termination of TF release into microparticles. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. A Novel Mode of Regulation of the Staphylococcus aureus Catabolite Control Protein A (CcpA) Mediated by Stk1 Protein Phosphorylation*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leiba, Jade; Hartmann, Torsten; Cluzel, Marie-Eve; Cohen-Gonsaud, Martin; Delolme, Frédéric; Bischoff, Markus; Molle, Virginie

    2012-01-01

    The Staphylococcus aureus serine/threonine protein kinase Stk1 (also known as PknB) affects different key pathways such as cell wall metabolism, antibiotic susceptibility, and regulation of virulence. Here we report that the catabolite control protein A (CcpA), a highly conserved regulator of carbon catabolite repression and virulence in a number of Gram-positive pathogens, was efficiently phosphorylated in vitro and in vivo by Stk1 in S. aureus, whereas the CcpA homologues of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus anthracis were not affected by the Stk1 orthologue PrkC. Mass spectrometry and mutational analyses identified Thr-18 and Thr-33 as the phosphoacceptors; both are located in the DNA binding domain of this protein. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that the CcpA DNA binding activity was completely abrogated for the phosphorylated CcpA. The physiological relevance of CcpA phosphorylation was assessed by generating CcpA phosphoablative (T18A/T33A) or phosphomimetic (T18D/T33D) mutants. In contrast to the wild-type and phosphoablative ccpA alleles, introduction of the phosphomimetic ccpA allele in a ΔccpA mutant failed to restore the parental biofilm formation profile and the transcription of citZ and hla to levels seen with the wild type. The strong up regulation of ccpA transcripts and CcpA level in the ccpA mutant trans-complemented with the phosphomimetic CcpA variant suggest furthermore that CcpA acts as a negative regulator of its own expression. Together, these findings demonstrate that Stk1-driven phosphorylation of CcpA inhibits its DNA binding activity toward its regulon in S. aureus, representing a novel regulatory mechanism of CcpA activity in addition to the well known regulation via HprKP/Hpr in this clinically important pathogen. PMID:23132867

  20. A novel mode of regulation of the Staphylococcus aureus catabolite control protein A (CcpA) mediated by Stk1 protein phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leiba, Jade; Hartmann, Torsten; Cluzel, Marie-Eve; Cohen-Gonsaud, Martin; Delolme, Frédéric; Bischoff, Markus; Molle, Virginie

    2012-12-21

    The Staphylococcus aureus serine/threonine protein kinase Stk1 (also known as PknB) affects different key pathways such as cell wall metabolism, antibiotic susceptibility, and regulation of virulence. Here we report that the catabolite control protein A (CcpA), a highly conserved regulator of carbon catabolite repression and virulence in a number of gram-positive pathogens, was efficiently phosphorylated in vitro and in vivo by Stk1 in S. aureus, whereas the CcpA homologues of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus anthracis were not affected by the Stk1 orthologue PrkC. Mass spectrometry and mutational analyses identified Thr-18 and Thr-33 as the phosphoacceptors; both are located in the DNA binding domain of this protein. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that the CcpA DNA binding activity was completely abrogated for the phosphorylated CcpA. The physiological relevance of CcpA phosphorylation was assessed by generating CcpA phosphoablative (T18A/T33A) or phosphomimetic (T18D/T33D) mutants. In contrast to the wild-type and phosphoablative ccpA alleles, introduction of the phosphomimetic ccpA allele in a ΔccpA mutant failed to restore the parental biofilm formation profile and the transcription of citZ and hla to levels seen with the wild type. The strong up regulation of ccpA transcripts and CcpA level in the ccpA mutant trans-complemented with the phosphomimetic CcpA variant suggest furthermore that CcpA acts as a negative regulator of its own expression. Together, these findings demonstrate that Stk1-driven phosphorylation of CcpA inhibits its DNA binding activity toward its regulon in S. aureus, representing a novel regulatory mechanism of CcpA activity in addition to the well known regulation via HprKP/Hpr in this clinically important pathogen.

  1. Regulation of protein phosphorylation in oat mitochondria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pike, C.; Kopeck, K.; Sceppa, E.

    1989-01-01

    We sought to identify phosphorylated proteins in isolated oat mitocchondria and to characterize the enzymatic and regulatory properties of the protein kinase(s). Mitochondria from oats (Avena sativa L. cv. Garry) were purified on Percoll gradients. Mitochondria were incubated with 32 P-γ-ATP; proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE. A small number of bands was detected on autoradiograms, most prominently at 70 kD and 42 kD; the latter band has been tentatively identified as a subunit of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, a well-known phosphoprotein. The protein kinase(s) could also phosphorylate casein, but not histone. Spermine enhanced the phosphorylation of casein and inhibited the phosphorylation of the 42 kD band. These studies were carried out on both intact and burst mitochondria. Control by calcium and other ions was investigated. The question of the action of regulators on protein kinase or protein phosphatase was studied by the use of 35 S-adenosine thiotriphosphate

  2. Tyrosine phosphorylation of LRP6 by Src and Fer inhibits Wnt/β-catenin signalling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Qing; Su, Yi; Wesslowski, Janine; Hagemann, Anja I; Ramialison, Mirana; Wittbrodt, Joachim; Scholpp, Steffen; Davidson, Gary

    2014-01-01

    Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins 5 and 6 (LRP5/6) function as transmembrane receptors to transduce Wnt signals. A key mechanism for signalling is Wnt-induced serine/threonine phosphorylation at conserved PPPSPxS motifs in the LRP6 cytoplasmic domain, which promotes pathway activation. Conserved tyrosine residues are positioned close to all PPPSPxS motifs, which suggests they have a functional significance. Using a cell culture-based cDNA expression screen, we identified the non-receptor tyrosine kinases Src and Fer as novel LRP6 modifiers. Both Src and Fer associate with LRP6 and phosphorylate LRP6 directly. In contrast to the known PPPSPxS Ser/Thr kinases, tyrosine phosphorylation by Src and Fer negatively regulates LRP6-Wnt signalling. Epistatically, they function upstream of β-catenin to inhibit signalling and in agreement with a negative role in regulating LRP6, MEF cells lacking these kinases show enhanced Wnt signalling. Wnt3a treatment of cells enhances tyrosine phosphorylation of endogenous LRP6 and, mechanistically, Src reduces cell surface LRP6 levels and disrupts LRP6 signalosome formation. Interestingly, CK1γ inhibits Fer-induced LRP6 phosphorylation, suggesting a mechanism whereby CK1γ acts to de-represses inhibitory LRP6 tyrosine phosphorylation. We propose that LRP6 tyrosine phosphorylation by Src and Fer serves a negative regulatory function to prevent over-activation of Wnt signalling at the level of the Wnt receptor, LRP6. Subject Categories Membrane & Intracellular Transport; Post-translational Modifications, Proteolysis & Proteomics PMID:25391905

  3. Pregnenolone sulfate modulation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors is phosphorylation dependent

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Petrovič, Miloš; Sedláček, Miloslav; Cais, Ondřej; Horák, Martin; Chodounská, Hana; Vyklický ml., Ladislav

    2009-01-01

    Roč. 160, č. 3 (2009), s. 616-628 ISSN 0306-4522 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA309/07/0271; GA ČR(CZ) GA203/08/1498; GA MŠk(CZ) LC554; GA MŠk(CZ) 1M0517 Grant - others:EC(XE) LSHM-CT-2007-037765 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z50110509; CEZ:AV0Z40550506 Keywords : NMDA * patch-clamp * phosphorylation Subject RIV: ED - Physiology Impact factor: 3.292, year: 2009

  4. Platelet-derived growth factor induces phosphorylation of a 64-kDa nuclear protein

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shawver, L.K.; Pierce, G.F.; Kawahara, R.S.; Deuel, T.F.

    1989-01-01

    The platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) stimulated the phosphorylation of a nuclear protein of 64 kDa (pp64) in nuclei of nontransformed normal rat kidney (NRK) cells. Low levels of phosphorylation of pp64 were observed in nuclei of serum-starved NRK cells. Fetal calf serum (FCS), PDGF, and homodimeric v-sis and PDGF A-chain protein enhanced the incorporation of 32P into pp64 over 4-fold within 30 min and over 8-fold within 2 h of exposure of NRK cells to the growth factors. In contrast, constitutive phosphorylation of 32P-labeled pp64 in nuclei of NRK cells transformed by the simian sarcoma virus (SSV) was high and only minimally stimulated by PDGF and FCS. 32P-Labeled pp64 was isolated from nuclei of PDGF-stimulated nontransformed NRK cells; the 32P of pp64 was labile in 1 M KOH, and pp64 was not significantly recognized by anti-phosphotyrosine antisera, suggesting that the PDGF-induced phosphorylation of pp64 occurred on serine or on threonine residues. However, pp64 from SSV-transformed NRK cell nuclei was significantly stable to base hydrolysis and was immunoprecipitated with anti-phosphotyrosine antisera, suggesting that pp64 from SSV-transformed cell nuclei is phosphorylated also on tyrosine. FCS, PDGF, and PDGF A- and B-chain homodimers thus stimulate the rapid time-dependent phosphorylation of a 64-kDa nuclear protein shortly after stimulation of responsive cells. The growth factor-stimulated phosphorylation of pp64 and the constitutive high levels of pp64 phosphorylation in cells transformed by SSV suggest important roles for pp64 and perhaps regulated nuclear protein kinases and phosphatases in cell division and proliferation

  5. Microbial Production of l-Serine from Renewable Feedstocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiaomei; Xu, Guoqiang; Shi, Jinsong; Koffas, Mattheos A G; Xu, Zhenghong

    2018-07-01

    l-Serine is a non-essential amino acid that has wide and expanding applications in industry with a fast-growing market demand. Currently, extraction and enzymatic catalysis are the main processes for l-serine production. However, such approaches limit the industrial-scale applications of this important amino acid. Therefore, shifting to the direct fermentative production of l-serine from renewable feedstocks has attracted increasing attention. This review details the current status of microbial production of l-serine from renewable feedstocks. We also summarize the current trends in metabolic engineering strategies and techniques for the typical industrial organisms Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli that have been developed to address and overcome major challenges in the l-serine production process. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Phosphorylation of paxillin via the ERK mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade in EL4 thymoma cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ku, H; Meier, K E

    2000-04-14

    Intracellular signals can regulate cell adhesion via several mechanisms in a process referred to as "inside-out" signaling. In phorbol ester-sensitive EL4 thymoma cells, phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) induces activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) mitogen-activated protein kinases and promotes cell adhesion. In this study, clonal EL4 cell lines with varying abilities to activate ERKs in response to PMA were used to examine signaling events occurring downstream of ERK activation. Paxillin, a multifunctional docking protein involved in cell adhesion, was phosphorylated on serine/threonine residues in response to PMA treatment. This response was correlated with the extent and time course of ERK activation. PMA-induced phosphorylation of paxillin was inhibited by compounds that block the ERK activation pathway in EL4 cells, primary murine thymocytes, and primary murine splenocytes. Paxillin was phosphorylated in vitro by purified active ERK2. Two-dimensional electrophoresis revealed that PMA treatment generated a complex pattern of phosphorylated paxillin species in intact cells, some of which were generated by ERK-mediated phosphorylation in vitro. An ERK pathway inhibitor interfered with PMA-induced adhesion of sensitive EL4 cells to substrate. These findings describe a novel inside-out signaling pathway by which the ERK cascade may regulate events involved in adhesion.

  7. Phosphorylation coexists with O-GlcNAcylation in a plant virus protein and influences viral infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Turiño, Sandra; Pérez, José De Jesús; Hervás, Marta; Navajas, Rosana; Ciordia, Sergio; Udeshi, Namrata D; Shabanowitz, Jeffrey; Hunt, Donald F; García, Juan Antonio

    2018-06-01

    Phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation are two widespread post-translational modifications (PTMs), often affecting the same eukaryotic target protein. Plum pox virus (PPV) is a member of the genus Potyvirus which infects a wide range of plant species. O-GlcNAcylation of the capsid protein (CP) of PPV has been studied extensively, and some evidence of CP phosphorylation has also been reported. Here, we use proteomics analyses to demonstrate that PPV CP is phosphorylated in vivo at the N-terminus and the beginning of the core region. In contrast with the 'yin-yang' mechanism that applies to some mammalian proteins, PPV CP phosphorylation affects residues different from those that are O-GlcNAcylated (serines Ser-25, Ser-81, Ser-101 and Ser-118). Our findings show that PPV CP can be concurrently phosphorylated and O-GlcNAcylated at nearby residues. However, an analysis using a differential proteomics strategy based on iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) showed a significant enhancement of phosphorylation at Ser-25 in virions recovered from O-GlcNAcylation-deficient plants, suggesting that crosstalk between O-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation in PPV CP takes place. Although the preclusion of phosphorylation at the four identified phosphotarget sites only had a limited impact on viral infection, the mimicking of phosphorylation prevents PPV infection in Prunus persica and weakens infection in Nicotiana benthamiana and other herbaceous hosts, prompting the emergence of potentially compensatory second mutations. We postulate that the joint action of phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation in the N-proximal segment of CP allows a fine-tuning of protein stability, providing the amount of CP required in each step of viral infection. © 2017 BSPP AND JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD.

  8. Posttranslational modification of hepatic cytochrome P-450. Phosphorylation of phenobarbital-inducible P-450 forms PB-4 (IIB1) and PB-5 (IIB2) in isolated rat hepatocytes and in vivo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koch, J.A.; Waxman, D.J.

    1989-01-01

    Phosphorylation of hepatic cytochrome P-450 was studied in isolated hepatocytes incubated in the presence of agents known to stimulate protein kinase activity. Incubation of hepatocytes isolated from phenobarbital-induced adult male rats with [ 32 P]orthophosphate in the presence of N 6 , O 2' -dibutyryl-cAMP (diBtcAMP) or glucagon resulted in the phosphorylation of microsomal proteins that are immunoprecipitable by polyclonal antibodies raised to the phenobarbital-induced P-450 form PB-4 (P-450 gene IIB1). Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that these 32 P-labeled microsomal proteins consist of a mixture of P-450 PB-4 and the closely related P-450 PB-5 (gene IIB2), both of which exhibited heterogeneity in the isoelectric focusing dimension. Phosphorylation of both P-450 forms was markedly enhanced by diBtcAMP at concentrations as low as 5 μM. Phosphoamino acid analysis of the 32 P-labeled P-450 PB-4 + PB-5 immunoprecipitate revealed that these P-450s are phosphorylated on serine in the isolated hepatocytes. Peptide mapping indicated that the site of phosphorylation in hepatocytes is indistinguishable from the site utilized by cAMP-dependent protein kinase in vitro, which was previously identified as serine-128 for the related rabbit protein P-450 LM2. In vitro analyses revealed that phosphorylation of P-450 PB-4 leads to a loss of monooxygenase activity, suggesting that the posttranslational modification of this P-450 enzyme by cAMP-dependent protein kinase may play a role in the modulation of P-450-dependent monooxygenase activity in vivo

  9. Phosphorylation regulates SIRT1 function.

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    Tsutomu Sasaki

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: SIR2 is an NAD(+-dependent deacetylase [1]-[3] implicated in the regulation of lifespan in species as diverse as yeast [4], worms [5], and flies [6]. We previously reported that the level of SIRT1, the mammalian homologue of SIR2 [7], [8], is coupled to the level of mitotic activity in cells both in vitro and in vivo[9]. Cells from long-lived mice maintained SIRT1 levels of young mice in tissues that undergo continuous cell replacement by proliferating stem cells. Changes in SIRT1 protein level were not associated with changes in mRNA level, suggesting that SIRT1 could be regulated post-transcriptionally. However, other than a recent report on sumoylation [10] and identification of SIRT1 as a nuclear phospho-protein by mass spectrometry [11], post-translational modifications of this important protein have not been reported. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We identified 13 residues in SIRT1 that are phosphorylated in vivo using mass spectrometry. Dephosphorylation by phosphatases in vitro resulted in decreased NAD(+-dependent deacetylase activity. We identified cyclinB/Cdk1 as a cell cycle-dependent kinase that forms a complex with and phosphorylates SIRT1. Mutation of two residues phosphorylated by Cyclin B/Cdk1 (threonine 530 and serine 540 disturbs normal cell cycle progression and fails to rescue proliferation defects in SIRT1-deficient cells [12], [13]. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Pharmacological manipulation of SIRT1 activity is currently being tested as a means of extending lifespan in mammals. Treatment of obese mice with resveratrol, a pharmacological activator of SIRT1, modestly but significantly improved longevity and, perhaps more importantly, offered some protection against the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome [14]-[16]. Understanding the endogenous mechanisms that regulate the level and activity of SIRT1, therefore, has obvious relevance to human health and disease. Our results identify

  10. Specific membrane binding of factor VIII is mediated by O-phospho-L-serine, a moiety of phosphatidylserine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilbert, G E; Drinkwater, D

    1993-09-21

    Phosphatidylserine, a negatively charged lipid, is exposed on the platelet membrane following cell stimulation, correlating with the expression of factor VIII receptors. We have explored the importance of the negative electrostatic potential of phosphatidylserine vs chemical moieties of phosphatidylserine for specific membrane binding of factor VIII. Fluorescein-labeled factor VIII bound to membranes containing 15% phosphatidic acid, a negatively charged phospholipid, with low affinity compared to phosphatidylserine-containing membranes. Binding was not specific as it was inhibited by other proteins in plasma. Factor VIII bound to membranes containing 10% phosphatidylserine in spite of a varying net charge provided by 0-15% stearylamine, a positively charged lipid. The soluble phosphatidylserine moiety, O-phospho-L-serine, inhibited factor VIII binding to phosphatidylserine-containing membranes with a Ki of 20 mM, but the stereoisomer, O-phospho-D-serine, was 5-fold less effective. Furthermore, binding of factor VIII to membranes containing synthetic phosphatidyl-D-serine was 5-fold less than binding to membranes containing phosphatidyl-L-serine. Membranes containing synthetic phosphatidyl-L-homoserine, differing from phosphatidylserine by a single methylene, supported high-affinity binding, but it was not specific as factor VIII was displaced by other plasma proteins. O-Phospho-L-serine also inhibited the binding of factor VIII to platelet-derived microparticles with a Ki of 20 mM, and the stereoisomer was 4-fold less effective. These results indicate that membrane binding of factor VIII is mediated by a stereoselective recognition O-phospho-L-serine of phosphatidylserine and that negative electrostatic potential is of lesser importance.

  11. Regulation of Xenopus laevis DNA topoisomerase I activity by phosphorylation in vitro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaiserman, H.B.; Ingebritsen, T.S.; Benbow, R.M.

    1988-01-01

    DNA topoisomerase I has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from ovaries of the frog Xenopus laevis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the most purified fraction revealed a single major band at 110 kDa and less abundant minor bands centered at 62 kDa. Incubation of the most purified fraction with immobilized calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase abolished all DNA topoisomerase enzymatic activity in a time-dependent reaction. Treatment of the dephosphorylated X. laevis DNA topoisomerase I with a X. laevis casein kinase type II activity and ATP restored DNA topoisomerase activity to a level higher than that observed in the most purified fraction. In vitro labeling experiments which employed the most purified DNA topoisomerase I fraction, [γ- 32 P]ATP, and the casein kinase type II enzyme showed that both the 110- and 62-kDa bands became phosphorylated in approximately molar proportions. Phosphoamino acid analysis showed that only serine residues became phosphorylated. Phosphorylation was accompanied by an increase in DNA topoisomerase activity in vitro. Dephosphorylation of DNA topoisomerase I appears to block formation of the initial enzyme-substrate complex on the basis of the failure of the dephosphorylated enzyme to nick DNA in the presence of camptothecin. The authors conclude that X. laevis DNA topoisomerase I is partially phosphorylated as isolated and that this phosphorylation is essential for expression of enzymatic activity in vitro. On the basis of the ability of the casein kinase type II activity to reactivate dephosphorylated DNA topoisomerase I, they speculate that this kinase may contribute to the physiological regulation of DNA topoisomerase I activity

  12. Analysis of cardiac myosin binding protein-C phosphorylation in human heart muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copeland, O'Neal; Sadayappan, Sakthivel; Messer, Andrew E; Steinen, Ger J M; van der Velden, Jolanda; Marston, Steven B

    2010-12-01

    A unique feature of MyBP-C in cardiac muscle is that it has multiple phosphorylation sites. MyBP-C phosphorylation, predominantly by PKA, plays an essential role in modulating contractility as part of the cellular response to β-adrenergic stimulation. In vitro studies indicate MyBP-C can be phosphorylated at Serine 273, 282, 302 and 307 (mouse sequence) but little is known about the level of MyBP-C phosphorylation or the sites phosphorylated in heart muscle. Since current methodologies are limited in specificity and are not quantitative we have investigated the use of phosphate affinity SDS-PAGE together with a total anti MyBP-C antibody and a range of phosphorylation site-specific antibodies for the main sites (Ser-273, -282 and -302). With these newly developed methods we have been able to make a detailed quantitative analysis of MyBP-C phosphorylation in heart tissue in situ. We have found that MyBP-C is highly phosphorylated in non-failing human (donor) heart or mouse heart; tris and tetra-phosphorylated species predominate and less than 10% of MyBP-C is unphosphorylated (0, 9.3 ± 1%: 1P, 13.4 ± 2.7%: 2P, 10.5 ± 3.3%: 3P, 28.7 ± 3.7%: 4P, 36.4 ± 2.7%, n=21). Total phosphorylation was 2.7 ± 0.07 mol Pi/mol MyBP-C. In contrast in failing heart and in myectomy samples from HCM patients the majority of MyBP-C was unphosphorylated. Total phosphorylation levels were 23% of normal in failing heart myofibrils (0, 60.1 ± 2.8%: 1P, 27.8 ± 2.8%: 2P, 4.8 ± 2.0%: 3P, 3.7 ± 1.2%: 4P, 2.8 ± 1.3%, n=19) and 39% of normal in myectomy samples. The site-specific antibodies showed a distinctive distribution pattern of phosphorylation sites in the multiple phosphorylation level species. We found that phosphorylated Ser-273, Ser-282 and Ser-302 were all present in the 4P band of MyBP-C but none of them were significant in the 1P band, indicating that there must be at least one other site of MyBP-C phosphorylation in human heart. The pattern of phosphorylation at the

  13. Crystal structure of the NADP+ and tartrate-bound complex of L-serine 3-dehydrogenase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum calidifontis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoneda, Kazunari; Sakuraba, Haruhiko; Araki, Tomohiro; Ohshima, Toshihisa

    2018-05-01

    A gene encoding L-serine dehydrogenase (L-SerDH) that exhibits extremely low sequence identity to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens L-SerDH was identified in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum calidifontis. The predicted amino acid sequence showed 36% identity with that of Pseudomonas aeruginosa L-SerDH, suggesting that P. calidifontis L-SerDH is a novel type of L-SerDH, like Ps. aeruginosa L-SerDH. The overexpressed enzyme appears to be the most thermostable L-SerDH described to date, and no loss of activity was observed by incubation for 30 min at temperatures up to 100 °C. The enzyme showed substantial reactivity towards D-serine, in addition to L-serine. Two different crystal structures of P. calidifontis L-SerDH were determined using the Se-MAD and MR method: the structure in complex with NADP + /sulfate ion at 1.18 Å and the structure in complex with NADP + /L-tartrate (substrate analog) at 1.57 Å. The fold of the catalytic domain showed similarity with that of Ps. aeruginosa L-SerDH. However, the active site structure significantly differed between the two enzymes. Based on the structure of the tartrate, L- and D-serine and 3-hydroxypropionate molecules were modeled into the active site and the substrate binding modes were estimated. A structural comparison suggests that the wide cavity at the substrate binding site is likely responsible for the high reactivity of the enzyme toward both L- and D-serine enantiomers. This is the first description of the structure of the novel type of L-SerDH with bound NADP + and substrate analog, and it provides new insight into the substrate binding mechanism of L-SerDH. The results obtained here may be very informative for the creation of L- or D-serine-specific SerDH by protein engineering.

  14. Myosin Light Chain Kinase and the Role of Myosin Light Chain Phosphorylation in Skeletal Muscle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stull, James T.; Kamm, Kristine E.; Vandenboom, Rene

    2011-01-01

    Skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase (skMLCK) is a dedicated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent serine-threonine protein kinase that phosphorylates the regulatory light chain (RLC) of sarcomeric myosin. It is expressed from the MYLK2 gene specifically in skeletal muscle fibers with most abundance in fast contracting muscles. Biochemically, activation occurs with Ca2+ binding to calmodulin forming a (Ca2+)4•calmodulin complex sufficient for activation with a diffusion limited, stoichiometic binding and displacement of a regulatory segment from skMLCK catalytic core. The N-terminal sequence of RLC then extends through the exposed catalytic cleft for Ser15 phosphorylation. Removal of Ca2+ results in the slow dissociation of calmodulin and inactivation of skMLCK. Combined biochemical properties provide unique features for the physiological responsiveness of RLC phosphorylation, including (1) rapid activation of MLCK by Ca2+/calmodulin, (2) limiting kinase activity so phosphorylation is slower than contraction, (3) slow MLCK inactivation after relaxation and (4) much greater kinase activity relative to myosin light chain phosphatase (MLCP). SkMLCK phosphorylation of myosin RLC modulates mechanical aspects of vertebrate skeletal muscle function. In permeabilized skeletal muscle fibers, phosphorylation-mediated alterations in myosin structure increase the rate of force-generation by myosin cross bridges to increase Ca2+-sensitivity of the contractile apparatus. Stimulation-induced increases in RLC phosphorylation in intact muscle produces isometric and concentric force potentiation to enhance dynamic aspects of muscle work and power in unfatigued or fatigued muscle. Moreover, RLC phosphorylation-mediated enhancements may interact with neural strategies for human skeletal muscle activation to ameliorate either central or peripheral aspects of fatigue. PMID:21284933

  15. Caspase Cleavages of the Lymphocyte-oriented Kinase Prevent Ezrin, Radixin, and Moesin Phosphorylation during Apoptosis*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leroy, Catherine; Belkina, Natalya V.; Long, Thavy; Deruy, Emeric; Dissous, Colette; Shaw, Stephen; Tulasne, David

    2016-01-01

    The lymphocyte-oriented kinase (LOK), also called serine threonine kinase 10 (STK10), is synthesized mainly in lymphocytes. It is involved in lymphocyte migration and polarization and can phosphorylate ezrin, radixin, and moesin (the ERM proteins). In a T lymphocyte cell line and in purified human lymphocytes, we found LOK to be cleaved by caspases during apoptosis. The first cleavage occurs at aspartic residue 332, located between the kinase domain and the coiled-coil regulation domain. This cleavage generates an N-terminal fragment, p50 N-LOK, containing the kinase domain and a C-terminal fragment, which is further cleaved during apoptosis. Although these cleavages preserve the entire kinase domain, p50 N-LOK displays no kinase activity. In apoptotic lymphocytes, caspase cleavages of LOK are concomitant with a decrease in ERM phosphorylation. When non-apoptotic lymphocytes from mice with homozygous and heterozygous LOK knockout were compared, the latter showed a higher level of ERM phosphorylation, but when apoptosis was induced, LOK−/− and LOK+/− lymphocytes showed the same low level, confirming in vivo that LOK-induced ERM phosphorylation is prevented during lymphocyte apoptosis. Our results demonstrate that cleavage of LOK during apoptosis abolishes its kinase activity, causing a decrease in ERM phosphorylation, crucial to the role of the ERM proteins in linking the plasma membrane to actin filaments. PMID:26945071

  16. Caspase Cleavages of the Lymphocyte-oriented Kinase Prevent Ezrin, Radixin, and Moesin Phosphorylation during Apoptosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leroy, Catherine; Belkina, Natalya V; Long, Thavy; Deruy, Emeric; Dissous, Colette; Shaw, Stephen; Tulasne, David

    2016-05-06

    The lymphocyte-oriented kinase (LOK), also called serine threonine kinase 10 (STK10), is synthesized mainly in lymphocytes. It is involved in lymphocyte migration and polarization and can phosphorylate ezrin, radixin, and moesin (the ERM proteins). In a T lymphocyte cell line and in purified human lymphocytes, we found LOK to be cleaved by caspases during apoptosis. The first cleavage occurs at aspartic residue 332, located between the kinase domain and the coiled-coil regulation domain. This cleavage generates an N-terminal fragment, p50 N-LOK, containing the kinase domain and a C-terminal fragment, which is further cleaved during apoptosis. Although these cleavages preserve the entire kinase domain, p50 N-LOK displays no kinase activity. In apoptotic lymphocytes, caspase cleavages of LOK are concomitant with a decrease in ERM phosphorylation. When non-apoptotic lymphocytes from mice with homozygous and heterozygous LOK knockout were compared, the latter showed a higher level of ERM phosphorylation, but when apoptosis was induced, LOK(-/-) and LOK(+/-) lymphocytes showed the same low level, confirming in vivo that LOK-induced ERM phosphorylation is prevented during lymphocyte apoptosis. Our results demonstrate that cleavage of LOK during apoptosis abolishes its kinase activity, causing a decrease in ERM phosphorylation, crucial to the role of the ERM proteins in linking the plasma membrane to actin filaments. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  17. Topoisomerase I tyrosine phosphorylation site and the DNA-interactive site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roll, D.; Durban, E.

    1986-01-01

    Phosphorylation of topoisomerase I (topo I) at serine by NII kinase is accompanied by stimulation of enzymatic activity. In contrast, phosphorylation at tyrosine by tyrosine kinase seems to inhibit enzymatic activity. This inhibition may be caused by interference of the phosphorylated tyrosine residue with the interaction of topo I with DNA. To test this, topo I was labeled with crude membrane fraction enriched for EGF-receptor kinase in presence of γ-P32-ATP and electrophoresed on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Stained topo I bands were excised, dried, digested with trypsin and analyzed on a C18 reverse-phase HPLC column. One major peak of radioactivity eluted at fraction 23 with 20% acetonitrile. To obtain the DNA-interactive site, topo I was incubated with pBR322 DNA labeled by nick-translation followed by DNase I treatment, and electrophoresis on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Tryptic peptides were generated and analyzed by reverse-phase HPLC. A major peak of radioactivity eluted at fraction 16-18 with 15.5-17% acetonitrile. Studies are in progress to resolve whether (a) the two peptides are different, i.e. the tyrosine-P site and DNA-tyrosine interactive site are localized at different regions of the topo I or (b) the peptide sequences are identical but the covalent attachment of deoxynucleotides altered the peptide's elution from the HPLC column

  18. Regulation of tumor cell migration by protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP)-proline-, glutamate-, serine-, and threonine-rich sequence (PEST)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yanhua; Lu, Zhimin

    2013-01-01

    Protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP)–proline-, glutamate-, serine-, and threonine-rich sequence (PEST) is ubiquitously expressed and is a critical regulator of cell adhesion and migration. PTP-PEST activity can be regulated transcriptionally via gene deletion or mutation in several types of human cancers or via post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, oxidation, and caspase-dependent cleavage. PTP-PEST interacts with and dephosphorylates cytoskeletal and focal adhesion-associated proteins. Dephosphorylation of PTP-PEST substrates regulates their enzymatic activities and/or their interaction with other proteins and plays an essential role in the tumor cell migration process. PMID:23237212

  19. Luteinizing hormone signaling phosphorylates and activates the cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase PDE5 in mouse ovarian follicles, contributing an additional component to the hormonally induced decrease in cyclic GMP that reinitiates meiosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egbert, Jeremy R; Yee, Siu-Pok; Jaffe, Laurinda A

    2018-03-01

    Prior to birth, oocytes within mammalian ovarian follicles initiate meiosis, but then arrest in prophase until puberty, when with each reproductive cycle, one or more follicles are stimulated by luteinizing hormone (LH) to resume meiosis in preparation for fertilization. Within preovulatory follicles, granulosa cells produce high levels of cGMP, which diffuses into the oocyte to maintain meiotic arrest. LH signaling restarts meiosis by rapidly lowering the levels of cGMP in the follicle and oocyte. Part of this decrease is mediated by the dephosphorylation and inactivation the NPR2 guanylyl cyclase in response to LH, but the mechanism for the remainder of the cGMP decrease is unknown. At least one cGMP phosphodiesterase, PDE5, is activated by LH signaling, which would contribute to lowering cGMP. PDE5 exhibits increased cGMP-hydrolytic activity when phosphorylated on serine 92, and we recently demonstrated that LH signaling phosphorylates PDE5 on this serine and increases its activity in rat follicles. To test the extent to which this mechanism contributes to the cGMP decrease that restarts meiosis, we generated a mouse line in which serine 92 was mutated to alanine (Pde5-S92A), such that it cannot be phosphorylated. Here we show that PDE5 phosphorylation is required for the LH-induced increase in cGMP-hydrolytic activity, but that this increase has only a modest effect on the LH-induced cGMP decrease in mouse follicles, and does not affect the timing of meiotic resumption. Though we show that the activation of PDE5 is among the mechanisms contributing to the cGMP decrease, these results suggest that another cGMP phosphodiesterase is also activated by LH signaling. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Serine protease inhibitors of parasitic helminths.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molehin, Adebayo J; Gobert, Geoffrey N; McManus, Donald P

    2012-05-01

    Serine protease inhibitors (serpins) are a superfamily of structurally conserved proteins that inhibit serine proteases and play key physiological roles in numerous biological systems such as blood coagulation, complement activation and inflammation. A number of serpins have now been identified in parasitic helminths with putative involvement in immune regulation and in parasite survival through interference with the host immune response. This review describes the serpins and smapins (small serine protease inhibitors) that have been identified in Ascaris spp., Brugia malayi, Ancylostoma caninum Onchocerca volvulus, Haemonchus contortus, Trichinella spiralis, Trichostrongylus vitrinus, Anisakis simplex, Trichuris suis, Schistosoma spp., Clonorchis sinensis, Paragonimus westermani and Echinococcus spp. and discusses their possible biological functions, including roles in host-parasite interplay and their evolutionary relationships.

  1. Arginine Deprivation Inhibits the Warburg Effect and Upregulates Glutamine Anaplerosis and Serine Biosynthesis in ASS1-Deficient Cancers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeff Charles Kremer

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Targeting defects in metabolism is an underutilized strategy for the treatment of cancer. Arginine auxotrophy resulting from the silencing of argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1 is a common metabolic alteration reported in a broad range of aggressive cancers. To assess the metabolic effects that arise from acute and chronic arginine starvation in ASS1-deficient cell lines, we performed metabolite profiling. We found that pharmacologically induced arginine depletion causes increased serine biosynthesis, glutamine anaplerosis, oxidative phosphorylation, and decreased aerobic glycolysis, effectively inhibiting the Warburg effect. The reduction of glycolysis in cells otherwise dependent on aerobic glycolysis is correlated with reduced PKM2 expression and phosphorylation and upregulation of PHGDH. Concurrent arginine deprivation and glutaminase inhibition was found to be synthetic lethal across a spectrum of ASS1-deficient tumor cell lines and is sufficient to cause in vivo tumor regression in mice. These results identify two synthetic lethal therapeutic strategies exploiting metabolic vulnerabilities of ASS1-negative cancers.

  2. Improved α-Amylase Production by Dephosphorylation Mutation of CreD, an Arrestin-Like Protein Required for Glucose-Induced Endocytosis of Maltose Permease and Carbon Catabolite Derepression in Aspergillus oryzae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanaka, Mizuki; Hiramoto, Tetsuya; Tada, Hinako; Shintani, Takahiro; Gomi, Katsuya

    2017-07-01

    Aspergillus oryzae produces copious amount of amylolytic enzymes, and MalP, a major maltose permease, is required for the expression of amylase-encoding genes. The expression of these genes is strongly repressed by carbon catabolite repression (CCR) in the presence of glucose. MalP is transported from the plasma membrane to the vacuole by endocytosis, which requires the homolog of E6-AP carboxyl terminus ubiquitin ligase HulA, an ortholog of yeast Rsp5. In yeast, arrestin-like proteins mediate endocytosis as adaptors of Rsp5 and transporters. In the present study, we examined the involvement of CreD, an arrestin-like protein, in glucose-induced MalP endocytosis and CCR of amylase-encoding genes. Deletion of creD inhibited the glucose-induced endocytosis of MalP, and CreD showed physical interaction with HulA. Phosphorylation of CreD was detected by Western blotting, and two serine residues were determined as the putative phosphorylation sites. However, the phosphorylation state of the serine residues did not regulate MalP endocytosis and its interaction with HulA. Although α-amylase production was significantly repressed by creD deletion, both phosphorylation and dephosphorylation mimics of CreD had a negligible effect on α-amylase activity. Interestingly, dephosphorylation of CreD was required for CCR relief of amylase genes that was triggered by disruption of the deubiquitinating enzyme-encoding gene creB The α-amylase activity of the creB mutant was 1.6-fold higher than that of the wild type, and the dephosphorylation mimic of CreD further improved the α-amylase activity by 2.6-fold. These results indicate that a combination of the dephosphorylation mutation of CreD and creB disruption increased the production of amylolytic enzymes in A. oryzae IMPORTANCE In eukaryotes, glucose induces carbon catabolite repression (CCR) and proteolytic degradation of plasma membrane transporters via endocytosis. Glucose-induced endocytosis of transporters is mediated by

  3. Characterization of serine hydroxymethyltransferase GlyA as a potential source of D-alanine in Chlamydia pneumoniae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Benedetti, Stefania; Bühl, Henrike; Gaballah, Ahmed; Klöckner, Anna; Otten, Christian; Schneider, Tanja; Sahl, Hans-Georg; Henrichfreise, Beate

    2014-01-01

    For intracellular Chlamydiaceae, there is no need to withstand osmotic challenges, and a functional cell wall has not been detected in these pathogens so far. Nevertheless, penicillin inhibits cell division in Chlamydiaceae resulting in enlarged aberrant bodies, a phenomenon known as chlamydial anomaly. D-alanine is a unique and essential component in the biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. In free-living bacteria like Escherichia coli, penicillin-binding proteins such as monofunctional transpeptidases PBP2 and PBP3, the putative targets of penicillin in Chlamydiaceae, cross-link adjacent peptidoglycan strands via meso-diaminopimelic acid and D-Ala-D-Ala moieties of pentapeptide side chains. In the absence of genes coding for alanine racemase Alr and DadX homologs, the source of D-Ala and thus the presence of substrates for PBP2 and PBP3 activity in Chlamydiaceae has puzzled researchers for years. Interestingly, Chlamydiaceae genomes encode GlyA, a serine hydroxymethyltransferase that has been shown to exhibit slow racemization of D- and L-alanine as a side reaction in E. coli. We show that GlyA from Chlamydia pneumoniae can serve as a source of D-Ala. GlyA partially reversed the D-Ala auxotrophic phenotype of an E. coli racemase double mutant. Moreover, purified chlamydial GlyA had racemase activity on L-Ala in vitro and was inhibited by D-cycloserine, identifying GlyA, besides D-Ala ligase MurC/Ddl, as an additional target of this competitive inhibitor in Chlamydiaceae. Proof of D-Ala biosynthesis in Chlamydiaceae helps to clarify the structure of cell wall precursor lipid II and the role of chlamydial penicillin-binding proteins in the development of non-dividing aberrant chlamydial bodies and persistence in the presence of penicillin.

  4. Characterization of serine hydroxymethyltransferase GlyA as a potential source of D-alanine in Chlamydia pneumoniae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefania eDe Benedetti

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available For intracellular Chlamydiaceae, there is no need to withstand osmotic challenges, and a functional cell wall has not been detected in these pathogens so far. Nevertheless, penicillin inhibits cell division in Chlamydiaceae resulting in enlarged aberrant bodies, a phenomenon known as chlamydial anomaly.D-alanine is a unique and essential component in the biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. In free-living bacteria like Escherichia coli, penicillin-binding proteins such as monofunctional transpeptidases PBP2 and PBP3, the putative targets of penicillin in Chlamydiaceae, cross-link adjacent peptidoglycan strands via meso-diaminopimelic acid and D-Ala-D-Ala moieties of pentapeptide side chains. In the absence of genes coding for alanine racemase Alr and DadX homologs, the source of D-Ala and thus the presence of substrates for PBP2 and PBP3 activity in Chlamydiaceae has puzzled researchers for years. Interestingly, Chlamydiaceae genomes encode GlyA, a serine hydroxymethyltransferase that has been shown to exhibit slow racemization of D- and L- alanine as a side reaction in E. coli. We show that GlyA from Chlamydia pneumoniae can serve as a source of D-Ala. GlyA partially reversed the D-Ala auxotrophic phenotype of an E. coli racemase double mutant. Moreover, purified chlamydial GlyA had racemase activity on L-Ala in vitro and was inhibited by D-cycloserine, identifying GlyA, besides D-Ala ligase MurC/Ddl, as an additional target of this competitive inhibitor in Chlamydiaceae. Proof of D-Ala biosynthesis in Chlamydiaceae helps to clarify the structure of cell wall precursor lipid II and the role of chlamydial penicillin-binding proteins in the development of non-dividing aberrant chlamydial bodies and persistence in the presence of penicillin.

  5. Positional effect of phosphorylation sites 266 and 267 in the cytoplasmic domain of the E2 protein of hepatitis C virus 3a genotype: Interferon Resistance analysis via Sequence Alignment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ur Rehman Irshad

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Interferon is well thought-out as the key defence against all infections including HCV. The only treatment for HCV infection is pegylated interferon alpha (IFN-α but unluckily more than half of the infected individuals do not act in response to the cure and become chronic HCV carriers. The mechanism how HCV induce interferon resistance is still elusive. It is recently reported that HCV envelope protein 2 interacts with PKR which is the interferon-inducible protein kinase and which in turn blocks the activity of its target molecule called eukaryotic initiation factor elF2. Sequence analysis of Envelope protein reveals it contains a domain homologous to phosphorylation sites of PKR andthe translation initiation factor eIF2alpha. Envelope protein competes for phosphorylation with PKR. Inhibition of kinase activity of PKR is postulated as a mechanism of to interferon (IFN resistance. Results Present study involves the insilico investigation of possible role of potential phosphorylation in envelope 2 protein of 3a genotype in interferon resistance. Envelope protein coding genes were isolated from local HCV isolates, cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was done and tertiary structure of envelope gene was predicted. Visualization of phosphorylation in tertiary structure reveals that residue 266 and 267 of envelope gene 2 are surface exposed and their phosphorylation may compete with the phosphorylation of PKR protein and possibly involved in mediating Interferon Resistance. Conclusion A hybrid in-silico and wet laboratory approach of motif prediction, evolutionary and structural analysis has pointed out serine 266 and 267 of the HCV E2 gene as a hopeful claimant for the serine phosphorylation. Recognition of these nucleotide variations may assist to propose genotype precise therapy to avoid and resolve HCV infections.

  6. Inflammation kinase PKR phosphorylates α-synuclein and causes α-synuclein-dependent cell death

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Reimer, Lasse; Lund, Louise Buur; Betzer, Cristine

    2018-01-01

    , and acute brain slices), while overexpression of constitutively active PKR increases Ser129 α-syn phosphorylation. Treatment with pre-formed α-synuclein fibrils, proteostatic stress-promoting MG-132 and known PKR activators, herpes simplex virus-1-∆ICP34.5 and LPS, as well as PKR inducer, IFN-β-1b, lead...... on Ser129. Although the inflammation-associated serine-threonine kinase, PKR (EIF2AK2), promotes cellular protection against infection, we demonstrate a pro-degenerative role of activated PKR in an α-synuclein-dependent cell model of multiple system atrophy, where inhibition and silencing of PKR decrease...

  7. Inositol pyrophosphates mediate the DNA-PK/ATM-p53 cell death pathway by regulating CK2 phosphorylation of Tti1/Tel2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rao, Feng; Cha, Jiyoung; Xu, Jing; Xu, Risheng; Vandiver, M. Scott; Tyagi, Richa; Tokhunts, Robert; Koldobskiy, Michael A.; Fu, Chenglai; Barrow, Roxanne; Wu, Mingxuan; Fiedler, Dorothea; Barrow, James C.; Snyder, Solomon H.

    2014-01-01

    The apoptotic actions of p53 require its phosphorylation by a family of phosphoinositide-3-kinase-related-kinases (PIKKs), which include DNA-PKcs and ATM. These kinases are stabilized by the TTT (Tel2, Tti1, Tti2) co-chaperone family, whose actions are mediated by CK2 phosphorylation. The inositol pyrophosphates, such as 5-diphosphoinositol pentakisphosphate (IP7), are generated by a family of inositol hexakisphosphate kinases (IP6Ks) of which IP6K2 has been implicated in p53-associated cell death. In the present study we report a novel apoptotic signaling cascade linking CK2, TTT, the PIKKs, and p53. We demonstrate that IP7, formed by IP6K2, binds CK2 to enhance its phosphorylation of the TTT complex thereby stabilizing DNA-PKcs and ATM. This process stimulates p53 phosphorylation at serine-15 to activate the cell death program in human cancer cells and in murine B cells. PMID:24657168

  8. Inhibition of Human Serine Racemase, an Emerging Target for Medicinal Chemistry

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Jirásková-Vaníčková, Jana; Ettrich, Rüdiger; Vorlová, Barbora; Hoffman, Hillary Elizabeth; Lepšík, Martin; Jansa, Petr; Konvalinka, Jan

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 12, č. 7 (2011), s. 1037-1055 ISSN 1389-4501 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0508; GA ČR GA203/08/0114 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40550506; CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : amino acid analogs * L-erythro-3-hydroxyaspartate (L-EHA) * D-serine * neurodegenerative diseases * NMDA receptors * pyridoxal-5´-phosphate (PLP) Subject RIV: FR - Pharmacology ; Medidal Chemistry Impact factor: 3.553, year: 2011

  9. Histone H1 interphase phosphorylation becomes largely established in G1 or early S phase and differs in G1 between T-lymphoblastoid cells and normal T cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gréen Anna

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Histone H1 is an important constituent of chromatin, and is involved in regulation of its structure. During the cell cycle, chromatin becomes locally decondensed in S phase, highly condensed during metaphase, and again decondensed before re-entry into G1. This has been connected to increasing phosphorylation of H1 histones through the cell cycle. However, many of these experiments have been performed using cell-synchronization techniques and cell cycle-arresting drugs. In this study, we investigated the H1 subtype composition and phosphorylation pattern in the cell cycle of normal human activated T cells and Jurkat T-lymphoblastoid cells by capillary electrophoresis after sorting of exponentially growing cells into G1, S and G2/M populations. Results We found that the relative amount of H1.5 protein increased significantly after T-cell activation. Serine phosphorylation of H1 subtypes occurred to a large extent in late G1 or early S phase in both activated T cells and Jurkat cells. Furthermore, our data confirm that the H1 molecules newly synthesized during S phase achieve a similar phosphorylation pattern to the previous ones. Jurkat cells had more extended H1.5 phosphorylation in G1 compared with T cells, a difference that can be explained by faster cell growth and/or the presence of enhanced H1 kinase activity in G1 in Jurkat cells. Conclusion Our data are consistent with a model in which a major part of interphase H1 phosphorylation takes place in G1 or early S phase. This implies that H1 serine phosphorylation may be coupled to changes in chromatin structure necessary for DNA replication. In addition, the increased H1 phosphorylation of malignant cells in G1 may be affecting the G1/S transition control and enabling facilitated S-phase entry as a result of relaxed chromatin condensation. Furthermore, increased H1.5 expression may be coupled to the proliferative capacity of growth-stimulated T cells.

  10. Crystal structure and characterization of a novel L-serine ammonia-lyase from Rhizomucor miehei

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qin, Zhen [College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center of Food Nutrition and Human Health, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083 (China); Yan, Qiaojuan [College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083 (China); Ma, Qingjun [Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071 (China); Jiang, Zhengqiang, E-mail: zhqjiang@cau.edu.cn [College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center of Food Nutrition and Human Health, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083 (China)

    2015-10-23

    L-serine ammonia-lyase, as a member of the β-family of pyridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes, catalyzes the conversion of L-serine (L-threonine) to pyruvate (α-ketobutyrate) and ammonia. The crystal structure of L-serine ammonia-lyase from Rhizomucor miehei (RmSDH) was solved at 1.76 Å resolution by X-ray diffraction method. The overall structure of RmSDH had the characteristic β-family PLP dependent enzyme fold. It consisted of two distinct domains, both of which show the typical open twisted α/β structure. A PLP cofactor was located in the crevice between the two domains, which was attached to Lys52 by a Schiff-base linkage. Unique residue substitutions (Gly78, Pro79, Ser146, Ser147 and Thr312) were discovered at the catalytic site of RmSDH by comparison of structures of RmSDH and other reported eukaryotic L-serine ammonia-lyases. Optimal pH and temperature of the purified RmSDH were 7.5 and 40 °C, respectively. It was stable in the pH range of 7.0–9.0 and at temperatures below 40 °C. This is the first crystal structure of a fungal L-serine ammonia-lyase. It will be useful to study the catalytic mechanism of β-elimination enzymes and will provide a basis for further enzyme engineering. - Highlights: • The crystal structure of a fungal L-serine ammonia-lyase (RmSDH) was solved. • Five unique residue substitutions are found at the catalytic site of RmSDH. • RmSDH was expressed in Pichia. pastoris and biochemically characterized. • RmSDH has potential application in splitting D/L-serine.

  11. Phosphorylation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ParB participates in regulating the ParABS chromosome segregation system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baronian, Grégory; Ginda, Katarzyna; Berry, Laurence; Cohen-Gonsaud, Martin; Zakrzewska-Czerwińska, Jolanta; Jakimowicz, Dagmara; Molle, Virginie

    2015-01-01

    Here, we present for the first time that Mycobacterium tuberculosis ParB is phosphorylated by several mycobacterial Ser/Thr protein kinases in vitro. ParB and ParA are the key components of bacterial chromosome segregation apparatus. ParB is a cytosolic conserved protein that binds specifically to centromere-like DNA parS sequences and interacts with ParA, a weak ATPase required for its proper localization. Mass spectrometry identified the presence of ten phosphate groups, thus indicating that ParB is phosphorylated on eight threonines, Thr32, Thr41, Thr53, Thr110, Thr195, and Thr254, Thr300, Thr303 as well as on two serines, Ser5 and Ser239. The phosphorylation sites were further substituted either by alanine to prevent phosphorylation or aspartate to mimic constitutive phosphorylation. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed a drastic inhibition of DNA-binding by ParB phosphomimetic mutant compared to wild type. In addition, bacterial two-hybrid experiments showed a loss of ParA-ParB interaction with the phosphomimetic mutant, indicating that phosphorylation is regulating the recruitment of the partitioning complex. Moreover, fluorescence microscopy experiments performed in the surrogate Mycobacterium smegmatis ΔparB strain revealed that in contrast to wild type Mtb ParB, which formed subpolar foci similar to M. smegmatis ParB, phoshomimetic Mtb ParB was delocalized. Thus, our findings highlight a novel regulatory role of the different isoforms of ParB representing a molecular switch in localization and functioning of partitioning protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

  12. Phosphorylation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ParB participates in regulating the ParABS chromosome segregation system.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grégory Baronian

    Full Text Available Here, we present for the first time that Mycobacterium tuberculosis ParB is phosphorylated by several mycobacterial Ser/Thr protein kinases in vitro. ParB and ParA are the key components of bacterial chromosome segregation apparatus. ParB is a cytosolic conserved protein that binds specifically to centromere-like DNA parS sequences and interacts with ParA, a weak ATPase required for its proper localization. Mass spectrometry identified the presence of ten phosphate groups, thus indicating that ParB is phosphorylated on eight threonines, Thr32, Thr41, Thr53, Thr110, Thr195, and Thr254, Thr300, Thr303 as well as on two serines, Ser5 and Ser239. The phosphorylation sites were further substituted either by alanine to prevent phosphorylation or aspartate to mimic constitutive phosphorylation. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed a drastic inhibition of DNA-binding by ParB phosphomimetic mutant compared to wild type. In addition, bacterial two-hybrid experiments showed a loss of ParA-ParB interaction with the phosphomimetic mutant, indicating that phosphorylation is regulating the recruitment of the partitioning complex. Moreover, fluorescence microscopy experiments performed in the surrogate Mycobacterium smegmatis ΔparB strain revealed that in contrast to wild type Mtb ParB, which formed subpolar foci similar to M. smegmatis ParB, phoshomimetic Mtb ParB was delocalized. Thus, our findings highlight a novel regulatory role of the different isoforms of ParB representing a molecular switch in localization and functioning of partitioning protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

  13. Cyclic AMP-specific phosphodiesterase, PDE8A1, is activated by protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation

    OpenAIRE

    Brown, Kim M.; Lee, Louisa C.Y; Findlay, Jane E.; Day, Jonathan P.; Baillie, George S.

    2012-01-01

    The cyclic AMP-specific phosphodiesterase PDE8 has been shown to play a pivotal role in important processes such as steroidogenesis, T cell adhesion, regulation of heart beat and chemotaxis. However, no information exists on how the activity of this enzyme is regulated. We show that under elevated cAMP conditions, PKA acts to phosphorylate PDE8A on serine 359 and this action serves to enhance the activity of the enzyme. This is the first indication that PDE8 activity can be modulated by a kin...

  14. Total and phosphorylated tau protein as biological markers of Alzheimer's disease.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Hampel, Harald

    2012-02-01

    Advances in our understanding of tau-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer\\'s disease (AD) are moving this disease pathway to center stage for the development of biomarkers and disease modifying drug discovery efforts. Immunoassays were developed detecting total (t-tau) and tau phosphorylated at specific epitopes (p-tauX) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), methods to analyse tau in blood are at the experimental beginning. Clinical research consistently demonstrated CSF t- and p-tau increased in AD compared to controls. Measuring these tau species proved informative for classifying AD from relevant differential diagnoses. Tau phosphorylated at threonine 231 (p-tau231) differentiated between AD and frontotemporal dementia, tau phosphorylated at serine 181 (p-tau181) enhanced classification between AD and dementia with Lewy bodies. T- and p-tau are considered "core" AD biomarkers that have been successfully validated by controlled large-scale multi-center studies. Tau biomarkers are implemented in clinical trials to reflect biological activity, mechanisms of action of compounds, support enrichment of target populations, provide endpoints for proof-of-concept and confirmatory trials on disease modification. World-wide quality control initiatives are underway to set required methodological and protocol standards. Discussions with regulatory authorities gain momentum defining the role of tau biomarkers for trial designs and how they may be further qualified for surrogate marker status.

  15. Replication Protein A (RPA) Phosphorylation Prevents RPA Association with Replication Centers

    OpenAIRE

    Vassin, Vitaly M.; Wold, Marc S.; Borowiec, James A.

    2004-01-01

    Mammalian replication protein A (RPA) undergoes DNA damage-dependent phosphorylation at numerous sites on the N terminus of the RPA2 subunit. To understand the functional significance of RPA phosphorylation, we expressed RPA2 variants in which the phosphorylation sites were converted to aspartate (RPA2D) or alanine (RPA2A). Although RPA2D was incorporated into RPA heterotrimers and supported simian virus 40 DNA replication in vitro, the RPA2D mutant was selectively unable to associate with re...

  16. Virus-induced apoptosis and phosphorylation form of metacaspase in the marine coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jingwen; Cai, Weicong; Fang, Xian; Wang, Xueting; Li, Guiling

    2018-04-01

    Lytic viral infection and programmed cell death (PCD) are thought to represent two distinct death mechanisms in phytoplankton, unicellular photoautotrophs that drift with ocean currents. PCD (apoptosis) is mainly brought about by the activation of caspases, a protease family with unique substrate selectivity. Here, we demonstrated that virus infection induced apoptosis of marine coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi BOF92 involving activation of metacaspase. E. huxleyi cells exhibited cell death process akin to that of apoptosis when exposed to virus infection. We observed typical hallmarks of apoptosis including cell shrinkage, associated nuclear morphological changes and DNA fragmentation. Immunoblotting revealed that antibody against human active-caspase-3 shared epitopes with a protein of ≈ 23 kDa; whose pattern of expression correlated with the onset of cell death. Moreover, analysis on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that two spots of active caspase-3 co-migrated with the different isoelectric points. Phosphatase treatment of cytosolic extracts containing active caspases-3 showed a mobility shift, suggesting that phosphorylated form of this enzyme might be present in the extracts. Computational prediction of phosphorylation sites based on the amino acid sequence of E. huxleyi metacaspase showed multiple phosphorylated sites for serine, threonine and tyrosine residues. This is the first report showing that phosphorylation modification of metacaspase in E. huxleyi might be required for certain biochemical and morphological changes during virus induced apoptosis.

  17. Inhibition of protein phosphatase 2A induces serine/threonine phosphorylation, subcellular redistribution, and functional inhibition of STAT3

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Woetmann, A; Nielsen, M; Christensen, S T

    1999-01-01

    Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are rapidly phosphorylated on tyrosine residues in response to cytokine and growth factor stimulation of cell surface receptors. STATs hereafter are translocated to the nucleus where they act as transcription factors. Recent reports suggest...

  18. HSP27 phosphorylation modulates TRAIL-induced activation of Src-Akt/ERK signaling through interaction with β-arrestin2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Shimei; Xin, Yinqiang; Qi, Zhilin; Xu, Yimiao; Diao, Ying; Lan, Lei; Luo, Lan; Yin, Zhimin

    2014-03-01

    Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) regulates critical cellular functions such as development, differentiation, cell growth and apoptosis. A variety of stimuli induce the phosphorylation of HSP27, which affects its cellular functions. However, most previous studies focused on the role of HSP27 protein itself in apoptosis, the particular role of its phosphorylation state in signaling transduction remains largely unclear. In the present study, we reported that HSP27 phosphorylation modulated TRAIL-triggered pro-survival signaling transduction. In HeLa cells, suppression of HSP27 phosphorylation by specific inhibitor KRIBB3 or MAPKAPK2 (MK2) knockdown and by overexpression of non-phosphorylatable HSP27(3A) mutant demonstrated that hindered HSP27 phosphorylation enhanced the TRAIL-induced apoptosis. In addition, reduced HSP27 phosphorylation by KRIBB3 treatment or MK2 knockdown attenuated the TRAIL-induced activation of Akt and ERK survival signaling through suppressing the phosphorylation of Src. By overexpression of HSP27(15A) or HSP27(78/82A) phosphorylation mutant, we further showed that phosphorylation of HSP27 at serine 78/82 residues was essential to TRAIL-triggered Src-Akt/ERK signaling transduction. Co-immunoprecipitation and confocal microscopy showed that HSP27 interacted with Src and scaffolding protein β-arrestin2 in response of TRAIL stimulation and suppression of HSP27 phosphorylation apparently disrupted the TRAIL-induced interaction of HSP27 and Src or interaction of HSP27 and β-arrestin2. We further demonstrated that β-arrestin2 mediated HSP27 action on TRAIL-induced Src activation, which was achieved by recruiting signaling complex of HSP27/β-arrestin2/Src in response to TRAIL. Taken together, our study revealed that HSP27 phosphorylation modulates TRAIL-triggered activation of Src-Akt/ERK pro-survival signaling via interacting with β-arrestin2 in HeLa cells. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. PPARγ1 phosphorylation enhances proliferation and drug resistance in human fibrosarcoma cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pang, Xiaojuan; Shu, Yuxin; Niu, Zhiyuan; Zheng, Wei; Wu, Haochen [State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing (China); Lu, Yan, E-mail: luyan@nju.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing (China); Shen, Pingping, E-mail: ppshen@nju.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing (China); Model Animal Research Center (MARC), Nanjing University, Nanjing (China)

    2014-03-10

    Post-translational regulation plays a critical role in the control of cell growth and proliferation. The phosphorylation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is the most important post-translational modification. The function of PPARγ phosphorylation has been studied extensively in the past. However, the relationship between phosphorylated PPARγ1 and tumors remains unclear. Here we investigated the role of PPARγ1 phosphorylation in human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cell line. Using the nonphosphorylation (Ser84 to alanine, S84A) and phosphorylation (Ser84 to aspartic acid, S84D) mutant of PPARγ1, the results suggested that phosphorylation attenuated PPARγ1 transcriptional activity. Meanwhile, we demonstrated that phosphorylated PPARγ1 promoted HT1080 cell proliferation and this effect was dependent on the regulation of cell cycle arrest. The mRNA levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CKI) p21{sup Waf1/Cip1} and p27{sup Kip1} descended in PPARγ1{sup S84D} stable HT1080 cell, whereas the expression of p18{sup INK4C} was not changed. Moreover, compared to the PPARγ1{sup S84A}, PPARγ1{sup S84D} up-regulated the expression levels of cyclin D1 and cyclin A. Finally, PPARγ1 phosphorylation reduced sensitivity to agonist rosiglitazone and increased resistance to anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in HT1080 cell. Our findings establish PPARγ1 phosphorylation as a critical event in human fibrosarcoma growth. These findings raise the possibility that chemical compounds that prevent the phosphorylation of PPARγ1 could act as anticancer drugs. - Highlights: • Phosphorylation attenuates PPARγ1 transcriptional activity. • Phosphorylated PPARγ1 promotes HT1080 cells proliferation. • PPARγ1 phosphorylation regulates cell cycle by mediating expression of cell cycle regulators. • PPARγ1 phosphorylation reduces sensitivity to agonist and anticancer drug. • Our findings establish PPARγ1 phosphorylation as a critical event in HT1080

  20. Phosphorylation of protein synthesis initiation factor 2 (elF-2) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romero, D.P.

    1986-01-01

    Initiation Factor 2 (elF-2) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is comprised of 3 subunits. The control of protein synthesis in mammalian cells have been shown to involve the phosphorylation of the small (alpha) subunit by a specific protein kinase. Phosphorylation results in an inhibition of protein synthesis. In order to determine whether or not an analogous system is operative in yeast, the phosphorylation state of the alpha subunit of elF-2 in Saccharomyces was determined during various growth and nongrowth conditions. Cells were radiolabelled with 32 P and 35 S, and the whole cell lysates were analyzed by two dimensional gel electrophoresis. These experiments revealed that the smallest subunit (alpha, M/sub r/ = 31,000) is a phosphoprotein in vivo under a variety of growth and nongrowth conditions. This is in direct contrast to the pattern exhibited in mammalian cells. The fact that the small subunit of elF-2 in yeast is phosphorylated under a variety of physiological conditions indicates that such a covalent modification is important for some aspects of elF-2 function. In order to investigate this problem further, a protein kinase that specifically labels the alpha subunit of elF-2 in vitro was isolated. The kinase is not autophosphorylating, utilizes ATP as a phosphate donor, phosphorylates an exogenous protein, casein, modifies serine residues in elF-2, is cyclic nucleotide-independent, and is strongly inhibited by heparin

  1. Mycobacterium tuberculosis maltosyltransferase GlgE, a genetically validated antituberculosis target, is negatively regulated by Ser/Thr phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leiba, Jade; Syson, Karl; Baronian, Grégory; Zanella-Cléon, Isabelle; Kalscheuer, Rainer; Kremer, Laurent; Bornemann, Stephen; Molle, Virginie

    2013-06-07

    GlgE is a maltosyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of α-glucans that has been genetically validated as a potential therapeutic target against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Despite also making α-glucan, the GlgC/GlgA glycogen pathway is distinct and allosterically regulated. We have used a combination of genetics and biochemistry to establish how the GlgE pathway is regulated. M. tuberculosis GlgE was phosphorylated specifically by the Ser/Thr protein kinase PknB in vitro on one serine and six threonine residues. Furthermore, GlgE was phosphorylated in vivo when expressed in Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) but not when all seven phosphorylation sites were replaced by Ala residues. The GlgE orthologues from Mycobacterium smegmatis and Streptomyces coelicolor were phosphorylated by the corresponding PknB orthologues in vitro, implying that the phosphorylation of GlgE is widespread among actinomycetes. PknB-dependent phosphorylation of GlgE led to a 2 orders of magnitude reduction in catalytic efficiency in vitro. The activities of phosphoablative and phosphomimetic GlgE derivatives, where each phosphorylation site was substituted with either Ala or Asp residues, respectively, correlated with negative phosphoregulation. Complementation studies of a M. smegmatis glgE mutant strain with these GlgE derivatives, together with both classical and chemical forward genetics, were consistent with flux through the GlgE pathway being correlated with GlgE activity. We conclude that the GlgE pathway appears to be negatively regulated in actinomycetes through the phosphorylation of GlgE by PknB, a mechanism distinct from that known in the classical glycogen pathway. Thus, these findings open new opportunities to target the GlgE pathway therapeutically.

  2. Serine and alanine racemase activities of VanT: a protein necessary for vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus gallinarum BM4174.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arias, C A; Weisner, J; Blackburn, J M; Reynolds, P E

    2000-07-01

    Vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus gallinarum results from the production of UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide[D-Ser]. VanT, a membrane-bound serine racemase, is one of three proteins essential for this resistance. To investigate the selectivity of racemization of L-Ser or L-Ala by VanT, a strain of Escherichia coli TKL-10 that requires D-Ala for growth at 42 degrees C was used as host for transformation experiments using plasmids containing the full-length vanT from Ent. gallinarum or the alanine racemase gene (alr) of Bacillus stearothermophilus: both plasmids were able to complement E. coli TKL-10 at 42 degrees C. No alanine or serine racemase activities were detected in the host strain E. coli TKL-10 grown at 30, 34 or 37 degrees C. Serine and alanine racemase activities were found almost exclusively (96%) in the membrane fraction of E. coli TKL-10/pCA4(vanT): the alanine racemase activity of VanT was 14% of the serine racemase activity in both E. coli TKL-10/pCA4(vanT) and E. coli XL-1 Blue/pCA4(vanT). Alanine racemase activity was present mainly (95%) in the cytoplasmic fraction of E. coli TKL-10/pJW40(alr), with a trace (1.6%) of serine racemase activity. Additionally, DNA encoding the soluble domain of VanT was cloned and expressed in E. coli M15 as a His-tagged polypeptide and purified: this polypeptide also exhibited both serine and alanine racemase activities; the latter was approximately 18% of the serine racemase activity, similar to that of the full-length, membrane-bound enzyme. N-terminal sequencing of the purified His-tagged polypeptide revealed a single amino acid sequence, indicating that the formation of heterodimers between subunits of His-tagged C-VanT and endogenous alanine racemases from E. coli was unlikely. The authors conclude that the membrane-bound serine racemase VanT also has alanine racemase activity but is able to racemize serine more efficiently than alanine, and that the cytoplasmic domain is responsible for the racemase activity.

  3. Enhancement of L-Serine Production by Corynebacterium ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    glutamicum SYPS-062 cultivation process for efficient production of L-serine on a large scale. ... central intermediate for a number of cellular .... impeller, oxygen and pH electrodes, under the ... equation. The yield of L-serine was regressed with respect to the medium ..... is not essential for activity but is required for inhibition.

  4. Serine:glyoxylate aminotransferase mutant of barley

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blackwell, R.; Murray, A.; Joy, K.; Lea, P.

    1987-01-01

    A photorespiratory mutant of barley (LaPr 85/84), deficient in both of the major peaks of serine:glyoxylate aminotransferase activity detected in the wild type, also lacks serine:pyruvate and asparagine:glyoxylate aminotransferase activities. Genetic analysis of the mutation demonstrated that these three activities are all carried on the same enzyme. The mutant, when placed in air, accumulated a large pool of serine, showed the expected rate (50%) of ammonia release during photorespiration but produced CO 2 at twice the wild type rate when it was fed [ 14 C] glyoxylate. Compared with the wild type, LaPr 85/84 exhibited abnormal transient changes in chlorophyll a fluorescence when the CO 2 concentration of the air was altered, indicating that the rates of the fluorescence quenching mechanisms were affected in vivo by the lack of this enzyme

  5. Serine34 phosphorylation of RHO guanine dissociation inhibitor (RHOGDI{alpha}) links signaling from conventional protein kinase C to RHO GTPase in cell adhesion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dovas, Athanassios; Choi, Youngsil; Yoneda, Atsuko

    2010-01-01

    . Phosphospecific antibodies reveal endogenous phosphorylation in several cell types that is sensitive to adhesion events triggered, for example, by hepatocyte growth factor. Phosphorylation is also sensitive to PKC inhibition. Together with FRET microscopy sensing GTP-RhoA levels, the data reveal a common pathway...

  6. PKA Phosphorylation of NCLX Reverses Mitochondrial Calcium Overload and Depolarization, Promoting Survival of PINK1-Deficient Dopaminergic Neurons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marko Kostic

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Mitochondrial Ca2+ overload is a critical, preceding event in neuronal damage encountered during neurodegenerative and ischemic insults. We found that loss of PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1 function, implicated in Parkinson disease, inhibits the mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCLX, leading to impaired mitochondrial Ca2+ extrusion. NCLX activity was, however, fully rescued by activation of the protein kinase A (PKA pathway. We further show that PKA rescues NCLX activity by phosphorylating serine 258, a putative regulatory NCLX site. Remarkably, a constitutively active phosphomimetic mutant of NCLX (NCLXS258D prevents mitochondrial Ca2+ overload and mitochondrial depolarization in PINK1 knockout neurons, thereby enhancing neuronal survival. Our results identify an mitochondrial Ca2+ transport regulatory pathway that protects against mitochondrial Ca2+ overload. Because mitochondrial Ca2+ dyshomeostasis is a prominent feature of multiple disorders, the link between NCLX and PKA may offer a therapeutic target.

  7. Serine 77 in the PDZ domain of PICK1 is a protein kinase Cα phosphorylation site regulated by lipid membrane binding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ammendrup-Johnsen, Ina; Thorsen, Thor Seneca; Gether, Ulrik

    2012-01-01

    PICK1 (protein interacting with C kinase 1) contains an N-terminal protein binding PDZ domain and a C-terminal lipid binding BAR domain. PICK1 plays a key role in several physiological processes, including synaptic plasticity. However, little is known about the cellular mechanisms governing the a...... lipid binding and/or polymerization capacity. We propose that PICK1 is phosphorylated at Ser77 by PKCα preferentially when bound to membrane vesicles and that this phosphorylation in turn modulates its cellular distribution....

  8. Pim-1 Kinase Phosphorylates Cardiac Troponin I and Regulates Cardiac Myofilament Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ni Zhu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims: Pim-1 is a serine/threonine kinase that is highly expressed in the heart, and exerts potent cardiac protective effects through enhancing survival, proliferation, and regeneration of cardiomyocytes. Its myocardial specific substrates, however, remain unknown. In the present study, we aim to investigate whether Pim-1 modulates myofilament activity through phosphorylation of cardiac troponin I (cTnI, a key component in regulating myofilament function in the heart. Methods: Coimmunoprecipitation and immunofluorescent assays were employed to investigate the interaction of Pim-1 with cTnI in cardiomyocytes. Biochemical, site directed mutagenesis, and mass spectrometric analyses were utilized to identify the phosphorylation sites of Pim1 in cTnI. Myofilament functional assay using skinned cardiac fiber was used to assess the effect of Pim1-mediated phosphorylation on cardiac myofilament activity. Lastly, the functional significance of Pim1-mediated cTnI in heart disease was determined in diabetic mice. Results: We found that Pim-1 specifically interacts with cTnI in cardiomyocytes and this interaction leads to Pim1-mediated cTnI phosphorylation, predominantly at Ser23/24 and Ser150. Furthermore, our functional assay demonstrated that Pim-1 induces a robust phosphorylation of cTnI within the troponin complex, thus leading to a decreased Ca2+ sensitivity. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1, a peptide growth factor that has been shown to stimulate myocardial contractility, markedly induces cTnI phosphorylation at Ser23/24 and Ser150 through increasing Pim-1 expression in cardiomyocytes. In a high-fat diabetic mice model, the expression of Pim1 in the heart is significantly decreased, which is accompanied by a decreased phosphorylation of cTnI at Ser23/24 and Ser150, further implicating the pathological significance of the Pim1/cTnI axis in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that Pim-1 is a

  9. Fibrin(ogen)olytic activity of bumblebee venom serine protease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiu Yuling; Choo, Young Moo; Yoon, Hyung Joo; Jia Jingming; Cui Zheng; Wang Dong; Kim, Doh Hoon; Sohn, Hung Dae; Jin, Byung Rae

    2011-01-01

    Bee venom is a rich source of pharmacologically active components; it has been used as an immunotherapy to treat bee venom hypersensitivity, and venom therapy has been applied as an alternative medicine. Here, we present evidence that the serine protease found in bumblebee venom exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity. Compared to honeybee venom, bumblebee venom contains a higher content of serine protease, which is one of its major components. Venom serine proteases from bumblebees did not cross-react with antibodies against the honeybee venom serine protease. We provide functional evidence indicating that bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) venom serine protease (Bt-VSP) acts as a fibrin(ogen)olytic enzyme. Bt-VSP activates prothrombin and directly degrades fibrinogen into fibrin degradation products. However, Bt-VSP is not a plasminogen activator, and its fibrinolytic activity is less than that of plasmin. Taken together, our results define roles for Bt-VSP as a prothrombin activator, a thrombin-like protease, and a plasmin-like protease. These findings offer significant insight into the allergic reaction sequence that is initiated by bee venom serine protease and its potential usefulness as a clinical agent in the field of hemostasis and thrombosis. - Graphical abstract: Display Omitted Highlights: → Bumblebee venom serine protease (Bt-VSP) is a fibrin(ogen)olytic enzyme. → Bt-VSP activates prothrombin. → Bt-VSP directly degrades fibrinogen into fibrin degradation products. → Bt-VSP is a hemostatically active protein that is a potent clinical agent.

  10. Ser298 of MITF, a mutation site in Waardenburg syndrome type 2, is a phosphorylation site with functional significance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeda, K; Takemoto, C; Kobayashi, I; Watanabe, A; Nobukuni, Y; Fisher, D E; Tachibana, M

    2000-01-01

    MITF (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor) is a basic-helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (bHLHZip) factor which regulates expression of tyrosinase and other melanocytic genes via a CATGTG promoter sequence, and is involved in melanocyte differentiation. Mutations of MITF in mice or humans with Waardenburg syndrome type 2 (WS2) often severely disrupt the bHLHZip domain, suggesting the importance of this structure. Here, we show that Ser298, which locates downstream of the bHLHZip and was previously found to be mutated in individuals with WS2, plays an important role in MITF function. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) was found to phosphorylate Ser298 in vitro, thereby enhancing the binding of MITF to the tyrosinase promoter. The same serine was found to be phosphorylated in vivo, and expression of dominant-negative GSK3beta selectively suppressed the ability of MITF to transactivate the tyrosinase promoter. Moreover, mutation of Ser298, as found in a WS2 family, disabled phos-phorylation of MITF by GSK3beta and impaired MITF function. These findings suggest that the Ser298 is important for MITF function and is phosphorylated probably by GSK3beta.

  11. Bacterial single-stranded DNA-binding proteins are phosphorylated on tyrosine

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mijakovic, Ivan; Petranovic, Dina; Macek, B

    2006-01-01

    for phosphotyrosine-containing proteins in Streptomyces griseus by immunoaffinity chromatography identified bacterial SSBs as a novel target of bacterial tyrosine kinases. Since genes encoding protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs) have not been recognized in streptomycetes, and SSBs from Streptomyces coelicolor (Sc......SSB) and Bacillus subtilis (BsSSB) share 38.7% identity, we used a B.subtilis protein-tyrosine kinase YwqD to phosphorylate two cognate SSBs (BsSSB and YwpH) in vitro. We demonstrate that in vivo phosphorylation of B.subtilis SSB occurs on tyrosine residue 82, and this reaction is affected antagonistically...... by kinase YwqD and phosphatase YwqE. Phosphorylation of B.subtilis SSB increased binding almost 200-fold to single-stranded DNA in vitro. Tyrosine phosphorylation of B.subtilis, S.coelicolor and Escherichia coli SSBs occured while they were expressed in E.coli, indicating that tyrosine phosphorylation...

  12. Characterization of phosphorylated isocitrate dehydrogenase and purification of the isocitrate dehydrogenase kinase/phosphatase of Escherichia coli

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malloy, P.J.

    1985-01-01

    NADP + -specific isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH; EC 1.1.1.42) was shown to be phosphorylated with ( 32 P)-orthophosphate in vivo in several strains of Escherichia coli. In strain KC 13, an adenylate cyclase deficient mutant, the specific activity of IDH decreased 70% when acetate was added to stationary phase cultures grown on glucose. The enzyme was immunoprecipitated from sonic extracts and shown to contain 32 P by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. The results demonstrate that unlike many eukaryotic protein kinases, the protein kinase involved in the phosphorylation of IDH in E. coli does not require cyclic adenosine monophosphate for catalysis. Similarly, the phosphorylation of IDH was demonstrated in E. coli mutants deficient in either isocitrate lyase or malate synthase. The incorporation of 32 P in IDH was demonstrated following SDS-PAGE and autoradiography of the immunoprecipitated enzyme. These results suggest that the conditions required for the phosphorylation of IDH do not depend on the functioning of the glyoxylate shunt. Following in vivo 32 P-labeling of E. coli strain F143/KL259 in the presence of acetate, 32 P-labeled IDH was isolated from sonicated extracts of the cells. The 32 P-enzyme was carboxylmethylated and digested with trypsin. A single 32 P-labeled peptide was isolated from the tryptic digest. Amino acid analysis of the purified 32 P-labeled peptide showed that the peptide contains seven amino acids, including a single phosphorylated serine residue

  13. BAFF induces spleen CD4+ T cell proliferation by down-regulating phosphorylation of FOXO3A and activates cyclin D2 and D3 expression

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ji, Fang; Chen, Rongjing; Liu, Baojun; Zhang, Xiaoping; Han, Junli; Wang, Haining; Shen, Gang; Tao, Jiang

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Firstly analyze the mechanism of BAFF and anti-CD3 co-stimulation on purified mouse splenic CD4 + T cells. ► Carrying out siRNA technology to study FOXO3A protein function. ► Helpful to understand the T cell especially CD4 + T cell‘s role in immunological reaction. -- Abstract: The TNF ligand family member “B cell-activating factor belonging to the TNF family” (BAFF, also called BLyS, TALL-1, zTNF-4, and THANK) is an important survival factor for B and T cells. In this study, we show that BAFF is able to induce CD4 + spleen T cell proliferation when co-stimulated with anti-CD3. Expression of phosphorylated FOXO3A was notably down-regulated and cyclins D2 and D3 were up-regulated and higher in the CD4 + T cells when treated with BAFF and anti-CD3, as assessed by Western blotting. Furthermore, after FOXO3A was knocked down, expression of cyclin D1 was unchanged, compared with control group levels, but the expression of cyclins D2 and D3 increased, compared with the control group. In conclusion, our results suggest that BAFF induced CD4 + spleen T cell proliferation by down-regulating the phosphorylation of FOXO3A and then activating cyclin D2 and D3 expression, leading to CD4 + T cell proliferation.

  14. Interaction of hookworm 14-3-3 with the forkhead transcription factor DAF-16 requires intact Akt phosphorylation sites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hawdon John M

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Third-stage infective larvae (L3 of hookworms are in an obligatory state of developmental arrest that ends upon entering the definitive host, where they receive a signal that re-activates development. Recovery from the developmentally arrested dauer stage of Caenorhabditis elegans is analogous to the resumption of development during hookworm infection. Insulin-like signaling (ILS mediates recovery from arrest in C. elegans and activation of hookworm dauer L3. In C. elegans, phosphorylation of the forkhead transcription factor DAF-16 in response to ILS creates binding cites for the 14-3-3 protein Ce-FTT-2, which translocates DAF-16 out of the nucleus, resulting in resumption of reproductive development. Results To determine if hookworm 14-3-3 proteins play a similar role in L3 activation, hookworm FTT-2 was identified and tested for its ability to interact with A. caninum DAF-16 in vitro. The Ac-FTT-2 amino acid sequence was 91% identical to the Ce-FTT-2, and was most closely related to FTT-2 from other nematodes. Ac-FTT-2 was expressed in HEK 293T cells, and was recognized by an antibody against human 14-3-3β isoform. Reciprocal co-immunoprecipitations using anti-epitope tag antibodies indicated that Ac-FTT-2 interacts with Ac-DAF-16 when co-expressed in serum-stimulated HEK 293T cells. This interaction requires intact Akt consensus phosphorylation sites at serine107 and threonine312, but not serine381. Ac-FTT-2 was undetectable by Western blot in excretory/secretory products from serum-stimulated (activated L3 or adult A. caninum. Conclusion The results indicate that Ac-FTT-2 interacts with DAF-16 in a phosphorylation-site dependent manner, and suggests that Ac-FTT-2 mediates activation of L3 by binding Ac-DAF-16 during hookworm infection.

  15. Alternate Phosphorylation/O-GlcNAc Modification on Human Insulin IRSs: A Road towards Impaired Insulin Signaling in Alzheimer and Diabetes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zainab Jahangir

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Impaired insulin signaling has been thought of as important step in both Alzheimer’s disease (AD and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM. Posttranslational modifications (PTMs regulate functions and interaction of insulin with insulin receptors substrates (IRSs and activate insulin signaling downstream pathways via autophosphorylation on several tyrosine (TYR residues on IRSs. Two important insulin receptor substrates 1 and 2 are widely expressed in human, and alternative phosphorylation on their serine (Ser and threonine (Thr residues has been known to block the Tyr phosphorylation of IRSs, thus inhibiting insulin signaling and promoting insulin resistance. Like phosphorylation, O-glycosylation modification is important PTM and inhibits phosphorylation on same or neighboring Ser/Thr residues, often called Yin Yang sites. Both IRS-1 and IRS-2 have been shown to be O-glycosylated; however exact sites are not determined yet. In this study, by using neuronal network based prediction methods, we found more than 50 Ser/Thr residues that have potential to be O-glycosylated and may act as possible sites as well. Moreover, alternative phosphorylation and O-glycosylation on IRS-1 Ser-312, 984, 1037, and 1101 may act as possible therapeutic targets to minimize the risk of AD and T2DM.

  16. Two novel pyrrolooxazole pigments formed by the Maillard reaction between glucose and threonine or serine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noda, Kyoko; Murata, Masatsune

    2017-02-01

    Pyrrolothiazolate formed by the Maillard reaction between l-cysteine and d-glucose has a pyrrolothiazole skeleton as a chromophore. We searched for a Maillard pigment having a pyrrolooxazole skeleton formed from l-threonine or l-serine instead of l-cysteine in the presence of d-glucose. As a result, two novel yellow pigments, named pyrrolooxazolates A and B, were isolated from model solutions of the Maillard reaction containing l-threonine and d-glucose, and l-serine and d-glucose, respectively, and identified as (2R,3S,7aS)-2,3,7,7a-tetrahydro-6-hydroxy-2,5,7a-trimethyl-7-oxo-pyrrolo[2,1-b]oxazole-3-calboxylic acid and (3S,7aS)-2,3,7,7a-tetrahydro-6-hydroxy-5,7a-dimethyl-7-oxo-pyrrolo[2,1-b]oxazole-3-calboxylic acid by instrumental analyses. These compounds were pyrrolooxazole derivatives carrying a carboxy group, and showed the absorption maxima at 300-360 nm under acidic and neutral conditions and at 320-390 nm under alkaline conditions.

  17. Using positive-ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and H/D exchange study phosphoryl group transfer reactions involved in amino acid ester isopropyl phosphoramidates of Brefeldin A

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang, Mei-Juan; Zhang, He; Liao, Chao; Qiu, Ying-Kun; Fang, Hua; Zheng, Zhen-Yu; Gao, Xiang; Zhao, Yu-Fen; Wu, Zhen

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • ESI-MS n , HRMS and H/D exchange were used. • The fragmentation pathways of NPAAE-BFA in ESI-MS n were described. • Fragment ions involved in phosphorus group’s rearrangement reactions were observed. • Two rearrangement mechanisms about phosphorylation–dephosphorylation were proposed. - Abstract: As mini-chemical models, amino acid ester isopropyl phosphoramidates of Brefeldin A (compounds 2a–2d) were synthesized and investigated by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in combination with H/D exchange. To further confirm the fragments’s structures, off-line Fourier transform resonance tandem mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS/MS) was also performed. The fragmentation rules of compounds 2a–2d have been summarized and the plausible schemes for the fragmentation pathways were proposed. In this study, one dephosphorylated ion and two phosphorylated ions were observed in ESI-MS 2 spectra of [M + Na] + ions for compounds 2a–2d. The possible mechanisms about phosphorylation and dephosphorylation were proposed and confirmed by H/D exchange. For the “dephosphorylation” rearrangement, a nitrogen atom was migrated from the phosphoryl group to the carbon atom of Brefeldin A’s backbone with losing a molecule of C 3 H 7 PO 3 (122 Da). For the “phosphorylation” rearrangement, an oxygen atom of one phosphoryl group attacked the sideward phosphorus atom to form a nine-member ring intermediate, then two steps of C-H covalent bond cleavage with consecutive migration of hydrogen atom to lose a molecule of C 16 H 20 O 2 (244 Da). The two proposed rearrangement mechanisms about phosphoryl group transfer might be valuable for the structure analysis of other analogs and provide insights into elucidating the dynamic process of the phosphorylation–dephosphorylation of proteins

  18. Using positive-ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and H/D exchange study phosphoryl group transfer reactions involved in amino acid ester isopropyl phosphoramidates of Brefeldin A

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fang, Mei-Juan; Zhang, He; Liao, Chao; Qiu, Ying-Kun [School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University, Xiang-An South Road, Xiamen 361102 (China); Fang, Hua [The Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005 (China); Zheng, Zhen-Yu [College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005 (China); Gao, Xiang [School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University, Xiang-An South Road, Xiamen 361102 (China); Zhao, Yu-Fen [School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University, Xiang-An South Road, Xiamen 361102 (China); College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005 (China); Wu, Zhen, E-mail: wuzhen@xmu.edu.cn [School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University, Xiang-An South Road, Xiamen 361102 (China)

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • ESI-MS{sup n}, HRMS and H/D exchange were used. • The fragmentation pathways of NPAAE-BFA in ESI-MS{sup n} were described. • Fragment ions involved in phosphorus group’s rearrangement reactions were observed. • Two rearrangement mechanisms about phosphorylation–dephosphorylation were proposed. - Abstract: As mini-chemical models, amino acid ester isopropyl phosphoramidates of Brefeldin A (compounds 2a–2d) were synthesized and investigated by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in combination with H/D exchange. To further confirm the fragments’s structures, off-line Fourier transform resonance tandem mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS/MS) was also performed. The fragmentation rules of compounds 2a–2d have been summarized and the plausible schemes for the fragmentation pathways were proposed. In this study, one dephosphorylated ion and two phosphorylated ions were observed in ESI-MS{sup 2} spectra of [M + Na]{sup +} ions for compounds 2a–2d. The possible mechanisms about phosphorylation and dephosphorylation were proposed and confirmed by H/D exchange. For the “dephosphorylation” rearrangement, a nitrogen atom was migrated from the phosphoryl group to the carbon atom of Brefeldin A’s backbone with losing a molecule of C{sub 3}H{sub 7}PO{sub 3} (122 Da). For the “phosphorylation” rearrangement, an oxygen atom of one phosphoryl group attacked the sideward phosphorus atom to form a nine-member ring intermediate, then two steps of C-H covalent bond cleavage with consecutive migration of hydrogen atom to lose a molecule of C{sub 16}H{sub 20}O{sub 2} (244 Da). The two proposed rearrangement mechanisms about phosphoryl group transfer might be valuable for the structure analysis of other analogs and provide insights into elucidating the dynamic process of the phosphorylation–dephosphorylation of proteins.

  19. Effects of a glycine transporter-1 inhibitor and D-serine on MK-801-induced immobility in the forced swimming test in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawaura, Kazuaki; Koike, Hiroyuki; Kinoshita, Kohnosuke; Kambe, Daiji; Kaku, Ayaka; Karasawa, Jun-ichi; Chaki, Shigeyuki; Hikichi, Hirohiko

    2015-02-01

    Glutamatergic dysfunction, particularly the hypofunction of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The positive modulation of the glycine site on the NMDA receptor has been proposed as a novel therapeutic approach for schizophrenia. However, its efficacy against negative symptoms, which are poorly managed by current medications, has not been fully addressed. In the present study, the effects of the positive modulation of the glycine site on the NMDA receptor were investigated in an animal model of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The subchronic administration of MK-801 increased immobility in the forced swimming test in rats without affecting spontaneous locomotor activity. The increased immobility induced by MK-801 was attenuated by the atypical antipsychotic clozapine but not by either the typical antipsychotic haloperidol or the antidepressant imipramine, indicating that the increased immobility induced by subchronic treatment with MK-801 in the forced swimming test may represent a negative symptom of schizophrenia. Likewise, positive modulation of the glycine sites on the NMDA receptor using an agonist for the glycine site, D-serine, and a glycine transporter-1 inhibitor, N-[(3R)-3-([1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yloxy)-3-(4-fluorophenyl)propyl]-N-methylglycine hydrochloride (NFPS), significantly reversed the increase in immobility in MK-801-treated rats without reducing the immobility time in vehicle-treated rats. The present results show that the stimulation of the NMDA receptor through the glycine site on the receptor either directly with D-serine or by blocking glycine transporter-1 attenuates the immobility elicited by the subchronic administration of MK-801 and may be potentially useful for the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Expression of Human CTP Synthetase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Reveals Phosphorylation by Protein Kinase A*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Gil-Soo; Sreenivas, Avula; Choi, Mal-Gi; Chang, Yu-Fang; Martin, Shelley S.; Baldwin, Enoch P.; Carman, George M.

    2005-01-01

    CTP synthetase (EC 6.3.4.2, UTP: ammonia ligase (ADP-forming)) is an essential enzyme in all organisms; it generates the CTP required for the synthesis of nucleic acids and membrane phospholipids. In this work we showed that the human CTP synthetase genes, CTPS1 and CTPS2, were functional in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and complemented the lethal phenotype of the ura7Δ ura8Δ mutant lacking CTP synthetase activity. The expression of the CTPS1-and CTPS2-encoded human CTP synthetase enzymes in the ura7Δ ura8Δ mutant was shown by immunoblot analysis of CTP synthetase proteins, the measurement of CTP synthetase activity, and the synthesis of CTP in vivo. Phosphoamino acid and phosphopeptide mapping analyses of human CTP synthetase 1 isolated from 32Pi-labeled cells revealed that the enzyme was phosphorylated on multiple serine residues in vivo. Activation of protein kinase A activity in yeast resulted in transient increases (2-fold) in the phosphorylation of human CTP synthetase 1 and the cellular level of CTP. Human CTP synthetase 1 was also phosphorylated by mammalian protein kinase A in vitro. Using human CTP synthetase 1 purified from Escherichia coli as a substrate, protein kinase A activity was dose- and time-dependent, and dependent on the concentrations of CTP synthetase1 and ATP. These studies showed that S. cerevisiae was useful for the analysis of human CTP synthetase phosphorylation. PMID:16179339

  1. Reactive oxygen species contribute to arsenic-induced EZH2 phosphorylation in human bronchial epithelial cells and lung cancer cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Lingzhi; Qiu, Ping; Chen, Bailing; Lu, Yongju; Wu, Kai; Thakur, Chitra; Chang, Qingshan; Sun, Jiaying; Chen, Fei, E-mail: fchen@wayne.edu

    2014-05-01

    Our previous studies suggested that arsenic is able to induce serine 21 phosphorylation of the EZH2 protein through activation of JNK, STAT3, and Akt signaling pathways in the bronchial epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B. In the present report, we further demonstrated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) were involved in the arsenic-induced protein kinase activation that leads to EZH2 phosphorylation. Several lines of evidence supported this notion. First, the pretreatment of the cells with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a potent antioxidant, abolishes arsenic-induced EZH2 phosphorylation along with the inhibition of JNK, STAT3, and Akt. Second, H{sub 2}O{sub 2}, the most important form of ROS in the cells in response to extracellular stress signals, can induce phosphorylation of the EZH2 protein and the activation of JNK, STAT3, and Akt. By ectopic expression of the myc-tagged EZH2, we additionally identified direct interaction and phosphorylation of the EZH2 protein by Akt in response to arsenic and H{sub 2}O{sub 2}. Furthermore, both arsenic and H{sub 2}O{sub 2} were able to induce the translocation of ectopically expressed or endogenous EZH2 from nucleus to cytoplasm. In summary, the data presented in this report indicate that oxidative stress due to ROS generation plays an important role in the arsenic-induced EZH2 phosphorylation. - Highlights:: • Arsenic (As{sup 3+}) induces EZH phosphorylation. • JNK, STAT3, and Akt contribute to EZH2 phosphorylation. • Oxidative stress is involved in As{sup 3+}-induced EZH2 phosphorylation. • As{sup 3+} induces direct interaction of Akt and EZH2. • Phosphorylated EZH2 localized in cytoplasm.

  2. Phosphorylation of Dgk1 Diacylglycerol Kinase by Casein Kinase II Regulates Phosphatidic Acid Production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Yixuan; Hassaninasab, Azam; Han, Gil-Soo; Carman, George M

    2016-12-16

    In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Dgk1 diacylglycerol (DAG) kinase catalyzes the CTP-dependent phosphorylation of DAG to form phosphatidic acid (PA). The enzyme in conjunction with Pah1 PA phosphatase controls the levels of PA and DAG for the synthesis of triacylglycerol and membrane phospholipids, the growth of the nuclear/endoplasmic reticulum membrane, and the formation of lipid droplets. Little is known about how DAG kinase activity is regulated by posttranslational modification. In this work, we examined the phosphorylation of Dgk1 DAG kinase by casein kinase II (CKII). When phosphate groups were globally reduced using nonspecific alkaline phosphatase, Triton X-100-solubilized membranes from DGK1-overexpressing cells showed a 7.7-fold reduction in DAG kinase activity; the reduced enzyme activity could be increased 5.5-fold by treatment with CKII. Dgk1(1-77) expressed heterologously in Escherichia coli was phosphorylated by CKII on a serine residue, and its phosphorylation was dependent on time as well as on the concentrations of CKII, ATP, and Dgk1(1-77). We used site-specific mutagenesis, coupled with phosphorylation analysis and phosphopeptide mapping, to identify Ser-45 and Ser-46 of Dgk1 as the CKII target sites, with Ser-46 being the major phosphorylation site. In vivo, the S46A and S45A/S46A mutations of Dgk1 abolished the stationary phase-dependent stimulation of DAG kinase activity. In addition, the phosphorylation-deficient mutations decreased Dgk1 function in PA production and in eliciting pah1Δ phenotypes, such as the expansion of the nuclear/endoplasmic reticulum membrane, reduced lipid droplet formation, and temperature sensitivity. This work demonstrates that the CKII-mediated phosphorylation of Dgk1 regulates its function in the production of PA. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  3. Phosphorylation of Dgk1 Diacylglycerol Kinase by Casein Kinase II Regulates Phosphatidic Acid Production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Yixuan; Hassaninasab, Azam; Han, Gil-Soo; Carman, George M.

    2016-01-01

    In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Dgk1 diacylglycerol (DAG) kinase catalyzes the CTP-dependent phosphorylation of DAG to form phosphatidic acid (PA). The enzyme in conjunction with Pah1 PA phosphatase controls the levels of PA and DAG for the synthesis of triacylglycerol and membrane phospholipids, the growth of the nuclear/endoplasmic reticulum membrane, and the formation of lipid droplets. Little is known about how DAG kinase activity is regulated by posttranslational modification. In this work, we examined the phosphorylation of Dgk1 DAG kinase by casein kinase II (CKII). When phosphate groups were globally reduced using nonspecific alkaline phosphatase, Triton X-100-solubilized membranes from DGK1-overexpressing cells showed a 7.7-fold reduction in DAG kinase activity; the reduced enzyme activity could be increased 5.5-fold by treatment with CKII. Dgk1(1–77) expressed heterologously in Escherichia coli was phosphorylated by CKII on a serine residue, and its phosphorylation was dependent on time as well as on the concentrations of CKII, ATP, and Dgk1(1–77). We used site-specific mutagenesis, coupled with phosphorylation analysis and phosphopeptide mapping, to identify Ser-45 and Ser-46 of Dgk1 as the CKII target sites, with Ser-46 being the major phosphorylation site. In vivo, the S46A and S45A/S46A mutations of Dgk1 abolished the stationary phase-dependent stimulation of DAG kinase activity. In addition, the phosphorylation-deficient mutations decreased Dgk1 function in PA production and in eliciting pah1Δ phenotypes, such as the expansion of the nuclear/endoplasmic reticulum membrane, reduced lipid droplet formation, and temperature sensitivity. This work demonstrates that the CKII-mediated phosphorylation of Dgk1 regulates its function in the production of PA. PMID:27834677

  4. Identification of B cell recognized linear epitopes in a snake venom serine proteinase from the central American bushmaster Lachesis stenophrys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madrigal, M; Alape-Girón, A; Barboza-Arguedas, E; Aguilar-Ulloa, W; Flores-Díaz, M

    2017-12-15

    Snake venom serine proteinases are toxins that perturb hemostasis acting on proteins from the blood coagulation cascade, the fibrinolytic or the kallikrein-kinin system. Despite the relevance of these enzymes in envenomations by viper bites, the characterization of the antibody response to these toxins at the molecular level has not been previously addressed. In this work surface-located B cell recognized linear epitopes from a Lachesis stenophrys venom serine proteinase (UniProt accession number Q072L7) were predicted using an artificial neuronal network at the ABCpred server, the corresponding peptides were synthesized and their immunoreactivity was analyzed against a panel of experimental and therapeutic antivenoms. A molecular model of the L. stenophrys enzyme was built using as a template the structure of the D. acutus Dav-PA serine proteinase (Q9I8X1), which displays the highest degree of sequence similarity to the L. stenophrys enzyme among proteins of known 3D structure, and the surface-located epitopes were identified in the protein model using iCn3D. A total of 13 peptides corresponding to the surface exposed predicted epitopes from L. stenophrys serine proteinase were synthesized and, their reactivity with a rabbit antiserum against the recombinant enzyme and a panel of antivenoms was evaluated by a capture ELISA. Some of the epitopes recognized by monospecific and polyspecific antivenoms comprise sequences overlapping motifs conserved in viper venom serine proteinases. The identification and characterization of relevant epitopes recognized by B cells in snake venom toxins may provide valuable information for the preparation of immunogens that help in the production of improved therapeutic antivenoms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. A cytotoxic serine proteinase isolated from mouse submandibular gland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimamura, T; Nagumo, N; Ikigai, H; Murakami, K; Okubo, S; Toda, M; Ohnishi, R; Tomita, M

    1989-08-01

    We have isolated a novel cytotoxic factor from the submandibular glands of male BALB/c mice by Sephadex G-50 gel filtration chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC. The cytotoxic factor is a serine proteinase, which belongs to the mouse glandular kallikrein (mGK) family, with an Mr of approximately 27,000. The purified serine proteinase showed cytotoxic activity against mouse thymocytes in a dose-dependent manner, and a serine proteinase inhibitor, diisopropyl fluorophosphate, blocked its cytotoxic activity.

  6. Tri-domain Bifunctional Inhibitor of Metallocarboxypeptidases A and Serine Proteases Isolated from Marine Annelid Sabellastarte magnifica*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso-del-Rivero, Maday; Trejo, Sebastian A.; Reytor, Mey L.; Rodriguez-de-la-Vega, Monica; Delfin, Julieta; Diaz, Joaquin; González-González, Yamile; Canals, Francesc; Chavez, Maria Angeles; Aviles, Francesc X.

    2012-01-01

    This study describes a novel bifunctional metallocarboxypeptidase and serine protease inhibitor (SmCI) isolated from the tentacle crown of the annelid Sabellastarte magnifica. SmCI is a 165-residue glycoprotein with a molecular mass of 19.69 kDa (mass spectrometry) and 18 cysteine residues forming nine disulfide bonds. Its cDNA was cloned and sequenced by RT-PCR and nested PCR using degenerated oligonucleotides. Employing this information along with data derived from automatic Edman degradation of peptide fragments, the SmCI sequence was fully characterized, indicating the presence of three bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor/Kunitz domains and its high homology with other Kunitz serine protease inhibitors. Enzyme kinetics and structural analyses revealed SmCI to be an inhibitor of human and bovine pancreatic metallocarboxypeptidases of the A-type (but not B-type), with nanomolar Ki values. SmCI is also capable of inhibiting bovine pancreatic trypsin, chymotrypsin, and porcine pancreatic elastase in varying measures. When the inhibitor and its nonglycosylated form (SmCI N23A mutant) were overproduced recombinantly in a Pichia pastoris system, they displayed the dual inhibitory properties of the natural form. Similarly, two bi-domain forms of the inhibitor (recombinant rSmCI D1-D2 and rSmCI D2-D3) as well as its C-terminal domain (rSmCI-D3) were also overproduced. Of these fragments, only the rSmCI D1-D2 bi-domain retained inhibition of metallocarboxypeptidase A but only partially, indicating that the whole tri-domain structure is required for such capability in full. SmCI is the first proteinaceous inhibitor of metallocarboxypeptidases able to act as well on another mechanistic class of proteases (serine-type) and is the first of this kind identified in nature. PMID:22411994

  7. Bicaudal-D: Switching motors, cargo and direction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    G.D. Splinter (Daniël)

    2008-01-01

    textabstractScope of this thesis Transport of vesicles and organelles is an essential cellular process. Proteins like Rab GTPases, specialized adaptor proteins and motor proteins are involved in targeting and movement of cargos to their destination. This thesis describes the function of the

  8. Forkhead-associated (FHA) Domain Containing ABC Transporter Rv1747 Is Positively Regulated by Ser/Thr Phosphorylation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spivey, Vicky L.; Molle, Virginie; Whalan, Rachael H.; Rodgers, Angela; Leiba, Jade; Stach, Lasse; Walker, K. Barry; Smerdon, Stephen J.; Buxton, Roger S.

    2011-01-01

    One major signaling method employed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, is through reversible phosphorylation of proteins mediated by protein kinases and phosphatases. This study concerns one of these enzymes, the serine/threonine protein kinase PknF, that is encoded in an operon with Rv1747, an ABC transporter that is necessary for growth of M. tuberculosis in vivo and contains two forkhead-associated (FHA) domains. FHA domains are phosphopeptide recognition motifs that specifically recognize phosphothreonine-containing epitopes. Experiments to determine how PknF regulates the function of Rv1747 demonstrated that phosphorylation occurs on two specific threonine residues, Thr-150 and Thr-208. To determine the in vivo consequences of phosphorylation, infection experiments were performed in bone marrow-derived macrophages and in mice using threonine-to-alanine mutants of Rv1747 that prevent specific phosphorylation and revealed that phosphorylation positively modulates Rv1747 function in vivo. The role of the FHA domains in this regulation was further demonstrated by isothermal titration calorimetry, using peptides containing both phosphothreonine residues. FHA-1 domain mutation resulted in attenuation in macrophages highlighting the critical role of this domain in Rv1747 function. A mutant deleted for pknF did not, however, have a growth phenotype in an infection, suggesting that other kinases can fulfill its role when it is absent. This study provides the first information on the molecular mechanism(s) regulating Rv1747 through PknF-dependent phosphorylation but also indicates that phosphorylation activates Rv1747, which may have important consequences in regulating growth of M. tuberculosis. PMID:21622570

  9. Regulation of gap junction conductance by calcineurin through Cx43 phosphorylation: implications for action potential conduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jabr, Rita I; Hatch, Fiona S; Salvage, Samantha C; Orlowski, Alejandro; Lampe, Paul D; Fry, Christopher H

    2016-11-01

    Cardiac arrhythmias are associated with raised intracellular [Ca 2+ ] and slowed action potential conduction caused by reduced gap junction (GJ) electrical conductance (Gj). Ventricular GJs are composed of connexin proteins (Cx43), with Gj determined by Cx43 phosphorylation status. Connexin phosphorylation is an interplay between protein kinases and phosphatases but the precise pathways are unknown. We aimed to identify key Ca 2+ -dependent phosphorylation sites on Cx43 that regulate cardiac gap junction conductance and action potential conduction velocity. We investigated the role of the Ca 2+ -dependent phosphatase, calcineurin. Intracellular [Ca 2+ ] was raised in guinea-pig myocardium by a low-Na solution or increased stimulation. Conduction velocity and Gj were measured in multicellular strips. Phosphorylation of Cx43 serine residues (S365 and S368) and of the intermediary regulator I1 at threonine35 was measured by Western blot. Measurements were made in the presence and absence of inhibitors to calcineurin, I1 or protein phosphatase-1 and phosphatase-2.Raised [Ca 2 + ] i decreased Gj, reduced Cx43 phosphorylation at S365 and increased it at S368; these changes were reversed by calcineurin inhibitors. Cx43-S368 phosphorylation was reversed by the protein kinase C inhibitor chelerythrine. Raised [Ca 2+ ] i also decreased I1 phosphorylation, also prevented by calcineurin inhibitors, to increase activity of the Ca 2+ -independent phosphatase, PPI. The PP1 inhibitor, tautomycin, prevented Cx43-365 dephosphorylation, Cx43-S368 phosphorylation and Gj reduction in raised [Ca 2+ ] i . PP2A had no role. Conduction velocity was reduced by raised [Ca 2+ ] i and reversed by calcineurin inhibitors. Reduced action potential conduction and Gj in raised [Ca 2+ ] are regulated by calcineurin-dependent Cx43-S365 phosphorylation, leading to Cx43-S368 dephosphorylation. The calcineurin action is indirect, via I1 dephosphorylation and subsequent activation of PP1.

  10. Lemur tyrosine kinase-2 signalling regulates kinesin-1 light chain-2 phosphorylation and binding of Smad2 cargo.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Manser, C

    2012-05-31

    A recent genome-wide association study identified the gene encoding lemur tyrosine kinase-2 (LMTK2) as a susceptibility gene for prostate cancer. The identified genetic alteration is within intron 9, but the mechanisms by which LMTK2 may impact upon prostate cancer are not clear because the functions of LMTK2 are poorly understood. Here, we show that LMTK2 regulates a known pathway that controls phosphorylation of kinesin-1 light chain-2 (KLC2) by glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β). KLC2 phosphorylation by GSK3β induces the release of cargo from KLC2. LMTK2 signals via protein phosphatase-1C (PP1C) to increase inhibitory phosphorylation of GSK3β on serine-9 that reduces KLC2 phosphorylation and promotes binding of the known KLC2 cargo Smad2. Smad2 signals to the nucleus in response to transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) receptor stimulation and transport of Smad2 by kinesin-1 is required for this signalling. We show that small interfering RNA loss of LMTK2 not only reduces binding of Smad2 to KLC2, but also inhibits TGFβ-induced Smad2 signalling. Thus, LMTK2 may regulate the activity of kinesin-1 motor function and Smad2 signalling.

  11. Mechanism of phosphoryl transfer and protein-protein interaction in the PTS system-an NMR study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rajagopal, P.; Klevit, R.E. [Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

    1994-12-01

    HPr and Enzyme IIA{sup Glc} are two of the components of the bacterial PTS (phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotranferase system) and are involved in the phosphorylation and concomitant translocation of sugars across the membrane. These PTS protein complexes also regulate sugar transport. HPr, phosphorylated at a histidine N1 site by Enzyme I and phosphoenol pyruvate, transfers the phosphoryl group to a histidine N3 position in Enzyme IIA{sup Glc}. HPrs from Gram-positive bacteria undergo regulatory phosphorylation at Ser{sup 46}, whereby phosphorylation of the histidine residue is inhibited. Conversely, histidine phosphorylation inhibits phosphorylation at Ser{sup 46}. HPrs from Gram-negative bacteria possess a serine residue at position 46, but do not undergo regulatory phosphorylation. HPr forms an open-faced sandwich structure with a four-strand S-sheet and 2 to 3 helices lying on top of the sheet. The active-site histidine and Ser{sup 46} occur in conformationally flexible regions. P-His-HPr from the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilus has been investigated by both homonuclear and heteronuclear two-dimensional and three-dimensional NMR experiments using an in-situ enzymatic regeneration system to maintain a constant level of P-His-HPr. The results show that localized conformational changes occur in the vicinity of the active-site histidine and also near Ser{sup 46}. HPr-Enzyme IIA{sup Glc} complexes from both Bacillus subtilis and Gram-negative Escherichia coli were also studied by a variety of {sup 15}N-edited two-dimensional NMR experiments, which were performed on uniformly {sup 15}N-labeled HPr complexed to unlabeled Enzyme IIA{sup Glc}. The complex is in fast exchange with a molecular weight of about 27 kDa. The focus of our work is to assess the changes undergone by HPr (the smaller of the two components), and so all the experiments were performed with excess Enzyme IIA present in the system.

  12. The phosphorylation-dependent regulation of nuclear SREBP1 during mitosis links lipid metabolism and cell growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bengoechea-Alonso, Maria Teresa; Ericsson, Johan

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT The SREBP transcription factors are major regulators of lipid metabolism. Disturbances in lipid metabolism are at the core of several health issues facing modern society, including cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. In addition, the role of lipid metabolism in cancer cell growth is receiving increased attention. Transcriptionally active SREBP molecules are unstable and rapidly degraded in a phosphorylation-dependent manner by Fbw7, a ubiquitin ligase that targets several cell cycle regulatory proteins for degradation. We have previously demonstrated that active SREBP1 is stabilized during mitosis. We have now delineated the mechanisms involved in the stabilization of SREBP1 in mitotic cells. This process is initiated by the phosphorylation of a specific serine residue in nuclear SREBP1 by the mitotic kinase Cdk1. The phosphorylation of this residue creates a docking site for a separate mitotic kinase, Plk1. Plk1 interacts with nuclear SREBP1 in mitotic cells and phosphorylates a number of residues in the C-terminal domain of the protein, including a threonine residue in close proximity of the Fbw7 docking site in SREBP1. The phosphorylation of these residues by Plk1 blocks the interaction between SREBP1 and Fbw7 and attenuates the Fbw7-dependent degradation of nuclear SREBP1 during cell division. Inactivation of SREBP1 results in a mitotic defect, suggesting that SREBP1 could regulate cell division. We propose that the mitotic phosphorylation and stabilization of nuclear SREBP1 during cell division provides a link between lipid metabolism and cell proliferation. Thus, the current study provides additional support for the emerging hypothesis that SREBP-dependent lipid metabolism may be important for cell growth. PMID:27579997

  13. Neurogenesis and Increase in Differentiated Neural Cell Survival via Phosphorylation of Akt1 after Fluoxetine Treatment of Stem Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anahita Rahmani

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Fluoxetine (FLX is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI. Its action is possibly through an increase in neural cell survival. The mechanism of improved survival rate of neurons by FLX may relate to the overexpression of some kinases such as Akt protein. Akt1 (a serine/threonine kinase plays a key role in the modulation of cell proliferation and survival. Our study evaluated the effects of FLX on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC fate and Akt1 phosphorylation levels in MSCs. Evaluation tests included reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, western blot, and immunocytochemistry assays. Nestin, MAP-2, and β-tubulin were detected after neurogenesis as neural markers. Ten μM of FLX upregulated phosphorylation of Akt1 protein in induced hEnSC significantly. Also FLX did increase viability of these MSCs. Continuous FLX treatment after neurogenesis elevated the survival rate of differentiated neural cells probably by enhanced induction of Akt1 phosphorylation. This study addresses a novel role of FLX in neurogenesis and differentiated neural cell survival that may contribute to explaining the therapeutic action of fluoxetine in regenerative pharmacology.

  14. GSK3α and GSK3β Phosphorylate Arc and Regulate its Degradation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agata Gozdz

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The selective and neuronal activity-dependent degradation of synaptic proteins appears to be crucial for long-term synaptic plasticity. One such protein is activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc, which regulates the synaptic content of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors (AMPAR, excitatory synapse strength and dendritic spine morphology. The levels of Arc protein are tightly regulated, and its removal occurs via proteasome-mediated degradation that requires prior ubiquitination. Glycogen synthase kinases α and β (GSK3α, GSKβ; collectively named GSK3α/β are serine-threonine kinases with abundant expression in the central nervous system. Both GSK3 isozymes are tonically active under basal conditions, but their activity is regulated by intra- and extracellular factors, intimately involved in neuronal activity. Similar to Arc, GSK3α and GSK3β contribute to synaptic plasticity and the structural plasticity of dendritic spines. The present study identified Arc as a GSK3α/β substrate and showed that GSKβ promotes Arc degradation under conditions that induce de novo Arc synthesis. We also found that GSK3α/β inhibition potentiated spine head thinning that was caused by the prolonged stimulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR. Furthermore, overexpression of Arc mutants that were resistant to GSK3β-mediated phosphorylation or ubiquitination resulted in a stronger reduction of dendritic spine width than wildtype Arc overexpression. Thus, GSK3β terminates Arc expression and limits its effect on dendritic spine morphology. Taken together, the results identify GSK3α/β-catalyzed Arc phosphorylation and degradation as a novel mechanism for controlling the duration of Arc expression and function.

  15. Phosphorylation of Lbx1 controls lateral myoblast migration into the limb.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masselink, Wouter; Masaki, Megumi; Sieiro, Daniel; Marcelle, Christophe; Currie, Peter D

    2017-10-15

    The migration of limb myogenic precursors from limb level somites to their ultimate site of differentiation in the limb is a paradigmatic example of a set of dynamic and orchestrated migratory cell behaviours. The homeobox containing transcription factor ladybird homeobox 1 (Lbx1) is a central regulator of limb myoblast migration, null mutations of Lbx1 result in severe disruptions to limb muscle formation, particularly in the distal region of the limb in mice (Gross et al., 2000). As such Lbx1 has been hypothesized to control lateral migration of myoblasts into the distal limb anlage. It acts as a core regulator of the limb myoblast migration machinery, controlled by Pax3. A secondary role for Lbx1 in the differentiation and commitment of limb musculature has also been proposed (Brohmann et al., 2000; Uchiyama et al., 2000). Here we show that lateral migration, but not differentiation or commitment of limb myoblasts, is controlled by the phosphorylation of three adjacent serine residues of LBX1. Electroporation of limb level somites in the chick embryo with a dephosphomimetic form of Lbx1 results in a specific defect in the lateral migration of limb myoblasts. Although the initial delamination and migration of myoblasts is unaffected, migration into the distal limb bud is severely disrupted. Interestingly, myoblasts undergo normal differentiation independent of their migratory status, suggesting that the differentiation potential of hypaxial muscle is not regulated by the phosphorylation state of LBX1. Furthermore, we show that FGF8 and ERK mediated signal transduction, both critical regulators of the developing limb bud, have the capacity to induce the phosphorylation of LBX1 at these residues. Overall, this suggests a mechanism whereby the phosphorylation of LBX1, potentially through FGF8 and ERK signalling, controls the lateral migration of myoblasts into the distal limb bud. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  16. AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Directly Phosphorylates and Destabilizes Hedgehog Pathway Transcription Factor GLI1 in Medulloblastoma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yen-Hsing Li

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The Hedgehog (Hh pathway regulates cell differentiation and proliferation during development by controlling the Gli transcription factors. Cell fate decisions and progression toward organ and tissue maturity must be coordinated, and how an energy sensor regulates the Hh pathway is not clear. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK is an important sensor of energy stores and controls protein synthesis and other energy-intensive processes. AMPK is directly responsive to intracellular AMP levels, inhibiting a wide range of cell activities if ATP is low and AMP is high. Thus, AMPK can affect development by influencing protein synthesis and other processes needed for growth and differentiation. Activation of AMPK reduces GLI1 protein levels and stability, thus blocking Sonic-hedgehog-induced transcriptional activity. AMPK phosphorylates GLI1 at serines 102 and 408 and threonine 1074. Mutation of these three sites into alanine prevents phosphorylation by AMPK. This leads to increased GLI1 protein stability, transcriptional activity, and oncogenic potency.

  17. Angiotensin II-induced hypertension blunts thick ascending limb NO production by reducing NO synthase 3 expression and enhancing threonine 495 phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramseyer, Vanesa D; Gonzalez-Vicente, Agustin; Carretero, Oscar A; Garvin, Jeffrey L

    2015-01-15

    Thick ascending limbs reabsorb 30% of the filtered NaCl load. Nitric oxide (NO) produced by NO synthase 3 (NOS3) inhibits NaCl transport by this segment. In contrast, chronic angiotensin II (ANG II) infusion increases net thick ascending limb transport. NOS3 activity is regulated by changes in expression and phosphorylation at threonine 495 (T495) and serine 1177 (S1177), inhibitory and stimulatory sites, respectively. We hypothesized that NO production by thick ascending limbs is impaired by chronic ANG II infusion, due to reduced NOS3 expression, increased phosphorylation of T495, and decreased phosphorylation of S1177. Rats were infused with 200 ng·kg(-1)·min(-1) ANG II or vehicle for 1 and 5 days. ANG II infusion for 5 days decreased NOS3 expression by 40 ± 12% (P thick ascending limbs from ANG II-infused animals [ANG II -0.01 ± 0.06 arbitrary fluorescence units (AFU)/min vs. 0.17 ± 0.02 AFU/min in controls; P thick ascending limbs is impaired due to decreased NOS3 expression and altered phosphorylation. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

  18. Analysis of L-serine-O-phosphate in cerebrospinal spinal fluid by derivatization-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNaney, Colleen A; Benitex, Yulia; Luchetti, David; Labasi, Jeffrey M; Olah, Timothy V; Morgan, Daniel G; Drexler, Dieter M

    2014-05-01

    L-serine-O-phosphate (L-SOP), the precursor of L-serine, is a potent agonist against the group III metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) and, thus, is of interest as a potential biomarker for monitoring modulation of neurotransmitter release. So far, no reports are available on the analysis of L-SOP in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Here a novel method is presented to determine L-SOP levels in CSF employing precolumn derivatization with (5-N-succinimidoxy-5-oxopentyl)triphenylphosphonium bromide (SPTPP) coupled to liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (derivatization-LC/MS, d-LC/MS). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Multiple isoelectric forms of poliovirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase: Evidence for phosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ransone, L.J.; Dasgupta, A.

    1989-01-01

    Poliovirus-specific RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (3Dpol) was purified to apparent homogeneity. A single polypeptide of an apparent molecular weight of 63,000 catalyzes the synthesis of dimeric and monomeric RNA products in response to the poliovirion RNA template. Analysis of purified 3Dpol by two-dimensional electrophoresis showed multiple forms of 3Dpol, suggesting posttranslational modification of the protein in virus-infected cells. The two major forms of 3Dpol appear to have approximate pI values of 7.1 and 7.4. Incubation of purified 3Dpol with calf intestinal phosphatase resulted in almost complete disappearance of the pI 7.1 form and a concomitant increase in the intensity of the pI 7.4 form of 3Dpol. Addition of 32P-labeled Pi during infection of HeLa cells with poliovirus resulted in specific labeling of 3Dpol and 3CD, a viral protein which contains the entire 3Dpol sequence. Both 3Dpol and 3CD appear to be phosphorylated at serine residues. Ribosomal salt washes prepared from both mock- and poliovirus-infected cells contain phosphatases capable of dephosphorylating quantitatively the phosphorylated form (pI 7.1) of 3Dpol

  20. The Phosphorylation of Ribosomal Protein in Lemna minor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trewavas, A.

    1973-01-01

    Sterile cultures of Lemna minor have been labeled with 32P1, and the ribosomal proteins have been examined for radioactivity. In relatively short term labeling a radioactive protein was found which ran as a single component in both urea/acetic acid and sodium lauryl sulfate gel electrophoresis. Acid hydrolysis of the labeled protein permitted the isolation of serine phosphate. After labeling to equilibrium with 32P1, calculation indicated only 0.6 to 0.75 atom of this protein phosphorus per ribosome. The phosphorylated protein is found in both polysomes and “derived” monomers and appears to be located in the ribosomal small subunit. Its apparent molecular weight is 42,000. Addition of growth-inhibiting concentrations of abscisic acid does not alter the apparent degree of labeling of this protein in 5 hours, but after 24 hours of treatment the total protein phosphorus was reduced from 0.75 atom of phosphorus per ribosome to 0.36 atom of phosphorus per ribosome. PMID:16658405

  1. The kinase domain residue serine 173 of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Chk1 kinase is critical for the response to DNA replication stress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naomi Coulton

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available While mammalian Chk1 kinase regulates replication origins, safeguards fork integrity and promotes fork progression, yeast Chk1 acts only in G1 and G2. We report here that the mutation of serine 173 (S173A in the kinase domain of fission yeast Chk1 abolishes the G1-M and S-M checkpoints with little impact on the G2-M arrest. This separation-of-function mutation strongly reduces the Rad3-dependent phosphorylation of Chk1 at serine 345 during logarithmic growth, but not when cells experience exogenous DNA damage. Loss of S173 lowers the restrictive temperature of a catalytic DNA polymerase epsilon mutant (cdc20.M10 and is epistatic with a mutation in DNA polymerase delta (cdc6.23 when DNA is alkylated by methyl-methanesulfate (MMS. The chk1-S173A allele is uniquely sensitive to high MMS concentrations where it displays a partial checkpoint defect. A complete checkpoint defect occurs only when DNA replication forks break in cells without the intra-S phase checkpoint kinase Cds1. Chk1-S173A is also unable to block mitosis when the G1 transcription factor Cdc10 (cdc10.V50 is impaired. We conclude that serine 173, which is equivalent to lysine 166 in the activation loop of human Chk1, is only critical in DNA polymerase mutants or when forks collapse in the absence of Cds1.

  2. Interaction between O-GlcNAc modification and tyrosine phosphorylation of prohibitin: implication for a novel binary switch.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sudharsana R Ande

    Full Text Available Prohibitin (PHB or PHB1 is an evolutionarily conserved, multifunctional protein which is present in various cellular compartments including the plasma membrane. However, mechanisms involved in various functions of PHB are not fully explored yet. Here we report for the first time that PHB interacts with O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine transferase (O-GlcNAc transferase, OGT and is O-GlcNAc modified; and also undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation in response to insulin. Tyrosine 114 (Tyr114 and tyrosine 259 (Tyr259 in PHB are in the close proximity of potential O-GlcNAc sites serine 121 (Ser121 and threonine 258 (Thr258 respectively. Substitution of Tyr114 and Tyr259 residues in PHB with phenylalanine by site-directed mutagenesis results in reduced tyrosine phosphorylation as well as reduced O-GlcNAc modification of PHB. Surprisingly, this also resulted in enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation and activity of OGT. This is attributed to the presence of similar tyrosine motifs in PHB and OGT. Substitution of Ser121 and Thr258 with alanine and isoleucine respectively resulted in attenuation of O-GlcNAc modification and increased tyrosine phosphorylation of PHB suggesting an association between these two dynamic modifications. Sequence analysis of O-GlcNAc modified proteins having known O-GlcNAc modification site(s or known tyrosine phosphorylation site(s revealed a strong potential association between these two posttranslational modifications in various proteins. We speculate that O-GlcNAc modification and tyrosine phosphorylation of PHB play an important role in tyrosine kinase signaling pathways including insulin, growth factors and immune receptors signaling. In addition, we propose that O-GlcNAc modification and tyrosine phosphorylation is a novel previously unidentified binary switch which may provide new mechanistic insights into cell signaling pathways and is open for direct experimental examination.

  3. Oncoprotein protein kinase antibody kit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karin, Michael [San Diego, CA; Hibi, Masahiko [San Diego, CA; Lin, Anning [La Jolla, CA

    2008-12-23

    An isolated polypeptide (JNK) characterized by having a molecular weight of 46 kD as determined by reducing SDS-PAGE, having serine and threonine kinase activity, phosphorylating the c-Jun N-terminal activation domain and polynucleotide sequences and method of detection of JNK are provided herein. JNK phosphorylates c-Jun N-terminal activation domain which affects gene expression from AP-1 sites.

  4. Structures of a bi-functional Kunitz-type STI family inhibitor of serine and aspartic proteases: Could the aspartic protease inhibition have evolved from a canonical serine protease-binding loop?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerra, Yasel; Valiente, Pedro A; Pons, Tirso; Berry, Colin; Rudiño-Piñera, Enrique

    2016-08-01

    Bi-functional inhibitors from the Kunitz-type soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) family are glycosylated proteins able to inhibit serine and aspartic proteases. Here we report six crystal structures of the wild-type and a non-glycosylated mutant of the bifunctional inhibitor E3Ad obtained at different pH values and space groups. The crystal structures show that E3Ad adopts the typical β-trefoil fold of the STI family exhibiting some conformational changes due to pH variations and crystal packing. Despite the high sequence identity with a recently reported potato cathepsin D inhibitor (PDI), three-dimensional structures obtained in this work show a significant conformational change in the protease-binding loop proposed for aspartic protease inhibition. The E3Ad binding loop for serine protease inhibition is also proposed, based on structural similarity with a novel non-canonical conformation described for the double-headed inhibitor API-A from the Kunitz-type STI family. In addition, structural and sequence analyses suggest that bifunctional inhibitors of serine and aspartic proteases from the Kunitz-type STI family are more similar to double-headed inhibitor API-A than other inhibitors with a canonical protease-binding loop. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  5. BAFF induces spleen CD4{sup +} T cell proliferation by down-regulating phosphorylation of FOXO3A and activates cyclin D2 and D3 expression

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ji, Fang; Chen, Rongjing [Department of Orthodontics, Ninth People' s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai (China); Liu, Baojun [Laboratory of Lung, Inflammation and Cancers, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai (China); Zhang, Xiaoping [Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai 10th People' s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072 (China); Han, Junli; Wang, Haining [Department of General Dentistry, Ninth People' s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai (China); Shen, Gang [Department of Orthodontics, Ninth People' s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai (China); Tao, Jiang, E-mail: taojiang2012@yahoo.cn [Department of General Dentistry, Ninth People' s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai (China)

    2012-09-07

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Firstly analyze the mechanism of BAFF and anti-CD3 co-stimulation on purified mouse splenic CD4{sup +} T cells. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Carrying out siRNA technology to study FOXO3A protein function. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Helpful to understand the T cell especially CD4{sup +} T cell's role in immunological reaction. -- Abstract: The TNF ligand family member 'B cell-activating factor belonging to the TNF family' (BAFF, also called BLyS, TALL-1, zTNF-4, and THANK) is an important survival factor for B and T cells. In this study, we show that BAFF is able to induce CD4{sup +} spleen T cell proliferation when co-stimulated with anti-CD3. Expression of phosphorylated FOXO3A was notably down-regulated and cyclins D2 and D3 were up-regulated and higher in the CD4{sup +} T cells when treated with BAFF and anti-CD3, as assessed by Western blotting. Furthermore, after FOXO3A was knocked down, expression of cyclin D1 was unchanged, compared with control group levels, but the expression of cyclins D2 and D3 increased, compared with the control group. In conclusion, our results suggest that BAFF induced CD4{sup +} spleen T cell proliferation by down-regulating the phosphorylation of FOXO3A and then activating cyclin D2 and D3 expression, leading to CD4{sup +} T cell proliferation.

  6. Phosphorylation of human skeletal muscle myosin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Houston, M.E.; Lingley, M.D.; Stuart, D.S.; Hoffman-Goetz, L.

    1986-01-01

    Phosphorylation of the P-light chains (phosphorylatable light chains) in human skeletal muscle myosin was studied in vitro and in vivo under resting an d contracted conditions. biopsy samples from rested vastus lateralis muscle of male and female subjects were incubated in oxygenated physiological solution at 30 0 C. Samples frozen following a quiescent period showed the presence of only unphosphorylated P-light chains designated LC2f (light chain two of fast myosin) CL2s and LC2s'(light chains two of slow myosin). Treatment with caffeine (10 mM) or direct electrical stimulation resulted in the appearance of three additional bands which were identified as the phosphorylated forms of the P-light chains i.e. LC2f-P, LC2s-P and LC2s'-P. The presence of phosphate was confirmed by prior incubation with ( 30 P) orthophosphate. Muscle samples rapidly frozen from resting vastus lateralis muscle revealed the presence of unphosphorylated and phosphorylated P-light chains in approximately equal ratios. Muscle samples rapidly frozen following a maximal 10 second isometric contraction showed virtually only phosphorylated fast and slow P-light chains. These results reveal that the P-light chains in human fast and slow myosin may be rapidly phosphorylated, but the basal level of phosphorylation in rested human muscle considerably exceeds that observed in animal muscles studied in vitro or in situ

  7. Functional intersection of ATM and DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit in coding end joining during V(D)J recombination

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lee, Baeck-Seung; Gapud, Eric J; Zhang, Shichuan

    2013-01-01

    V(D)J recombination is initiated by the RAG endonuclease, which introduces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) at the border between two recombining gene segments, generating two hairpin-sealed coding ends and two blunt signal ends. ATM and DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) ar......V(D)J recombination is initiated by the RAG endonuclease, which introduces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) at the border between two recombining gene segments, generating two hairpin-sealed coding ends and two blunt signal ends. ATM and DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA......-PKcs) are serine-threonine kinases that orchestrate the cellular responses to DNA DSBs. During V(D)J recombination, ATM and DNA-PKcs have unique functions in the repair of coding DNA ends. ATM deficiency leads to instability of postcleavage complexes and the loss of coding ends from these complexes. DNA...... when ATM is present and its kinase activity is intact. The ability of ATM to compensate for DNA-PKcs kinase activity depends on the integrity of three threonines in DNA-PKcs that are phosphorylation targets of ATM, suggesting that ATM can modulate DNA-PKcs activity through direct phosphorylation of DNA...

  8. Purification and sequencing of radish seed calmodulin antagonists phosphorylated by calcium-dependent protein kinase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polya, G M; Chandra, S; Condron, R

    1993-02-01

    A family of radish (Raphanus sativus) calmodulin antagonists (RCAs) was purified from seeds by extraction, centrifugation, batch-wise elution from carboxymethyl-cellulose, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on an SP5PW cation-exchange column. This RCA fraction was further resolved into three calmodulin antagonist polypeptides (RCA1, RCA2, and RCA3) by denaturation in the presence of guanidinium HCl and mercaptoethanol and subsequent reverse-phase HPLC on a C8 column eluted with an acetonitrile gradient in the presence of 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid. The RCA preparation, RCA1, RCA2, RCA3, and other radish seed proteins are phosphorylated by wheat embryo Ca(2+)-dependent protein kinase (CDPK). The RCA preparation contains other CDPK substrates in addition to RCA1, RCA2, and RCA3. The RCA preparation, RCA1, RCA2, and RCA3 inhibit chicken gizzard calmodulin-dependent myosin light chain kinase assayed with a myosin-light chain-based synthetic peptide substrate (fifty percent inhibitory concentrations of RCA2 and RCA3 are about 7 and 2 microM, respectively). N-terminal sequencing by sequential Edman degradation of RCA1, RCA2, and RCA3 revealed sequences having a high homology with the small subunit of the storage protein napin from Brassica napus and with related proteins. The deduced amino acid sequences of RCA1, RCA2, RCA3, and RCA3' (a subform of RCA3) have agreement with average molecular masses from electrospray mass spectrometry of 4537, 4543, 4532, and 4560 kD, respectively. The only sites for serine phosphorylation are near or at the C termini and hence adjacent to the sites of proteolytic precursor cleavage.

  9. Phosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA) regulatory subunit RIα by protein kinase G (PKG) primes PKA for catalytic activity in cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haushalter, Kristofer J; Casteel, Darren E; Raffeiner, Andrea; Stefan, Eduard; Patel, Hemal H; Taylor, Susan S

    2018-03-23

    cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKAc) is a pivotal signaling protein in eukaryotic cells. PKAc has two well-characterized regulatory subunit proteins, RI and RII (each having α and β isoforms), which keep the PKAc catalytic subunit in a catalytically inactive state until activation by cAMP. Previous reports showed that the RIα regulatory subunit is phosphorylated by cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) in vitro , whereupon phosphorylated RIα no longer inhibits PKAc at normal (1:1) stoichiometric ratios. However, the significance of this phosphorylation as a mechanism for activating type I PKA holoenzymes has not been fully explored, especially in cellular systems. In this study, we further examined the potential of RIα phosphorylation to regulate physiologically relevant "desensitization" of PKAc activity. First, the serine 101 site of RIα was validated as a target of PKGIα phosphorylation both in vitro and in cells. Analysis of a phosphomimetic substitution in RIα (S101E) showed that modification of this site increases PKAc activity in vitro and in cells, even without cAMP stimulation. Numerous techniques were used to show that although Ser 101 variants of RIα can bind PKAc, the modified linker region of the S101E mutant has a significantly reduced affinity for the PKAc active site. These findings suggest that RIα phosphorylation may be a novel mechanism to circumvent the requirement of cAMP stimulus to activate type I PKA in cells. We have thus proposed a model to explain how PKG phosphorylation of RIα creates a "sensitized intermediate" state that is in effect primed to trigger PKAc activity.

  10. cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of bovine lens alpha-crystallin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spector, A.; Chiesa, R.; Sredy, J.; Garner, W.

    1985-01-01

    This communication reports that the A1 and B1 chains of bovine lens alpha-crystallin are phosphorylated. The conclusion is based on the following evidence: (i) When soluble preparations from lens cortex are incubated with [gamma- 32 P]ATP, a cAMP-dependent labeling of a high molecular weight protein is obtained. (ii) After NaDodSO 4 /PAGE, the label is found in two bands with Mr 22,000 and 20,000, corresponding to the B and A chains of alpha-crystallin, respectively. (iii) Isoelectric focusing indicates that the radioactivity is almost exclusively in bands with pI values of 5.58 and 6.70, corresponding to the A1 and B1 chains, respectively. (iv) Similar results are obtained in experiments of [ 32 P]orthophosphate incorporation in lens organ culture. (v) Analyses of the digested protein indicate the label is exclusively in phosphoserine. (vi) 31 P NMR analyses of native, proteolytically digested, and urea-treated alpha-crystallin gives a chemical shift of 4.6 ppm relative to 85% H 3 PO 4 at pH 7.4, suggesting that the phosphate is covalently bound to a serine in the protein. An abundance of approximately one phosphate per four or five monomer units was found. (vii) Similar results were obtained by chemical analyses of independently prepared alpha-crystallin samples. The results are consistent with the view that the A1 and B1 chains arise as result of the phosphorylation of directly synthesized A2 and B2 polypeptides. It is suggested that this metabolically controlled phosphorylation may be associated with the terminal differentiation of the lens epithelial cell and the intracellular organization of the lens fiber cell

  11. Importance of protamine phosphorylation to histone displacement in spermatids: can the disruption of this process be used for male contraception

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Balhorn, R.; Hud, N.V.; Corzett, M.; Mazrimas, J.

    1995-06-01

    Protamine is a small protein that packages DNA in the sperm of most vertebrates. Shortly after its synthesis, the serine and threonine residues in each protamine are phosphorylated and the modified proteins are deposited onto DNA, displacing the histones and other chromatin proteins. We have hypothesized that the phosphorylation of protamine 1 induces protamine dimerization and these dimers are required for efficient histone displacement. Histone displacement by protamines in late-step spermatids appears to be essential for the production of fertile sperm in man and other mammals, and the disruption of this process could provide a new approach for male contraception. As a first step towards testing this theory, we have initiated a set of in vitro experiments to determine whether of not protamine phosphorylation is essential for histone displacement. Thee results of these experiments, although incomplete, confirm that unphosphorylated protamine cannot effectively displace histone from DNA. Polyarginine molecules twice the size of a protamine molecule and salmine dimer were found to be more effective. These results are consistent with the theory that the disruption of protamine phosphorylation may prove to be a useful new approach for male contraception if it can be shown to facilitate or induce protamine dimerization.

  12. Cross genome comparisons of serine proteases in Arabidopsis and rice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sowdhamini R

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Serine proteases are one of the largest groups of proteolytic enzymes found across all kingdoms of life and are associated with several essential physiological pathways. The availability of Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa genome sequences has permitted the identification and comparison of the repertoire of serine protease-like proteins in the two plant species. Results Despite the differences in genome sizes between Arabidopsis and rice, we identified a very similar number of serine protease-like proteins in the two plant species (206 and 222, respectively. Nearly 40% of the above sequences were identified as potential orthologues. Atypical members could be identified in the plant genomes for Deg, Clp, Lon, rhomboid proteases and species-specific members were observed for the highly populated subtilisin and serine carboxypeptidase families suggesting multiple lateral gene transfers. DegP proteases, prolyl oligopeptidases, Clp proteases and rhomboids share a significantly higher percentage orthology between the two genomes indicating substantial evolutionary divergence was set prior to speciation. Single domain architectures and paralogues for several putative subtilisins, serine carboxypeptidases and rhomboids suggest they may have been recruited for additional roles in secondary metabolism with spatial and temporal regulation. The analysis reveals some domain architectures unique to either or both of the plant species and some inactive proteases, like in rhomboids and Clp proteases, which could be involved in chaperone function. Conclusion The systematic analysis of the serine protease-like proteins in the two plant species has provided some insight into the possible functional associations of previously uncharacterised serine protease-like proteins. Further investigation of these aspects may prove beneficial in our understanding of similar processes in commercially significant crop plant species.

  13. Molecular Mechanisms Elicited by d-Aspartate in Leydig Cells and Spermatogonia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Maddalena Di Fiore

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available A bulk of evidence suggests that d-aspartate (d-Asp regulates steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis in vertebrate testes. This review article focuses on intracellular signaling mechanisms elicited by d-Asp possibly via binding to the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR in both Leydig cells, and spermatogonia. In Leydig cells, the amino acid upregulates androgen production by eliciting the adenylate cyclase-cAMP and/or mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK pathways. d-Asp treatment enhances gene and protein expression of enzymes involved in the steroidogenic cascade. d-Asp also directly affects spermatogonial mitotic activity. In spermatogonial GC-1 cells, d-Asp induces phosphorylation of MAPK and AKT serine-threonine kinase proteins, and stimulates expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA and aurora kinase B (AURKB. Further stimulation of spermatogonial GC-1 cell proliferation might come from estradiol/estrogen receptor β (ESR2 interaction. d-Asp modulates androgen and estrogen levels as well as the expression of their receptors in the rat epididymis by acting on mRNA levels of Srd5a1 and Cyp19a1 enzymes, hence suggesting involvement in spermatozoa maturation.

  14. ABA renewal involves enhancements in both GluA2-lacking AMPA receptor activity and GluA1 phosphorylation in the lateral amygdala.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kyungjoon Park

    Full Text Available Fear renewal, the context-specific relapse of fear following fear extinction, is a leading animal model of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD and fear-related disorders. Although fear extinction can diminish fear responses, this effect is restricted to the context where the extinction is carried out, and the extinguished fear strongly relapses when assessed in the original acquisition context (ABA renewal or in a context distinct from the conditioning and extinction contexts (ABC renewal. We have previously identified Ser831 phosphorylation of GluA1 subunit in the lateral amygdala (LA as a key molecular mechanism for ABC renewal. However, molecular mechanisms underlying ABA renewal remain to be elucidated. Here, we found that both the excitatory synaptic efficacy and GluA2-lacking AMPAR activity at thalamic input synapses onto the LA (T-LA synapses were enhanced upon ABA renewal. GluA2-lacking AMPAR activity was also increased during low-threshold potentiation, a potential cellular substrate of renewal, at T-LA synapses. The microinjection of 1-naphtylacetyl-spermine (NASPM, a selective blocker of GluA2-lacking AMPARs, into the LA attenuated ABA renewal, suggesting a critical role of GluA2-lacking AMPARs in ABA renewal. We also found that Ser831 phosphorylation of GluA1 in the LA was increased upon ABA renewal. We developed a short peptide mimicking the Ser831-containing C-tail region of GluA1, which can be phosphorylated upon renewal (GluA1S; thus, the phosphorylated GluA1S may compete with Ser831-phosphorylated GluA1. This GluA1S peptide blocked the low-threshold potentiation when dialyzed into a recorded neuron. The microinjection of a cell-permeable form of GluA1S peptide into the LA attenuated ABA renewal. In support of the GluA1S experiments, a GluA1D peptide (in which the serine at 831 is replaced with a phosphomimetic amino acid, aspartate attenuated ABA renewal when microinjected into the LA. These findings suggest that enhancements

  15. ABA renewal involves enhancements in both GluA2-lacking AMPA receptor activity and GluA1 phosphorylation in the lateral amygdala.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Kyungjoon; Song, Beomjong; Kim, Jeongyeon; Hong, Ingie; Song, Sangho; Lee, Junuk; Park, Sungmo; Kim, Jihye; An, Bobae; Lee, Hyun Woo; Lee, Seungbok; Kim, Hyun; Lee, Justin C; Lee, Sukwon; Choi, Sukwoo

    2014-01-01

    Fear renewal, the context-specific relapse of fear following fear extinction, is a leading animal model of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and fear-related disorders. Although fear extinction can diminish fear responses, this effect is restricted to the context where the extinction is carried out, and the extinguished fear strongly relapses when assessed in the original acquisition context (ABA renewal) or in a context distinct from the conditioning and extinction contexts (ABC renewal). We have previously identified Ser831 phosphorylation of GluA1 subunit in the lateral amygdala (LA) as a key molecular mechanism for ABC renewal. However, molecular mechanisms underlying ABA renewal remain to be elucidated. Here, we found that both the excitatory synaptic efficacy and GluA2-lacking AMPAR activity at thalamic input synapses onto the LA (T-LA synapses) were enhanced upon ABA renewal. GluA2-lacking AMPAR activity was also increased during low-threshold potentiation, a potential cellular substrate of renewal, at T-LA synapses. The microinjection of 1-naphtylacetyl-spermine (NASPM), a selective blocker of GluA2-lacking AMPARs, into the LA attenuated ABA renewal, suggesting a critical role of GluA2-lacking AMPARs in ABA renewal. We also found that Ser831 phosphorylation of GluA1 in the LA was increased upon ABA renewal. We developed a short peptide mimicking the Ser831-containing C-tail region of GluA1, which can be phosphorylated upon renewal (GluA1S); thus, the phosphorylated GluA1S may compete with Ser831-phosphorylated GluA1. This GluA1S peptide blocked the low-threshold potentiation when dialyzed into a recorded neuron. The microinjection of a cell-permeable form of GluA1S peptide into the LA attenuated ABA renewal. In support of the GluA1S experiments, a GluA1D peptide (in which the serine at 831 is replaced with a phosphomimetic amino acid, aspartate) attenuated ABA renewal when microinjected into the LA. These findings suggest that enhancements in both the

  16. [1-14C]Glycolate metabolism and serine biosynthesis in soybean plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calmes, J.; Viala, G.; Latche, J.C.; Cavalie, G.

    1977-01-01

    [1- 14 C]Glycolate metabolism was examined in leafy shoots of soybean plants (Glycine max (L.) Merr., var. Adepta). Only small amounts of 14 C were incorporated into evolved carbon dioxide and glucidic compounds. Free and protein glycine was labelled but higher levels of radioactivity were found in free serine. Changes in the distribution of 14 C with time showed that metabolic conversion glycollate → glycine → serine occurred very early and serine biosynthesis was more important in the shoot than in the leaves. Carbon dioxide labelling was always slight compared to serine labelling. These data suggest strong relations between glycollate and nitrogen metabolism

  17. The VA, VCD, Raman and ROA spectra of tri-L-serine in aqueous solution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jürgensen, Vibeke Würtz; Jalkanen, Karl J.

    2006-01-01

    The structures of one conformer of the nonionic neutral and zwitterionic species of L-serinyl L-serinyl L-serine (SSS or tri-L-serine), together with its cationic and anionic species and the capped N-acetyl tri-L-serine N'-methylamide analog were optimized with density functional theory with the ......The structures of one conformer of the nonionic neutral and zwitterionic species of L-serinyl L-serinyl L-serine (SSS or tri-L-serine), together with its cationic and anionic species and the capped N-acetyl tri-L-serine N'-methylamide analog were optimized with density functional theory...

  18. Oxygen-18 as a tool for studying photorespiration. Oxygen uptake and incorporation into glycolate, glycine and serine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerster, R.; Dimon, B.; Tournier, P.; Peybernes, A.

    1977-01-01

    The intensity of photosynthesis and photorespiration has been determined by measuring 16 O 2 evolvement and 18 O 2 uptake on algae and leaves. In the case of algae, there is still an important oxygen uptake even when ribulose diphosphate oxygenase is inhibited by 10 -3 M cyanide. Oxygen-18 incorporation into glycolate, glycine and serine of photorespiring algae and leaves exposed to atmospheres containing 18 O 2 has also been measured. Only one of the two atoms present in molecular oxygen was incorporated into the carboxyl group of the glycolate excreted from algae; the rate of 18 O incorporation was important (65 to 80% according to experimental conditions), even in the presence of 10 -3 M cyanide. Thus, oxidation of ribulose diphosphate is not the sole reaction leading to 18 O glycolate synthesis. In the case of maize, there was a rapid and important 18 O incorporation into the carboxyl group of glycine and serine, the kinetics of which was determined as a function of CO 2 presence in the atmosphere. These results suggest that photorespiration is also operating in C 4 species. Furthermore, in vitro experiments showed that phosphorylated ceto-acids of the Calvin cycle were very sensitive to H 2 O 2 ; the corresponding reaction can explain O 2 uptake and 18 O labelling of glycolate. (author)

  19. A mutation of the fission yeast EB1 overcomes negative regulation by phosphorylation and stabilizes microtubules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iimori, Makoto; Ozaki, Kanako; Chikashige, Yuji; Habu, Toshiyuki; Hiraoka, Yasushi; Maki, Takahisa; Hayashi, Ikuko; Obuse, Chikashi; Matsumoto, Tomohiro

    2012-01-01

    Mal3 is a fission yeast homolog of EB1, a plus-end tracking protein (+ TIP). We have generated a mutation (89R) replacing glutamine with arginine in the calponin homology (CH) domain of Mal3. Analysis of the 89R mutant in vitro has revealed that the mutation confers a higher affinity to microtubules and enhances the intrinsic activity to promote the microtubule-assembly. The mutant Mal3 is no longer a + TIP, but binds strongly the microtubule lattice. Live cell imaging has revealed that while the wild type Mal3 proteins dissociate from the tip of the growing microtubules before the onset of shrinkage, the mutant Mal3 proteins persist on microtubules and reduces a rate of shrinkage after a longer pausing period. Consequently, the mutant Mal3 proteins cause abnormal elongation of microtubules composing the spindle and aster. Mal3 is phosphorylated at a cluster of serine/threonine residues in the linker connecting the CH and EB1-like C-terminal motif domains. The phosphorylation occurs in a microtubule-dependent manner and reduces the affinity of Mal3 to microtubules. We propose that because the 89R mutation is resistant to the effect of phosphorylation, it can associate persistently with microtubules and confers a stronger stability of microtubules likely by reinforcing the cylindrical structure. -- Highlights: ► We characterize a mutation (mal3-89R) in fission yeast homolog of EB1. ► The mutation enhances the activity to assemble microtubules. ► Mal3 is phosphorylated in a microtubule-dependent manner. ► The phosphorylation negatively regulates the Mal3 activity.

  20. A mutation of the fission yeast EB1 overcomes negative regulation by phosphorylation and stabilizes microtubules

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iimori, Makoto; Ozaki, Kanako [Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwake cho, Sakyo ku, Kyoto, 606-8502 (Japan); Chikashige, Yuji [Kobe Advanced ICT Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, 651-2492 (Japan); Habu, Toshiyuki [Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwake cho, Sakyo ku, Kyoto, 606-8502 (Japan); Radiation Biology Center, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe cho, Sakyo ku, Kyoto, 606-8501 (Japan); Hiraoka, Yasushi [Kobe Advanced ICT Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, 651-2492 (Japan); Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, 565-0871 (Japan); Maki, Takahisa; Hayashi, Ikuko [Graduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, Tsurumi, Yokohama, 230-0045 (Japan); Obuse, Chikashi [Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021 (Japan); Matsumoto, Tomohiro, E-mail: tmatsumo@house.rbc.kyoto-u.ac.jp [Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwake cho, Sakyo ku, Kyoto, 606-8502 (Japan); Radiation Biology Center, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe cho, Sakyo ku, Kyoto, 606-8501 (Japan)

    2012-02-01

    Mal3 is a fission yeast homolog of EB1, a plus-end tracking protein (+ TIP). We have generated a mutation (89R) replacing glutamine with arginine in the calponin homology (CH) domain of Mal3. Analysis of the 89R mutant in vitro has revealed that the mutation confers a higher affinity to microtubules and enhances the intrinsic activity to promote the microtubule-assembly. The mutant Mal3 is no longer a + TIP, but binds strongly the microtubule lattice. Live cell imaging has revealed that while the wild type Mal3 proteins dissociate from the tip of the growing microtubules before the onset of shrinkage, the mutant Mal3 proteins persist on microtubules and reduces a rate of shrinkage after a longer pausing period. Consequently, the mutant Mal3 proteins cause abnormal elongation of microtubules composing the spindle and aster. Mal3 is phosphorylated at a cluster of serine/threonine residues in the linker connecting the CH and EB1-like C-terminal motif domains. The phosphorylation occurs in a microtubule-dependent manner and reduces the affinity of Mal3 to microtubules. We propose that because the 89R mutation is resistant to the effect of phosphorylation, it can associate persistently with microtubules and confers a stronger stability of microtubules likely by reinforcing the cylindrical structure. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We characterize a mutation (mal3-89R) in fission yeast homolog of EB1. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The mutation enhances the activity to assemble microtubules. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Mal3 is phosphorylated in a microtubule-dependent manner. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The phosphorylation negatively regulates the Mal3 activity.

  1. Preparative resolution of D,L-threonine catalyzed by immobilized phosphatase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scollar, M P; Sigal, G; Klibanov, A M

    1985-03-01

    Hydrolysis of L- and D-O-phosphothreonines catalyzed by four different phosphatases, alkaline phosphatases from calf intestine and E. coli and acid phosphatases from wheat germ and potato, has been kinetically studied. Alkaline phosphatases were found to have comparable reactivities towards the optical isomers. On the other hand, both acid phosphatases displayed a marked stereoselectivity, hydrolyzing the L-ester much faster than its D counterpart. Wheat germ acid phosphatase was the most stereoselective enzyme: V(L)/V(D) = 24 and K(m,L)/K(m,D) = 0.17. This enzyme was immobilized (in k-carrageenan gel, followed by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde) and used for the preparative resolution of D,L-threonine: the latter was first chemically O-phosphorylated and then asymmetrically hydrolyzed by the immobilized phosphatase. As a result, gram quantities of L-threonine of high optical purity and O-phospho-D-threonine were prepared. Immobilized wheat germ phosphatase has been tested for the resolution of other racemic alcohols: serine, 2-amino-1-butanol, 1-amino-2-propanol, 2-octanol, and menthol. In all those cases, the enzyme was either not sufficiently stereoselective or too slow for preparative resolutions.

  2. ERK-dependent phosphorylation of the transcription initiation factor TIF-IA is required for RNA polymerase I transcription and cell growth

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhao, Jian; Yuan, Xuejun; Frödin, Morten

    2003-01-01

    -specific transcription initiation factor TIF-IA. Activation of TIF-IA and ribosomal gene transcription is sensitive to PD98059, indicating that TIF-IA is targeted by MAPK in vivo. Phosphopeptide mapping and mutational analysis reveals two serine residues (S633 and S649) that are phosphorylated by ERK and RSK kinases....... Replacement of S649 by alanine inactivates TIF-IA, inhibits pre-rRNA synthesis, and retards cell growth. The results provide a link between growth factor signaling, ribosome production, and cell growth, and may have a major impact on the mechanism of cell transformation....

  3. Identification of Phosphorylation Consensus Sequences and Endogenous Neuronal Substrates of the Psychiatric Risk Kinase TNIK.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qi; Amato, Stephen P; Rubitski, David M; Hayward, Matthew M; Kormos, Bethany L; Verhoest, Patrick R; Xu, Lan; Brandon, Nicholas J; Ehlers, Michael D

    2016-02-01

    Traf2- and Nck-interacting kinase (TNIK) is a serine/threonine kinase highly expressed in the brain and enriched in the postsynaptic density of glutamatergic synapses in the mammalian brain. Accumulating genetic evidence and functional data have implicated TNIK as a risk factor for psychiatric disorders. However, the endogenous substrates of TNIK in neurons are unknown. Here, we describe a novel selective small molecule inhibitor of the TNIK kinase family. Using this inhibitor, we report the identification of endogenous neuronal TNIK substrates by immunoprecipitation with a phosphomotif antibody followed by mass spectrometry. Phosphorylation consensus sequences were defined by phosphopeptide sequence analysis. Among the identified substrates were members of the delta-catenin family including p120-catenin, δ-catenin, and armadillo repeat gene deleted in velo-cardio-facial syndrome (ARVCF), each of which is linked to psychiatric or neurologic disorders. Using p120-catenin as a representative substrate, we show TNIK-induced p120-catenin phosphorylation in cells requires intact kinase activity and phosphorylation of TNIK at T181 and T187 in the activation loop. Addition of the small molecule TNIK inhibitor or knocking down TNIK by two shRNAs reduced endogenous p120-catenin phosphorylation in cells. Together, using a TNIK inhibitor and phosphomotif antibody, we identify endogenous substrates of TNIK in neurons, define consensus sequences for TNIK, and suggest signaling pathways by which TNIK influences synaptic development and function linked to psychiatric and neurologic disorders. Copyright © 2016 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

  4. The Golgi localization of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein beta requires the protein kinase C-dependent phosphorylation of serine 262 and is essential for maintaining plasma membrane sphingomyelin levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Tiel, Claudia M; Westerman, Jan; Paasman, Marten A; Hoebens, Martha M; Wirtz, Karel W A; Snoek, Gerry T

    2002-06-21

    Recombinant mouse phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PI-TP)beta is a substrate for protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent phosphorylation in vitro. Based on site-directed mutagenesis and two-dimensional tryptic peptide mapping, Ser(262) was identified as the major site of phosphorylation and Ser(165) as a minor phosphorylation site. The phospholipid transfer activities of wild-type PI-TP beta and PI-TP beta(S262A) were identical, whereas PI-TP beta(S165A) was completely inactive. PKC-dependent phosphorylation of Ser(262) also had no effect on the transfer activity of PI-TP beta. To investigate the role of Ser(262) in the functioning of PI-TP beta, wtPI-TP beta and PI-TP beta(S262A) were overexpressed in NIH3T3 fibroblast cells. Two-dimensional PAGE analysis of cell lysates was used to separate PI-TP beta from its phosphorylated form. After Western blotting, wtPI-TP beta was found to be 85% phosphorylated, whereas PI-TP beta(S262A) was not phosphorylated. In the presence of the PKC inhibitor GF 109203X, the phosphorylated form of wtPI-TP beta was strongly reduced. Immunolocalization showed that wtPI-TP beta was predominantly associated with the Golgi membranes. In the presence of the PKC inhibitor, wtPI-TP beta was distributed throughout the cell similar to what was observed for PI-TP beta(S262A). In contrast to wtPI-TP beta overexpressors, cells overexpressing PI-TP beta(S262A) were unable to rapidly replenish sphingomyelin in the plasma membrane upon degradation by sphingomyelinase. This implies that PKC-dependent association with the Golgi complex is a prerequisite for PI-TP beta to express its effect on sphingomyelin metabolism.

  5. Rapid changes in protein phosphorylation associated with gravity perception in corn roots

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McFadden, J.J.; Poovaiah, B.W.

    1987-01-01

    A previous paper from this laboratory showed calcium- and calmodulin-dependent in vivo protein phosphorylation in corn root tips. The authors show that rapid changes in calcium-dependent protein phosphorylation are involved in light-dependent graviperception in corn root tips. Corn seedlings (Zea mays L, cv Merit) were grown in the dark for 3 d, then apical root segments were harvested in dim green light to measure in vivo protein phosphorylation. Segments were incubated with 0.5 mCi 32 P for 1 h, then immediately frozen in liquid N 2 or first treated with either 7 min light, or 7 min light plus 1 mM EGTA and 10 μM A23187. Labeled proteins were separated by 2D gel electrophoresis and detected by autoradiography. Light caused rapid and specific promotion of phosphorylation of 5 polypeptides. The increases in protein phosphorylation were reversed by treating with EGTA and A23187. The authors postulate that these changes in protein phosphorylation are an essential part of the light-dependent gravity response in Merit roots

  6. Convergent synthesis of a deuterium-labeled serine dipeptide lipid for analysis of biological samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dietz, Christopher; Clark, Robert B; Nichols, Frank C; Smith, Michael B

    2017-05-30

    Bacterial serine dipeptide lipids are known to promote inflammatory processes and are detected in human tissues associated with periodontal disease or atherosclerosis. Accurate quantification of bacterial serine lipid, specifically lipid 654 [((S)-15-methyl-3-((13-methyltetradecanoyl)oxy)hexadecanoyl)glycyl-l-serine, (3S)-l-serine] isolated from Porphyromonas gingivalis, in biological samples requires the preparation of a stable isotope internal standard for sample supplementation and subsequent mass spectrometric analysis. This report describes the convergent synthesis of a deuterium-substituted serine dipeptide lipid, which is an isotopically labeled homologue that represents a dominant form of serine dipeptide lipid recovered in bacteria. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  7. L-Serine overproduction with minimization of by-product synthesis by engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Qinjian; Zhang, Xiaomei; Luo, Yuchang; Guo, Wen; Xu, Guoqiang; Shi, Jinsong; Xu, Zhenghong

    2015-02-01

    The direct fermentative production of L-serine by Corynebacterium glutamicum from sugars is attractive. However, superfluous by-product accumulation and low L-serine productivity limit its industrial production on large scale. This study aimed to investigate metabolic and bioprocess engineering strategies towards eliminating by-products as well as increasing L-serine productivity. Deletion of alaT and avtA encoding the transaminases and introduction of an attenuated mutant of acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) increased both L-serine production level (26.23 g/L) and its productivity (0.27 g/L/h). Compared to the parent strain, the by-products L-alanine and L-valine accumulation in the resulting strain were reduced by 87 % (from 9.80 to 1.23 g/L) and 60 % (from 6.54 to 2.63 g/L), respectively. The modification decreased the metabolic flow towards the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and induced to shift it towards L-serine production. Meanwhile, it was found that corn steep liquor (CSL) could stimulate cell growth and increase sucrose consumption rate as well as L-serine productivity. With addition of 2 g/L CSL, the resulting strain showed a significant improvement in the sucrose consumption rate (72 %) and the L-serine productivity (67 %). In fed-batch fermentation, 42.62 g/L of L-serine accumulation was achieved with a productivity of 0.44 g/L/h and yield of 0.21 g/g sucrose, which was the highest production of L-serine from sugars to date. The results demonstrated that combined metabolic and bioprocess engineering strategies could minimize by-product accumulation and improve L-serine productivity.

  8. Increased Level of Phosphorylated ShcA Measured by Chemiluminescence-Linked Immunoassay Is a Predictor of Good Prognosis in Primary Breast Cancer Expressing Low Levels of Estrogen Receptor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cicenas, Jonas; Küng, Willy; Eppenberger, Urs; Eppenberger-Castori, Serenella

    2010-01-01

    The SH2 domain-containing adaptor protein ShcA is a proto-oncogene involved in growth factor receptor signaling. The role of phosphorylated ShcA is to link receptor tyrosine kinases with the SH2-containing adaptor protein Grb2, thus facilitating signal transduction from receptor tyrosine kinases to Ras, leading to MAPK activation. The present study was designed to investigate the prognostic significance of phosphorylated ShcA in primary breast cancer and its association in the interactions between the ER and ErbB2 pathways. Using a two-site chemiluminescence-linked immunosorbent assay, we detected the quantitative expression levels of total tyrosine- and threonine-phosphorylated ShcA in cytosol fractions obtained from fresh frozen tissue samples of 153 selected primary breast cancer patients. ShcA phosphorylation was not associated with nodal status, estrogen receptor (ER) status or grading. High levels of both tyrosine (pYShcA) and serine (pSShcA) phosphorylated ShcA correlated with good prognosis (p < 0.01), with respect to both disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS). In addition, pShcA levels were found to correlate with threonine-phosphorylated ErbB2 and inversely with phosphorylated Akt (pAkt), as well as ErbB2 and ER expression levels. Our findings demonstrate that ShcA activation in primary breast cancer patients correlates with low levels of ER, and is associated with good prognosis

  9. Phosphodiesterase activity is regulated by CC2D1A that is implicated in non-syndromic intellectual disability

    KAUST Repository

    Altawashi, Azza

    2013-07-04

    Background: Cyclic adenosine 3?5?-monophosphate (cAMP) is a key regulator of many cellular processes, including in the neuronal system, and its activity is tuned by Phosphodiesterase (PDE) activation. Further, the CC2D1A protein, consisting of N-Terminal containing four DM14 domains and C-terminal containing C2 domain, was shown to regulate the cAMP-PKA pathway. A human deletion mutation lacking the fourth DM14 and the adjacent C2 domain results in Non Syndromic Intellectual Disability (NSID) also referred to as Non Syndromic Mental Retardation (NSMR). Findings. Here we demonstrate that in Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts (MEF) CC2D1A co-localizes with PDE4D in the cytosol before cAMP stimulation and on the periphery after stimulation, and that the movement to the periphery requires the full-length CC2D1A. In CC2D1A mouse mutant cells, the absence of three of the four DM14 domains abolishes migration of the complex to the periphery and causes constitutive phosphorylation of PDE4D Serine 126 (Sssup126esup) via the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) resulting in PDE4D hyperactivity. Suppressing PDE4D activity with Rolipram in turn restores the down-stream phosphorylation of the "cAMP response element-binding protein" (CREB) that is defective in mouse mutant cells. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that CC2D1A is a novel regulator of PDE4D. CC2D1A interacts directly with PDE4D regulating its activity and thereby fine-tuning cAMP-dependent downstream signaling. Based on our in vitro evidence we propose a model which links CC2D1A structure and function to cAMP homeostasis thereby affecting CREB phosphorylation. We speculate that CC2D1A and/or PDE4D may be promising targets for therapeutic interventions in many disorders with impaired PDE4D function such as NSID. 2013 Al-Tawashi and Gehring; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  10. Haloperidol Regulates the State of Phosphorylation of Ribosomal Protein S6 via Activation of PKA and Phosphorylation of DARPP-32

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valjent, Emmanuel; Bertran-Gonzalez, Jesus; Bowling, Heather; Lopez, Sébastien; Santini, Emanuela; Matamales, Miriam; Bonito-Oliva, Alessandra; Hervé, Denis; Hoeffer, Charles; Klann, Eric; Girault, Jean-Antoine; Fisone, Gilberto

    2011-01-01

    Administration of typical antipsychotic drugs, such as haloperidol, promotes cAMP-dependent signaling in the medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the striatum. In this study, we have examined the effect of haloperidol on the state of phosphorylation of the ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6), a component of the small 40S ribosomal subunit. We found that haloperidol increases the phosphorylation of rpS6 at the dual site Ser235/236, which is involved in the regulation of mRNA translation. This effect was exerted in the MSNs of the indirect pathway, which express specifically dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs) and adenosine A2 receptors (A2ARs). The effect of haloperidol was decreased by blockade of A2ARs or by genetic attenuation of the Gαolf protein, which couples A2ARs to activation of adenylyl cyclase. Moreover, stimulation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) increased Ser235/236 phosphorylation in cultured striatal neurons. The ability of haloperidol to promote rpS6 phosphorylation was abolished in knock-in mice deficient for PKA activation of the protein phosphatase-1 inhibitor, dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa. In contrast, pharmacological or genetic inactivation of p70 rpS6 kinase 1, or extracellular signal-regulated kinases did not affect haloperidol-induced rpS6 phosphorylation. These results identify PKA as a major rpS6 kinase in neuronal cells and suggest that regulation of protein synthesis through rpS6 may be a potential target of antipsychotic drugs. PMID:21814187

  11. Phosphorylation and interactions associated with the control of the Leishmania Poly-A Binding Protein 1 (PABP1) function during translation initiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Melo Neto, Osvaldo P; da Costa Lima, Tamara D C; Merlo, Kleison C; Romão, Tatiany P; Rocha, Pollyanna O; Assis, Ludmila A; Nascimento, Larissa M; Xavier, Camila C; Rezende, Antonio M; Reis, Christian R S; Papadopoulou, Barbara

    2018-03-23

    The Poly-A Binding Protein (PABP) is a conserved eukaryotic polypeptide involved in many aspects of mRNA metabolism. During translation initiation, PABP interacts with the translation initiation complex eIF4F and enhances the translation of polyadenylated mRNAs. Schematically, most PABPs can be divided into an N-terminal RNA-binding region, a non-conserved linker segment and the C-terminal MLLE domain. In pathogenic Leishmania protozoans, three PABP homologues have been identified, with the first one (PABP1) targeted by phosphorylation and shown to co-immunoprecipitate with an eIF4F-like complex (EIF4E4/EIF4G3) implicated in translation initiation. Here, PABP1 phosphorylation was shown to be linked to logarithmic cell growth, reminiscent of EIF4E4 phosphorylation, and coincides with polysomal association. Phosphorylation targets multiple serine-proline (SP) or threonine-proline (TP) residues within the PABP1 linker region. This is an essential protein, but phosphorylation is not needed for its association with polysomes or cell viability. Mutations which do impair PABP1 polysomal association and are required for viability do not prevent phosphorylation, although further mutations lead to a presumed inactive protein largely lacking phosphorylated isoforms. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments were carried out to investigate PABP1 function further, identifying several novel protein partners and the EIF4E4/EIF4G3 complex, but no other eIF4F-like complex or subunit. A novel, direct interaction between PABP1 and EIF4E4 was also investigated and found to be mediated by the PABP1 MLLE binding to PABP Interacting Motifs (PAM2) within the EIF4E4 N-terminus. The results shown here are consistent with phosphorylation of PABP1 being part of a novel pathway controlling its function and possibly translation in Leishmania.

  12. Site-specific DNA Inversion by Serine Recombinases

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    Reversible site-specific DNA inversion reactions are widely distributed in bacteria and their viruses. They control a range of biological reactions that most often involve alterations of molecules on the surface of cells or phage. These programmed DNA rearrangements usually occur at a low frequency, thereby preadapting a small subset of the population to a change in environmental conditions, or in the case of phages, an expanded host range. A dedicated recombinase, sometimes with the aid of additional regulatory or DNA architectural proteins, catalyzes the inversion of DNA. RecA or other components of the general recombination-repair machinery are not involved. This chapter discusses site-specific DNA inversion reactions mediated by the serine recombinase family of enzymes and focuses on the extensively studied serine DNA invertases that are stringently controlled by the Fis-bound enhancer regulatory system. The first section summarizes biological features and general properties of inversion reactions by the Fis/enhancer-dependent serine invertases and the recently described serine DNA invertases in Bacteroides. Mechanistic studies of reactions catalyzed by the Hin and Gin invertases are then discussed in more depth, particularly with regards to recent advances in our understanding of the function of the Fis/enhancer regulatory system, the assembly of the active recombination complex (invertasome) containing the Fis/enhancer, and the process of DNA strand exchange by rotation of synapsed subunit pairs within the invertasome. The role of DNA topological forces that function in concert with the Fis/enhancer controlling element in specifying the overwhelming bias for DNA inversion over deletion and intermolecular recombination is emphasized. PMID:25844275

  13. New L-Serine Derivative Ligands as Cocatalysts for Diels-Alder Reaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sousa, Carlos A. D.; Rodríguez-Borges, José E.; Freire, Cristina

    2013-01-01

    New L-serine derivative ligands were prepared and tested as cocatalyst in the Diels-Alder reactions between cyclopentadiene (CPD) and methyl acrylate, in the presence of several Lewis acids. The catalytic potential of the in situ formed complexes was evaluated based on the reaction yield. Bidentate serine ligands showed good ability to coordinate medium strength Lewis acids, thus boosting their catalytic activity. The synthesis of the L-serine ligands proved to be highly efficient and straightforward. PMID:24383009

  14. Heterologous activation of protein kinase C stimulates phosphorylation of delta-opioid receptor at serine 344, resulting in beta-arrestin- and clathrin-mediated receptor internalization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xiang, B; Yu, G H; Guo, J

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of opioid-independent, heterologous activation of protein kinase C (PKC) on the responsiveness of opioid receptor and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Our result showed that removing the C terminus of delta opioid receptor (DOR......) containing six Ser/Thr residues abolished both DPDPE- and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced DOR phosphorylation. The phosphorylation levels of DOR mutants T352A, T353A, and T358A/T361A/S363S were comparable to that of the wild-type DOR, whereas S344G substitution blocked PMA-induced receptor......, and ionomycin resulted in DOR internalization that required phosphorylation of Ser-344. Expression of dominant negative beta-arrestin and hypertonic sucrose treatment blocked PMA-induced DOR internalization, suggesting that PKC mediates DOR internalization via a beta-arrestin- and clathrin-dependent mechanism...

  15. Serine integrase chimeras with activity in E. coli and HeLa cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfonso P. Farruggio

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, application of serine integrases for genomic engineering has increased in popularity. The factor-independence and unidirectionality of these large serine recombinases makes them well suited for reactions such as site-directed vector integration and cassette exchange in a wide variety of organisms. In order to generate information that might be useful for altering the specificity of serine integrases and to improve their efficiency, we tested a hybridization strategy that has been successful with several small serine recombinases. We created chimeras derived from three characterized members of the serine integrase family, phiC31, phiBT1, and TG1 integrases, by joining their amino- and carboxy-terminal portions. We found that several phiBT1-phiC31 (BC and phiC31-TG1 (CT hybrid integrases are active in E. coli. BC chimeras function on native att-sites and on att-sites that are hybrids between those of the two donor enzymes, while CT chimeras only act on the latter att-sites. A BC hybrid, BC{−1}, was also active in human HeLa cells. Our work is the first to demonstrate chimeric serine integrase activity. This analysis sheds light on integrase structure and function, and establishes a potentially tractable means to probe the specificity of the thousands of putative large serine recombinases that have been revealed by bioinformatics studies.

  16. High fructose-mediated attenuation of insulin receptor signaling does not affect PDGF-induced proliferative signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osman, Islam; Poulose, Ninu; Ganapathy, Vadivel; Segar, Lakshman

    2016-11-15

    Insulin resistance is associated with accelerated atherosclerosis. Although high fructose is known to induce insulin resistance, it remains unclear as to how fructose regulates insulin receptor signaling and proliferative phenotype in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), which play a major role in atherosclerosis. Using human aortic VSMCs, we investigated the effects of high fructose treatment on insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) serine phosphorylation, insulin versus platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced phosphorylation of Akt, S6 ribosomal protein, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and cell cycle proteins. In comparison with PDGF (a potent mitogen), neither fructose nor insulin enhanced VSMC proliferation and cyclin D1 expression. d-[ 14 C(U)]fructose uptake studies revealed a progressive increase in fructose uptake in a time-dependent manner. Concentration-dependent studies with high fructose (5-25mM) showed marked increases in IRS-1 serine phosphorylation, a key adapter protein in insulin receptor signaling. Accordingly, high fructose treatment led to significant diminutions in insulin-induced phosphorylation of downstream signaling components including Akt and S6. In addition, high fructose significantly diminished insulin-induced ERK phosphorylation. Nevertheless, high fructose did not affect PDGF-induced key proliferative signaling events including phosphorylation of Akt, S6, and ERK and expression of cyclin D1 protein. Together, high fructose dysregulates IRS-1 phosphorylation state and proximal insulin receptor signaling in VSMCs, but does not affect PDGF-induced proliferative signaling. These findings suggest that systemic insulin resistance rather than VSMC-specific dysregulation of insulin receptor signaling by high fructose may play a major role in enhancing atherosclerosis and neointimal hyperplasia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. A novel mode of regulation of the Staphylococcus aureus Vancomycin-resistance-associated response regulator VraR mediated by Stk1 protein phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canova, Marc J; Baronian, Grégory; Brelle, Solène; Cohen-Gonsaud, Martin; Bischoff, Markus; Molle, Virginie

    2014-04-25

    The Staphylococcus aureus Vancomycin-resistance-associated response regulator VraR is known as an important response regulator, member of the VraTSR three-component signal transduction system that modulates the expression of the cell wall stress stimulon in response to a number of different cell wall active antibiotics. Given its crucial role in regulating gene expression in response to antibiotic challenges, VraR must be tightly regulated. We report here for the first time in S. aureus convergence of two major signal transduction systems, serine/threonine protein kinase and two (three)-component systems. We demonstrate that VraR can be phosphorylated by the staphylococcal Ser/Thr protein kinase Stk1 and that phosphorylation negatively affects its DNA-binding properties. Mass spectrometric analyses and site-directed mutagenesis identified Thr106, Thr119, Thr175 and Thr178 as phosphoacceptors. A S. aureus ΔvraR mutant expressing a VraR derivative that mimics constitutive phosphorylation, VraR_Asp, still exhibited markedly decreased antibiotic resistance against different cell wall active antibiotics, when compared to the wild-type, suggesting that VraR phosphorylation may represent a novel and presumably more general mechanism of regulation of the two (three)-component systems in staphylococci. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Current status of the plant phosphorylation site database PhosPhAt and its use as a resource for molecular plant physiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arsova, Borjana; Schulze, Waltraud X

    2012-01-01

    As the most studied post-translational modification, protein phosphorylation is analyzed in a growing number of proteomic experiments. These high-throughput approaches generate large datasets, from which specific spectrum-based information can be hard to find. In 2007, the PhosPhAt database was launched to collect and present Arabidopsis phosphorylation sites identified by mass spectrometry from and for the scientific community. At present, PhosPhAt 3.0 consolidates phosphoproteomics data from 19 published proteomic studies. Out of 5460 listed unique phosphoproteins, about 25% have been identified in at least two independent experimental setups. This is especially important when considering issues of false positive and false negative identification rates and data quality (Durek etal., 2010). This valuable data set encompasses over 13205 unique phosphopeptides, with unambiguous mapping to serine (77%), threonine (17%), and tyrosine (6%). Sorting the functional annotations of experimentally found phosphorylated proteins in PhosPhAt using Gene Ontology terms shows an over-representation of proteins in regulatory pathways and signaling processes. A similar distribution is found when the PhosPhAt predictor, trained on experimentally obtained plant phosphorylation sites, is used to predict phosphorylation sites for the Arabidopsis genome. Finally, the possibility to insert a protein sequence into the PhosPhAt predictor allows species independent use of the prediction resource. In practice, PhosPhAt also allows easy exploitation of proteomic data for design of further targeted experiments.

  19. Multi-iPPseEvo: A Multi-label Classifier for Identifying Human Phosphorylated Proteins by Incorporating Evolutionary Information into Chou's General PseAAC via Grey System Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Wang-Ren; Zheng, Quan-Shu; Sun, Bi-Qian; Xiao, Xuan

    2017-03-01

    Predicting phosphorylation protein is a challenging problem, particularly when query proteins have multi-label features meaning that they may be phosphorylated at two or more different type amino acids. In fact, human protein usually be phosphorylated at serine, threonine and tyrosine. By introducing the "multi-label learning" approach, a novel predictor has been developed that can be used to deal with the systems containing both single- and multi-label phosphorylation protein. Here we proposed a predictor called Multi-iPPseEvo by (1) incorporating the protein sequence evolutionary information into the general pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC) via the grey system theory, (2) balancing out the skewed training datasets by the asymmetric bootstrap approach, and (3) constructing an ensemble predictor by fusing an array of individual random forest classifiers thru a voting system. Rigorous cross-validations via a set of multi-label metrics indicate that the multi-label phosphorylation predictor is very promising and encouraging. The current approach represents a new strategy to deal with the multi-label biological problems, and the software is freely available for academic use at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/Multi-iPPseEvo. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  20. Decrease of GSK3β phosphorylation in the rat nucleus accumbens core enhances cocaine-induced hyper-locomotor activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Wha Y; Jang, Ju K; Lee, Jung W; Jang, Hyunduk; Kim, Jeong-Hoon

    2013-06-01

    Glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β), which is abundantly present in the brain, is known to contribute to psychomotor stimulant-induced locomotor behaviors. However, most studies have been focused in showing that GSK3β is able to attenuate psychomotor stimulants-induced hyperactivity by increasing its phosphorylation levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). So, here we examined in the opposite direction about the effects of decreased phosphorylation of GSK3β in the NAcc core on both basal and cocaine-induced locomotor activity by a bilateral microinjection into this site of an artificially synthesized peptide, S9 (0.5 or 5.0 μg/μL), which contains sequences around N-terminal serine 9 residue of GSK3β. We found that decreased levels of GSK3β phosphorylation in the NAcc core enhance cocaine-induced hyper-locomotor activity, while leaving basal locomotor activity unchanged. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that the selective decrease of GSK3β phosphorylation levels in the NAcc core may contribute positively to cocaine-induced locomotor activity, while this is not sufficient for the generation of locomotor behavior by itself without cocaine. Taken together, these findings importantly suggest that GSK3β may need other molecular targets which are co-activated (or deactivated) by psychomotor stimulants like cocaine to contribute to generation of locomotor behaviors. © 2013 International Society for Neurochemistry.

  1. Chemoselective synthesis and analysis of naturally occurring phosphorylated cysteine peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertran-Vicente, Jordi; Penkert, Martin; Nieto-Garcia, Olaia; Jeckelmann, Jean-Marc; Schmieder, Peter; Krause, Eberhard; Hackenberger, Christian P. R.

    2016-09-01

    In contrast to protein O-phosphorylation, studying the function of the less frequent N- and S-phosphorylation events have lagged behind because they have chemical features that prevent their manipulation through standard synthetic and analytical methods. Here we report on the development of a chemoselective synthetic method to phosphorylate Cys side-chains in unprotected peptides. This approach makes use of a reaction between nucleophilic phosphites and electrophilic disulfides accessible by standard methods. We achieve the stereochemically defined phosphorylation of a Cys residue and verify the modification using electron-transfer higher-energy dissociation (EThcD) mass spectrometry. To demonstrate the use of the approach in resolving biological questions, we identify an endogenous Cys phosphorylation site in IICBGlc, which is known to be involved in the carbohydrate uptake from the bacterial phosphotransferase system (PTS). This new chemical and analytical approach finally allows further investigating the functions and significance of Cys phosphorylation in a wide range of crucial cellular processes.

  2. Phosphorylation of Histone H2A.X in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells May Be a Useful Marker for Monitoring Cardiometabolic Risk in Nondiabetic Individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    So Ra Yoon

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Phosphorylation of H2A.X (serine 139 in the histone H2A family located in the downstream of the DNA damage kinase signaling cascade is an important indicator of DNA damage. Recently, phosphorylation of H2A.X was proposed as a sensitive biomarker of aging. This study investigated if phosphorylation of H2A.X in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs is associated with cardiometabolic risk in nondiabetic individuals. Basic parameters and oxidative stress/inflammatory markers were measured in nondiabetic healthy Koreans (n=119. Phosphorylation of H2A.X was measured randomly among the study subjects using a flow cytometer. According to the number of metabolic syndrome risk factor (MetS-RF, the study subjects were subdivided into “super healthy” (MetS−RF=0, n=71 and “MetS-risk” (MetS−RF≥1, n=48 groups. Phosphorylation of H2A.X in PBMCs (percentages and mean fluorescence intensity was significantly higher in the MetS-risk group than in the super healthy group after adjusting for age, sex, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. Phosphorylated H2A.X was positively correlated with the number of MetS-RF as well as waist circumference, blood pressures, triglyceride, HbA1C, oxidized LDL, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and alanine aminotransferase after the adjustment. The present study suggested that phosphorylated H2A.X in circulating PBMCs measured by flow cytometer may be a useful marker for monitoring cardiometabolic risk in nondiabetic individuals.

  3. Evaluating the relationship between amyloid-β and α-synuclein phosphorylated at Ser129 in dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease

    OpenAIRE

    Swirski, Marta; Miners, J Scott; de Silva, Rohan; Lashley, Tammaryn; Ling, Helen; Holton, Janice; Revesz, Tamas; Love, Seth

    2014-01-01

    Introduction Lewy body and Alzheimer-type pathologies often co-exist. Several studies suggest a synergistic relationship between amyloid-β (Aβ) and α-synuclein (α-syn) accumulation. We have explored the relationship between Aβ accumulation and the phosphorylation of α-syn at serine-129 (pSer129 α-syn), in post-mortem human brain tissue and in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells transfected to overexpress human α-syn. Methods We measured levels of Aβ40, Aβ42, α-syn and pSer129 α-syn by sandwich enzyme...

  4. The phosphorylation specificity of B-RAF(WT), B-RAF(D594V), B-RAF(V600E) and B-RAF(K601E) kinases: An in silico study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fratev, Filip Filipov; Jonsdottir, Svava Osk

    2010-01-01

    Phosphorylation of the B-RAF kinase is an essential process in tumour induction and maintenance in several cancers. Herein the phosphorylation specificity of the activation segment of the wild type B-RAF kinase and the B-RAF(D594V), B-RAF(V600E) and B-RAF(K601E) mutants was examined by molecular ...

  5. Mosaic serine proteases in the mammalian central nervous system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitsui, Shinichi; Watanabe, Yoshihisa; Yamaguchi, Tatsuyuki; Yamaguchi, Nozomi

    2008-01-01

    We review the structure and function of three kinds of mosaic serine proteases expressed in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Mosaic serine proteases have several domains in the proenzyme fragment, which modulate proteolytic function, and a protease domain at the C-terminus. Spinesin/TMPRSS5 is a transmembrane serine protease whose presynaptic distribution on motor neurons in the spinal cord suggests that it is significant for neuronal plasticity. Cell type-specific alternative splicing gives this protease diverse functions by modulating its intracellular localization. Motopsin/PRSS12 is a mosaic protease, and loss of its function causes mental retardation. Recent reports indicate the significance of this protease for cognitive function. We mention the fibrinolytic protease, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which has physiological and pathological functions in the CNS.

  6. Effects of intraplantar botulinum toxin-B on carrageenan-induced changes in nociception and spinal phosphorylation of GluA1 and Akt.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sikandar, Shafaq; Gustavsson, Ynette; Marino, Marc J; Dickenson, Anthony H; Yaksh, Tony L; Sorkin, Linda S; Ramachandran, Roshni

    2016-07-01

    Increasing evidence suggests that botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) delivered into the skin and muscle in certain human and animal pain states may exert antinociceptive efficacy though their uptake and transport to central afferent terminals. Cleavage of soluble N-methylaleimide-sensitive attachment protein receptor by BoNTs can impede vesicular mediated neurotransmitter release as well as transport/insertion of channel/receptor subunits into plasma membranes, an effect that can reduce activity-evoked facilitation. Here, we explored the effects of intraplantar botulinum toxin- B (BoNT-B) on peripheral inflammation and spinal nociceptive processing in an inflammatory model of pain. C57BL/6 mice (male) received unilateral intraplantar BoNT (1 U, 30 μL) or saline prior to intraplantar carrageenan (20 μL, 2%) or intrathecal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), substance P or saline (5 μL). Intraplantar carrageenan resulted in edema and mechanical allodynia in the injected paw and increased phosphorylation of a glutamate subunit (pGluA1ser845) and a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase (pAktser473) in spinal dorsal horn along with an increased incidence of spinal c-Fos positive cells. Pre-treatment with intraplantar BoNT-B reduced carrageenan evoked: (i) allodynia, but not edema; (ii) pGluA1 and pAkt and (iii) c-Fos expression. Further, intrathecal NMDA and substance P each increased dorsal horn levels of pGluA1 and pAkt. Intraplantar BoNT-B inhibited NMDA, but not substance P evoked phosphorylation of GluA1 and Akt. These results suggest that intraplantar toxin is transported centrally to block spinal activation and prevent phosphorylation of a glutamate receptor subunit and a kinase, which otherwise contribute to facilitated states. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Identification and characterization of fusolisin, the Fusobacterium nucleatum autotransporter serine protease.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lior Doron

    Full Text Available Fusobacterium nucleatum is an oral anaerobe associated with periodontal disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and colorectal carcinoma. A serine endopeptidase of 61-65 kDa capable of damaging host tissue and of inactivating immune effectors was detected previously in F. nucleatum. Here we describe the identification of this serine protease, named fusolisin, in three oral F. nucleatum sub-species. Gel zymogram revealed fusobacterial proteolytic activity with molecular masses ranging from 55-101 kDa. All of the detected proteases were inhibited by the serine protease inhibitor PMSF. analysis revealed that all of the detected proteases are encoded by genes encoding an open reading frame (ORF with a calculated mass of approximately 115 kDa. Bioinformatics analysis of the identified ORFs demonstrated that they consist of three domains characteristic of autotransporters of the type Va secretion system. Our results suggest that the F. nucleatum fusolisins are derived from a precursor of approximately 115 kDa. After crossing the cytoplasmic membrane and cleavage of the leader sequence, the C-terminal autotransporter domain of the remaining 96-113 kDa protein is embedded in the outer membrane and delivers the N-terminal S8 serine protease passenger domain to the outer cell surface. In most strains the N-terminal catalytic 55-65 kDa domain self cleaves and liberates itself from the autotransporter domain after its transfer across the outer cell membrane. In F. nucleatum ATCC 25586 this autocatalytic activity is less efficient resulting in a full length membrane-anchored serine protease. The mature serine protease was found to cleave after Thr, Gly, Ala and Leu residues at the P1 position. Growth of F. nucleatum in complex medium was inhibited when serine protease inhibitors were used. Additional experiments are needed to determine whether fusolisin might be used as a target for controlling fusobacterial infections.

  8. Phosphorylation of Tip60 by GSK-3 determines the induction of PUMA and apoptosis by p53

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charvet, Céline; Wissler, Manuela; Brauns-Schubert, Prisca; Wang, Shang-Jui; Tang, Yi; Sigloch, Florian C.; Mellert, Hestia; Brandenburg, Martin; Lindner, Silke E.; Breit, Bernhard; Green, Douglas R.; McMahon, Steven B.; Borner, Christoph; Gu, Wei; Maurer, Ulrich

    2011-01-01

    Summary Activation of p53 by DNA damage results in either cell cycle arrest, allowing DNA repair and cell survival, or induction of apoptosis. As these opposite outcomes are both mediated by p53 stabilization, additional mechanisms to determine this decision must exist. Here we show that glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is required for the p53-mediated induction of the pro-apoptotic BH3 only-protein PUMA, an essential mediator of p53-induced apoptosis. Inhibition of GSK-3 protected from cell death induced by DNA damage and promoted increased long-term cell survival. We demonstrate that GSK-3 phosphorylates serine 86 of the p53-acetyltransferase Tip60. A Tip60S86A mutant was less active to induce p53 K120 acetylation, Histone 4 acetylation and expression of PUMA. Our data suggest that GSK-3 mediated Tip60S86-phosphorylation provides a link between PI3K signaling and the choice for or against apoptosis induction by p53. PMID:21658600

  9. Protein kinase Cα phosphorylates a novel argininosuccinate synthase site at serine 328 during calcium-dependent stimulation of endothelial nitric-oxide synthase in vascular endothelial cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haines, Ricci J; Corbin, Karen D; Pendleton, Laura C; Eichler, Duane C

    2012-07-27

    Endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) utilizes l-arginine as its principal substrate, converting it to l-citrulline and nitric oxide (NO). l-Citrulline is recycled to l-arginine by two enzymes, argininosuccinate synthase (AS) and argininosuccinate lyase, providing the substrate arginine for eNOS and NO production in endothelial cells. Together, these three enzymes, eNOS, AS, and argininosuccinate lyase, make up the citrulline-NO cycle. Although AS catalyzes the rate-limiting step in NO production, little is known about the regulation of AS in endothelial cells beyond the level of transcription. In this study, we showed that AS Ser-328 phosphorylation was coordinately regulated with eNOS Ser-1179 phosphorylation when bovine aortic endothelial cells were stimulated by either a calcium ionophore or thapsigargin to produce NO. Furthermore, using in vitro kinase assay, kinase inhibition studies, as well as protein kinase Cα (PKCα) knockdown experiments, we demonstrate that the calcium-dependent phosphorylation of AS Ser-328 is mediated by PKCα. Collectively, these findings suggest that phosphorylation of AS at Ser-328 is regulated in accordance with the calcium-dependent regulation of eNOS under conditions that promote NO production and are in keeping with the rate-limiting role of AS in the citrulline-NO cycle of vascular endothelial cells.

  10. Phosphorylation of the adaptor protein SH2B1β regulates its ability to enhance growth hormone-dependent macrophage motility

    OpenAIRE

    Su, Hsiao-Wen; Lanning, Nathan J.; Morris, David L.; Argetsinger, Lawrence S.; Lumeng, Carey N.; Carter-Su, Christin

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies have shown that growth hormone (GH) recruits the adapter protein SH2B1β to the GH-activated, GH receptor-associated tyrosine kinase JAK2, implicating SH2B1β in GH-dependent actin cytoskeleton remodeling, and suggesting that phosphorylation at serines 161 and 165 in SH2B1β releases SH2B1β from the plasma membrane. Here, we examined the role of SH2B1β in GH regulation of macrophage migration. We show that GH stimulates migration of cultured RAW264.7 macrophages, and primary cul...

  11. The Golgi localization of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein beta requires the protein kinase C-dependent phosphorylation of serine 262 and is essential for maintaining plasma membrane sphingomyelin levels

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Tiel, Claudia M.; Westerman, Jan; Paasman, Marten A.; Hoebens, Martha M.; Wirtz, Karel W. A.; Snoek, Gerry T.

    2002-01-01

    Recombinant mouse phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PI-TP)beta is a substrate for protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent phosphorylation in vitro. Based on site-directed mutagenesis and two-dimensional tryptic peptide mapping, Ser(262) was identified as the major site of phosphorylation and Ser(165)

  12. Increased Level of Phosphorylated ShcA Measured by Chemiluminescence-Linked Immunoassay Is a Predictor of Good Prognosis in Primary Breast Cancer Expressing Low Levels of Estrogen Receptor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serenella Eppenberger-Castori

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available The SH2 domain-containing adaptor protein ShcA is a proto-oncogene involved in growth factor receptor signaling. The role of phosphorylated ShcA is to link receptor tyrosine kinases with the SH2-containing adaptor protein Grb2, thus facilitating signal transduction from receptor tyrosine kinases to Ras, leading to MAPK activation. The present study was designed to investigate the prognostic significance of phosphorylated ShcA in primary breast cancer and its association in the interactions between the ER and ErbB2 pathways. Using a two-site chemiluminescence-linked immunosorbent assay, we detected the quantitative expression levels of total tyrosine- and threonine-phosphorylated ShcA in cytosol fractions obtained from fresh frozen tissue samples of 153 selected primary breast cancer patients. ShcA phosphorylation was not associated with nodal status, estrogen receptor (ER status or grading. High levels of both tyrosine (pYShcA and serine (pSShcA phosphorylated ShcA correlated with good prognosis (p < 0.01, with respect to both disease-free (DFS and overall survival (OS. In addition, pShcA levels were found to correlate with threonine-phosphorylated ErbB2 and inversely with phosphorylated Akt (pAkt, as well as ErbB2 and ER expression levels. Our findings demonstrate that ShcA activation in primary breast cancer patients correlates with low levels of ER, and is associated with good prognosis.

  13. Differentiation-inducing factor-1 induces cyclin D1 degradation through the phosphorylation of Thr286 in squamous cell carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Jun; Takahashi-Yanaga, Fumi; Miwa, Yoshikazu; Watanabe, Yutaka; Hirata, Masato; Morimoto, Sachio; Shirasuna, Kanemitsu; Sasaguri, Toshiyuki

    2005-01-01

    Differentiation-inducing factors (DIFs) are morphogens which induce cell differentiation in Dictyostelium. We reported that DIF-1 and DIF-3 inhibit proliferation and induce differentiation in mammalian cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of DIF-1 on oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines NA and SAS, well differentiated and poorly differentiated cell lines, respectively. Although DIF-1 did not induce the expression of cell differentiation makers in these cell lines, it inhibited the proliferation of NA and SAS in a dose-dependent manner by restricting the cell cycle in the G 0 /G 1 phase. DIF-1 induced cyclin D1 degradation, but this effect was prevented by treatment with lithium chloride and SB216763, the inhibitors of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β). Depletion of endogenous GSK-3β by RNA interference also attenuated the effect of DIF-1 on cyclin D1 degradation. Therefore, we investigated the effect of DIF-1 on GSK-3β and found that DIF-1 dephosphorylated GSK-3β on Ser 9 and induced the nuclear translocation of GSK-3β, suggesting that DIF-1 activated GSK-3β. Then, we examined the effect of DIF-1 on cyclin D1 mutants (Thr286Ala, Thr288Ala, and Thr286/288Ala). We revealed that Thr286Ala and Thr286/288Ala mutants were highly resistant to DIF-1-induced degradation compared with wild-type cyclin D1, indicating that the phosphorylation of Thr 286 was critical for cyclin D1 degradation induced by DIF-1. These results suggest that DIF-1 induces degradation of cyclin D1 through the GSK-3β-mediated phosphorylation of Thr 286

  14. Protein kinases mediate increment of the phosphorylation of cyclic AMP -responsive element binding protein in spinal cord of rats following capsaicin injection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Junfa

    2005-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Strong noxious stimuli cause plastic changes in spinal nociceptive neurons. Intracellular signal transduction pathways from cellular membrane to nucleus, which may further regulate gene expression by critical transcription factors, convey peripheral stimulation. Cyclic AMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB is a well-characterized stimulus-induced transcription factor whose activation requires phosphorylation of the Serine-133 residue. Phospho-CREB can further induce gene transcription and strengthen synaptic transmission by the activation of the protein kinase cascades. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which CREB phosphorylation is regulated by protein kinases during nociception. This study was designed to use Western blot analysis to investigate the role of mitogen-activated protein (MAP/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK kinase (MEK 1/2, PKA and PKC in regulating the phosphorylation of CREB in the spinal cord of rats following intraplantar capsaicin injection. Results We found that capsaicin injection significantly increased the phosphorylation level of CREB in the ipsilateral side of the spinal cord. Pharmacological manipulation of MEK 1/2, PKA and PKC with their inhibitors (U0126, H89 and NPC 15473, respectively significantly blocked this increment of CREB phosphorylation. However, the expression of CREB itself showed no change in any group. Conclusion These findings suggest that the activation of intracellular MAP kinase, PKA and PKC cascades may contribute to the regulation of phospho-CREB in central nociceptive neurons following peripheral painful stimuli.

  15. Phosphorylation of KasB Regulates Virulence and Acid-Fastness in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilchèze, Catherine; Molle, Virginie; Carrère-Kremer, Séverine; Leiba, Jade; Mourey, Lionel; Shenai, Shubhada; Baronian, Grégory; Tufariello, Joann; Hartman, Travis; Veyron-Churlet, Romain; Trivelli, Xavier; Tiwari, Sangeeta; Weinrick, Brian; Alland, David; Guérardel, Yann; Jacobs, William R.; Kremer, Laurent

    2014-01-01

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli display two signature features: acid-fast staining and the capacity to induce long-term latent infections in humans. However, the mechanisms governing these two important processes remain largely unknown. Ser/Thr phosphorylation has recently emerged as an important regulatory mechanism allowing mycobacteria to adapt their cell wall structure/composition in response to their environment. Herein, we evaluated whether phosphorylation of KasB, a crucial mycolic acid biosynthetic enzyme, could modulate acid-fast staining and virulence. Tandem mass spectrometry and site-directed mutagenesis revealed that phosphorylation of KasB occurred at Thr334 and Thr336 both in vitro and in mycobacteria. Isogenic strains of M. tuberculosis with either a deletion of the kasB gene or a kasB_T334D/T336D allele, mimicking constitutive phosphorylation of KasB, were constructed by specialized linkage transduction. Biochemical and structural analyses comparing these mutants to the parental strain revealed that both mutant strains had mycolic acids that were shortened by 4–6 carbon atoms and lacked trans-cyclopropanation. Together, these results suggested that in M. tuberculosis, phosphorylation profoundly decreases the condensing activity of KasB. Structural/modeling analyses reveal that Thr334 and Thr336 are located in the vicinity of the catalytic triad, which indicates that phosphorylation of these amino acids would result in loss of enzyme activity. Importantly, the kasB_T334D/T336D phosphomimetic and deletion alleles, in contrast to the kasB_T334A/T336A phosphoablative allele, completely lost acid-fast staining. Moreover, assessing the virulence of these strains indicated that the KasB phosphomimetic mutant was attenuated in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice following aerosol infection. This attenuation was characterized by the absence of lung pathology. Overall, these results highlight for the first time the role of Ser/Thr kinase

  16. Phosphorylation of KasB regulates virulence and acid-fastness in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Vilchèze

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli display two signature features: acid-fast staining and the capacity to induce long-term latent infections in humans. However, the mechanisms governing these two important processes remain largely unknown. Ser/Thr phosphorylation has recently emerged as an important regulatory mechanism allowing mycobacteria to adapt their cell wall structure/composition in response to their environment. Herein, we evaluated whether phosphorylation of KasB, a crucial mycolic acid biosynthetic enzyme, could modulate acid-fast staining and virulence. Tandem mass spectrometry and site-directed mutagenesis revealed that phosphorylation of KasB occurred at Thr334 and Thr336 both in vitro and in mycobacteria. Isogenic strains of M. tuberculosis with either a deletion of the kasB gene or a kasB_T334D/T336D allele, mimicking constitutive phosphorylation of KasB, were constructed by specialized linkage transduction. Biochemical and structural analyses comparing these mutants to the parental strain revealed that both mutant strains had mycolic acids that were shortened by 4-6 carbon atoms and lacked trans-cyclopropanation. Together, these results suggested that in M. tuberculosis, phosphorylation profoundly decreases the condensing activity of KasB. Structural/modeling analyses reveal that Thr334 and Thr336 are located in the vicinity of the catalytic triad, which indicates that phosphorylation of these amino acids would result in loss of enzyme activity. Importantly, the kasB_T334D/T336D phosphomimetic and deletion alleles, in contrast to the kasB_T334A/T336A phosphoablative allele, completely lost acid-fast staining. Moreover, assessing the virulence of these strains indicated that the KasB phosphomimetic mutant was attenuated in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice following aerosol infection. This attenuation was characterized by the absence of lung pathology. Overall, these results highlight for the first time the role of

  17. Engineering of High Yield Production of L-serine in Escherichia coli

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mundhada, Hemanshu; Schneider, Konstantin; Christensen, Hanne Bjerre

    2016-01-01

    by deletion of three L-serine deaminases sdaA, sdaB, and tdcG, as well as serine hydroxyl methyl transferase (SHMT) encoded by glyA. Upon overexpression of the serine production pathway, consisting of a feedback resistant version of serA along with serB and serC, this quadruple deletion strain showed a very...

  18. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a d-Ala:d-Ser ligase associated with VanG-type vancomycin resistance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weber, Patrick; Meziane-Cherif, Djalal; Haouz, Ahmed; Saul, Frederick A.; Courvalin, Patrice

    2009-01-01

    The VanG d-alanine:d-serine ligase was crystallized in complex with ADP and diffraction data were collected at 2.35 Å resolution. Acquired VanG-type resistance to vancomycin in Enterococcus faecalis BM4518 arises from inducible synthesis of peptidoglycan precursors ending in d-alanyl-d-serine, to which vancomycin exhibits low binding affinity. VanG, a d-alanine:d-serine ligase, catalyzes the ATP-dependent synthesis of the d-Ala-d-Ser dipeptide, which is incorporated into the peptidoglycan synthesis of VanG-type vancomycin-resistant strains. Here, the purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of VanG in complex with ADP are reported. The crystal belonged to space group P3 1 21, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 116.1, c = 177.2 Å, and contained two molecules in the asymmetric unit. A complete data set has been collected to 2.35 Å resolution from a single crystal under cryogenic conditions using synchrotron radiation

  19. A novel serine protease with human fibrino(geno)lytic activities from Artocarpus heterophyllus latex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siritapetawee, Jaruwan; Thumanu, Kanjana; Sojikul, Punchapat; Thammasirirak, Sompong

    2012-07-01

    A protease was isolated and purified from Artocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit) latex and designated as a 48-kDa antimicrobial protease (AMP48) in a previous publication. In this work, the enzyme was characterized for more biochemical and medicinal properties. Enzyme activity of AMP48 was strongly inhibited by phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride and soybean trypsin inhibitor, indicating that the enzyme was a plant serine protease. The N-terminal amino acid sequences (A-Q-E-G-G-K-D-D-D-G-G) of AMP48 had no sequence similarity matches with any sequence databases of BLAST search and other plant serine protease. The secondary structure of this enzyme was composed of high α-helix (51%) and low β-sheet (9%). AMP48 had fibrinogenolytic activity with maximal activity between 55 and 60°C at pH 8. The enzyme efficiently hydrolyzed α followed by partially hydrolyzed β and γ subunits of human fibrinogen. In addition, the fibrinolytic activity was observed through the degradation products by SDS-PAGE and emphasized its activity by monitoring the alteration of secondary structure of fibrin clot after enzyme digestion using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. This study presented the potential role to use AMP48 as antithrombotic for treatment thromboembolic disorders such as strokes, pulmonary emboli and deep vein thrombosis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Phosphorylation of the human respiratory syncytial virus P protein mediates M2-2 regulation of viral RNA synthesis, a process that involves two P proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asenjo, Ana; Villanueva, Nieves

    2016-01-04

    The M2-2 protein regulates the balance between human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) transcription and replication. Here it is shown that M2-2 mediated transcriptional inhibition is managed through P protein phosphorylation. Transcription inhibition by M2-2 of the HRSV based minigenome pRSVluc, required P protein phosphorylation at serines (S) in positions 116, 117, 119 and increased inhibition is observed if S232 or S237 is also phosphorylated. Phosphorylation of these residues is required for viral particle egression from infected cells. Viral RNA synthesis complementation assays between P protein variants, suggest that two types of P proteins participate in the process as components of RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Type I is only functional when, as a homotetramer, it is bound to N and L proteins through residues 203-241. Type II is functionally independent of these interactions and binds to N protein at a region outside residues 232-241. P protein type I phosphorylation at S116, S117 and S119, did not affect the activity of RdRp but this phosphorylation in type II avoids its interaction with N protein and impairs RdRp functionality for transcription and replication. Structural changes in the RdRp, mediated by phosphorylation turnover at the indicated residues, in the two types of P proteins, may result in a fine adjustment, late in the infectious cycle, of transcription, replication and progression in the morphogenetic process that ends in egression of the viral particles from infected cells. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Bacillus subtilis Two-Component System Sensory Kinase DegS Is Regulated by Serine Phosphorylation in Its Input Domain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jers, Carsten; Kobir, Ahasanul; Søndergaard, Elsebeth Oline

    2011-01-01

    Bacillus subtilis two-component system DegS/U is well known for the complexity of its regulation. The cytosolic sensory kinase DegS does not receive a single predominant input signal like most two-component kinases, instead it integrates a wide array of metabolic inputs that modulate its activity......S phosphorylation can be carried out by at least two B. subtilis Hanks-type kinases in vitro, and this stimulates the phosphate transfer towards DegU. The consequences of this process were studied in vivo, using phosphomimetic (Ser76Asp) and non-phosphorylatable (Ser76Ala) mutants of DegS. In a number...

  2. A specific p47phox -serine phosphorylated by convergent MAPKs mediates neutrophil NADPH oxidase priming at inflammatory sites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dang, Pham My-Chan; Stensballe, Allan; Boussetta, Tarek

    2006-01-01

    mass spectrometry to show that GM-CSF and TNF-alpha induce phosphorylation of Ser345 on p47phox, a cytosolic component of NADPH oxidase, in human neutrophils. As Ser345 is located in the MAPK consensus sequence, we tested the effects of MAPK inhibitors. Inhibitors of the ERK1/2 pathway abrogated GM......Neutrophil NADPH oxidase plays a key role in host defense and in inflammation by releasing large amounts of superoxide and other ROSs. Proinflammatory cytokines such as GM-CSF and TNF-alpha prime ROS production by neutrophils through unknown mechanisms. Here we used peptide sequencing by tandem...

  3. Atorvastatin reduces lipid accumulation in the liver by activating protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation of perilipin 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xing; Nan, Yang; Zhao, Yuanlin; Yuan, Yuan; Ren, Bincheng; Sun, Chao; Cao, Kaiyu; Yu, Ming; Feng, Xuyang; Ye, Jing

    2017-12-01

    Statins have been proven to be effective in treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Recently, it was reported that statins decreased the hepatic expression of perilipin 5 (Plin5), a lipid droplet (LD)-associated protein, which plays critical roles in regulating lipid accumulation and lipolysis in liver. However, the function and regulation mechanism of Plin5 have not yet been well-established in NAFLD treatment with statins. In this study, we observed that atorvastatin moderately reduced the expression of Plin5 in livers without changing the protein level of Plin5 in the hepatic LD fraction of mice fed with high-fat diet (HFD). Intriguingly, atorvastatin stimulated the PKA-mediated phosphorylation of Plin5 and reduced the triglyceride (TG) accumulation in hepatocytes with overexpression of wide type (Plin5-WT) compared to serine-155 mutant Plin5 (Plin5-S155A). Moreover, PKA-stimulated FA release of purified LDs carrying Plin5-WT but not Plin5-S155A. Glucagon, a PKA activator, stimulated the phosphorylation of Plin5-WT and inhibited its interaction with CGI-58. The results indicated that atorvastatin promoted lipolysis and reduced TG accumulation in the liver by increasing PKA-mediated phosphorylation of Plin5. This new mechanism of lipid-lowering effects of atorvastatin might provide a new strategy for NAFLD treatment. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  4. Phosphorylation and antiaging activity of polysaccharide from Trichosanthes peel

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Min Zhang

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Polysaccharides from Trichosanthes peel (TPP were obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction. TPP-1 was separated from the TPP by Sephadex G-100 column chromatography. Phosphorylation of TPP-1 was carried out and phosphorylated TPP-1 was named as PTTP-1. The results of infrared spectra, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectra showed that the main structure of PTPP-1 was similar to that of TPP-1 and -H2PO3 groups which were conjugated to C-6 of →4-α-D-Manp-(1→, C-4 of →6-α-D-Galp-(1→, C-2 and C-3 of →1-α-L-Araf, C-2 of →1-α-L-Araf-(3→, and C-6 and C-3 of →1-α-D-Glcp. In vivo antiaging activity results proved that TTP-1 and PTTP-1 could both significantly improve the body weight, spleen index, and thymus index of the D-galactose-induced aging mice, increase the levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and reduce malondialdehyde contents in the liver, brain, and serum of aging mice. These results indicated that both TPP-1 and PTTP-1 presented significant antiaging activity. Moreover, PTTP-1 showed stronger antiaging effects in aging mice, indicating that phosphorylation improved antiaging effect.

  5. Circulating autoantibodies to phosphorylated α-enolase are a hallmark of pancreatic cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomaino, Barbara; Cappello, Paola; Capello, Michela; Fredolini, Claudia; Sperduti, Isabella; Migliorini, Paola; Salacone, Paola; Novarino, Anna; Giacobino, Alice; Ciuffreda, Libero; Alessio, Massimo; Nisticò, Paola; Scarpa, Aldo; Pederzoli, Paolo; Zhou, Weidong; Petricoin Iii, Emanuel F; Liotta, Lance A; Giovarelli, Mirella; Milella, Michele; Novelli, Francesco

    2011-01-07

    Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis and no diagnostic markers have, as of yet, been defined. In PDAC patients, α-enolase (ENOA) is up-regulated and elicits the production of autoantibodies. Here, we analyzed the autoantibody response to post-translational modifications of ENOA in PDAC patients. ENOA isolated from PDAC tissues and cell lines was characterized by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) Western blot (WB), revealing the expression of six different isoforms (named ENOA1,2,3,4,5,6) whereas only 4 isoforms (ENOA3,4,5,6) were detectable in normal tissues. As assessed by 2-DE WB, 62% of PDAC patients produced autoantibodies to the two more acidic isoforms (ENOA1,2) as opposed to only 4% of controls. Mass spectrometry showed that ENOA1,2 isoforms were phosphorylated on serine 419. ROC analysis demonstrated that autoantibodies to ENOA1,2 usefully complement the diagnostic performance of serum CA19.9 levels, achieving approximately 95% diagnostic accuracy in both advanced and resectable PDAC. Moreover, the presence of autoantibodies against ENOA1,2 correlated with a significantly better clinical outcome in advanced patients treated with standard chemotherapy. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that ENOA phosphorylation is associated with PDAC and induces specific autoantibody production in PDAC patients that may have diagnostic value.

  6. The binding mechanism of a peptidic cyclic serine protease inhibitor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jiang, Longguang; Svane, Anna Sigrid P.; Sørensen, Hans Peter

    2011-01-01

    Serine proteases are classical objects for studies of catalytic and inhibitory mechanisms as well as interesting as therapeutic targets. Since small-molecule serine protease inhibitors generally suffer from specificity problems, peptidic inhibitors, isolated from phage-displayed peptide libraries......, have attracted considerable attention. Here, we have investigated the mechanism of binding of peptidic inhibitors to serine protease targets. Our model is upain-1 (CSWRGLENHRMC), a disulfide-bond-constrained competitive inhibitor of human urokinase-type plasminogen activator with a noncanonical...... inhibitory mechanism and an unusually high specificity. Using a number of modified variants of upain-1, we characterised the upain-1-urokinase-type plasminogen activator complex using X-ray crystal structure analysis, determined a model of the peptide in solution by NMR spectroscopy, and analysed binding...

  7. Malonate-based inhibitors of mammalian serine racemase: Kinetic characterization and structure-based computational study

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Vorlová, Barbora; Nachtigallová, Dana; Jirásková-Vaníčková, Jana; Ajani, Haresh; Jansa, Petr; Řezáč, Jan; Fanfrlík, Jindřich; Otyepka, M.; Hobza, Pavel; Konvalinka, Jan; Lepšík, Martin

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 89, Jan 7 (2015), s. 189-197 ISSN 0223-5234 R&D Projects: GA ČR GBP208/12/G016 Grant - others:GA MŠk(CZ) ED2.1.00/03.0058 Program:ED Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : NMDA receptor * pyridoxal-5 '-phosphate-dependent enzyme * human/mouse serine racemase * malonate-based inhibitors * semiempirical quantum mechanical calculations Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 3.902, year: 2015

  8. Computerized tomography in amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serra, S.; Xerra, A.; Meduri, M.; Di Perri, R.; Scribano, E.

    1987-01-01

    CT has been performed in five patients affected by amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis (ACA) and bicaudate diameter, bicaudate index and frontal horn-bicaudate ratio (FH/CC) have been evaluated. Findings have been confirmatory of caudate nuclei atrophy as shown by previous ACA autopsy reports, but did not differ from Huntington's chorea CT picture. There was no correlation between CT measurements and age, illness duration or degree of hyperkinesia in contradistinction to that reported for Huntington's chorea. (orig.)

  9. Phosphorylated human prolactin (S179D-hPRL) is a potent anti-angiogenic hormone in vitro and in vivo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ueda, Eric Kinnosuke Martins

    2006-01-01

    S179D-prolactin (hPRL) is an experimentally useful mimic of naturally phosphorylated human prolactin. S179D-hPRL, but not unmodified PRL, was found to be anti-angiogenic in both the chorioallantoic membrane and corneal assays. Further investigation using human endothelial in vitro models showed reduced cell number, reduced tubule formation in Matrigel, and reduced migration and invasion, as a function of treatment with S179D-hPRL. Analysis of growth factors in human endothelial cells in response to S179D-hPRL showed a decreased expression or release of endogenous PRL, heme-oxygenase-1, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), angio genin, epidermal growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor and an increased expression of inhibitors of matrix metallo proteases. S179D-hPRL also blocked signaling from bFGF in these cells. We conclude that this molecular mimic of a pituitary hormone is a potent anti-angiogenic protein, partly as a result of its ability to reduce utilization of several well-established endothelial autocrine growth loops, partly by its ability to block signaling from bFGF and partly because of its ability to decrease endothelial migration. We also examined the influence of S179D-hPRL on apoptosis in human endothelial cells, using procaspase-8 as a marker of the extrinsic pathway, and cytochrome C release as a marker of the intrinsic pathway. Both pathways converge at caspase-3, which cleaves DNA fragmentation factor (DFF45). A 3-day incubation with 50 ng/ml S179D-hPRL quadrupled the early apoptotic cells; this effect was doubled at 100 ng/ml and maximal at 500 ng/ml. DFF45 and pro-caspase 8 cleavage were detectable at 100 ng/ml. Cytochrome C, however, was unaffected until 500 ng/ml. p21 increased at 100 ng/ml, whereas a change in p53 activity required both triple the time and 500 ng/ml. p21 promoter activity was maximal at 50 ng/ml, whereas 500 ng/ml were required to see a significant change in the Bax promoter (a measure of p53 activity). As

  10. Rat vas deferens SERCA2 is modulated by Ca2+/calmodulin protein kinase II-mediated phosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodriguez, J.B.R.; Muzi-Filho, H.; Valverde, R.H.F.; Quintas, L.E.M.; Noel, F.; Einicker-Lamas, M.; Cunha, V.M.N.

    2013-01-01

    Ca 2+ pumps are important players in smooth muscle contraction. Nevertheless, little information is available about these pumps in the vas deferens. We have determined which subtype of sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca 2+ -ATPase isoform (SERCA) is expressed in rat vas deferens (RVD) and its modulation by calmodulin (CaM)-dependent mechanisms. The thapsigargin-sensitive Ca 2+ -ATPase from a membrane fraction containing the highest SERCA levels in the RVD homogenate has the same molecular mass (∼115 kDa) as that of SERCA2 from the rat cerebellum. It has a very high affinity for Ca 2+ (Ca 0.5 = 780 nM) and a low sensitivity to vanadate (IC 50 = 41 µM). These facts indicate that SERCA2 is present in the RVD. Immunoblotting for CaM and Ca 2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) showed the expression of these two regulatory proteins. Ca 2+ and CaM increased serine-phosphorylated residues of the 115-kDa protein, indicating the involvement of CaMKII in the regulatory phosphorylation of SERCA2. Phosphorylation is accompanied by an 8-fold increase of thapsigargin-sensitive Ca 2+ accumulation in the lumen of vesicles derived from these membranes. These data establish that SERCA2 in the RVD is modulated by Ca 2+ and CaM, possibly via CaMKII, in a process that results in stimulation of Ca 2+ pumping activity

  11. D-serine deficiency attenuates the behavioral and cellular effects induced by the hallucinogenic 5-HT(2A) receptor agonist DOI

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Santini, Martin A; Balu, Darrick T; Puhl, Matthew D

    2014-01-01

    Both the serotonin and glutamate systems have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, as well as in the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. Psychedelic drugs act through the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR), and elicit a head-twitch response (HTR) in mice, which directly...... correlates to 5-HT2AR activation and is absent in 5-HT2AR knockout mice. The precise mechanism of this response remains unclear, but both an intrinsic cortico-cortical pathway and a thalamo-cortical pathway involving glutamate release have been proposed. Here, we used a genetic model of NMDAR hypofunction......RNA. These altered functional responses in SRKO mice were not associated with changes in cortical or hippocampal 5-HT levels or in 5-HT2AR and metabotropic glutamate-2 receptor (mGluR2) mRNA and protein expression. Together, these findings suggest that D-serine-dependent NMDAR activity is involved in mediating...

  12. l-Serine Enhances Light-Induced Circadian Phase Resetting in Mice and Humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasuo, Shinobu; Iwamoto, Ayaka; Lee, Sang-Il; Ochiai, Shotaro; Hitachi, Rina; Shibata, Satomi; Uotsu, Nobuo; Tarumizu, Chie; Matsuoka, Sayuri; Furuse, Mitsuhiro; Higuchi, Shigekazu

    2017-12-01

    Background: The circadian clock is modulated by the timing of ingestion or food composition, but the effects of specific nutrients are poorly understood. Objective: We aimed to identify the amino acids that modulate the circadian clock and reset the light-induced circadian phase in mice and humans. Methods: Male CBA/N mice were orally administered 1 of 20 l-amino acids, and the circadian and light-induced phase shifts of wheel-running activity were analyzed. Antagonists of several neurotransmitter pathways were injected before l-serine administration, and light-induced phase shifts were analyzed. In addition, the effect of l-serine on the light-induced phase advance was investigated in healthy male students (mean ± SD age 22.2 ± 1.8 y) by using dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO) determined by saliva samples as an index of the circadian phase. Results: l-Serine administration enhanced light-induced phase shifts in mice (1.86-fold; P light-dark cycle by 6 h, l-serine administration slightly accelerated re-entrainment to the shifted cycle. In humans, l-serine ingestion before bedtime induced significantly larger phase advances of DLMO after bright-light exposure during the morning (means ± SEMs-l-serine: 25.9 ± 6.6 min; placebo: 12.1 ± 7.0 min; P light-induced phase resetting in mice and humans, and it may be useful for treating circadian disturbances. © 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

  13. Dosage compensation of serine-4 transfer RNA in Drosophila melanogaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birchler, J.A.; Owenby, R.K.; Jacobson, K.B.

    1982-01-01

    A dosage series of the X chromosome site for serine-4 transfer RNA consisting of one of three copies in females and one to two in males was constructed to test whether transfer RNA expression is governed by dosage compensation. A dosage effect on the level of the serine-4 isoacceptor was observed in both females and males when the structural locus was varied. However, in males, each dose had a relatively greater expression so the normal one dose was slightly greater than the total female value and the duplicated male had the highest relative expression of all the types examined. Serine-4 levels in males and females from an isogenic Oregon-R stock were similar. Thus the transfer RNA levels conform to the expectations of dosage compensation

  14. Acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clustering is regulated both by glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β)-dependent phosphorylation and the level of CLIP-associated protein 2 (CLASP2) mediating the capture of microtubule plus-ends.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basu, Sreya; Sladecek, Stefan; Pemble, Hayley; Wittmann, Torsten; Slotman, Johan A; van Cappellen, Wiggert; Brenner, Hans-Rudolf; Galjart, Niels

    2014-10-31

    The postsynaptic apparatus of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) traps and anchors acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) at high density at the synapse. We have previously shown that microtubule (MT) capture by CLASP2, a MT plus-end-tracking protein (+TIP), increases the size and receptor density of AChR clusters at the NMJ through the delivery of AChRs and that this is regulated by a pathway involving neuronal agrin and several postsynaptic kinases, including GSK3. Phosphorylation by GSK3 has been shown to cause CLASP2 dissociation from MT ends, and nine potential phosphorylation sites for GSK3 have been mapped on CLASP2. How CLASP2 phosphorylation regulates MT capture at the NMJ and how this controls the size of AChR clusters are not yet understood. To examine this, we used myotubes cultured on agrin patches that induce AChR clustering in a two-dimensional manner. We show that expression of a CLASP2 mutant, in which the nine GSK3 target serines are mutated to alanine (CLASP2-9XS/9XA) and are resistant to GSK3β-dependent phosphorylation, promotes MT capture at clusters and increases AChR cluster size, compared with myotubes that express similar levels of wild type CLASP2 or that are noninfected. Conversely, myotubes expressing a phosphomimetic form of CLASP2 (CLASP2-8XS/D) show enrichment of immobile mutant CLASP2 in clusters, but MT capture and AChR cluster size are reduced. Taken together, our data suggest that both GSK3β-dependent phosphorylation and the level of CLASP2 play a role in the maintenance of AChR cluster size through the regulated capture and release of MT plus-ends. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  15. Phosphorylation-dependent signaling controls degradation of DNA mismatch repair protein PMS2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinrichsen, Inga; Weßbecher, Isabel M; Huhn, Meik; Passmann, Sandra; Zeuzem, Stefan; Plotz, Guido; Biondi, Ricardo M; Brieger, Angela

    2017-12-01

    MutLα, a heterodimer consisting of MLH1 and PMS2, plays an important role in DNA mismatch repair and has been shown to be additionally involved in several other important cellular mechanisms. Previous work indicated that AKT could modulate PMS2 stability by phosphorylation. Still, the mechanisms of regulation of MutLα remain unclear. The stability of MutLα subunits was investigated by transiently overexpression of wild type and mutant forms of MLH1 and PMS2 using immunoblotting for measuring the protein levels after treatment. We found that treatment with the cell-permeable serine/threonine phosphatase inhibitor, Calyculin, leads to degradation of PMS2 when MLH1 or its C-terminal domain is missing or if amino acids of MLH1 essential for PMS2 interaction are mutated. In addition, we discovered that the C-terminal tail of PMS2 is relevant for this Calyculin-dependent degradation. A direct involvement of AKT, which was previously described to be responsible for PMS2 degradation, could not be detected. The multi-kinase inhibitor Sorafenib, in contrast, was able to avoid the degradation of PMS2 which postulates that cellular phosphorylation is involved in this process. Together, we show that pharmacologically induced phosphorylation by Calyculin can induce the selective proteasome-dependent degradation of PMS2 but not of MLH1 and that the PMS2 degradation could be blocked by Sorafenib treatment. Curiously, the C-terminal Lynch Syndrome-variants MLH1 L749P and MLH1 Y750X make PMS2 prone to Calyculin induced degradation. Therefore, we conclude that the specific degradation of PMS2 may represent a new mechanism to regulate MutLα. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. A Ser/Thr protein kinase phosphorylates MA-ACS1 (Musa acuminata 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase 1) during banana fruit ripening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choudhury, Swarup Roy; Roy, Sujit; Sengupta, Dibyendu N

    2012-08-01

    1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in ethylene biosynthesis during ripening. ACS isozymes are regulated both transcriptionally and post-translationally. However, in banana, an important climacteric fruit, little is known about post-translational regulation of ACS. Here, we report the post-translational modification of MA-ACS1 (Musa acuminata ACS1), a ripening inducible isozyme in the ACS family, which plays a key role in ethylene biosynthesis during banana fruit ripening. Immunoprecipitation analyses of phospholabeled protein extracts from banana fruit using affinity-purified anti-MA-ACS1 antibody have revealed phosphorylation of MA-ACS1, particularly in ripe fruit tissue. We have identified the induction of a 41-kDa protein kinase activity in pulp at the onset of ripening. The 41-kDa protein kinase has been identified as a putative protein kinase by MALDI-TOF/MS analysis. Biochemical analyses using partially purified protein kinase fraction from banana fruit have identified the protein kinase as a Ser/Thr family of protein kinase and its possible involvement in MA-ACS1 phosphorylation during ripening. In vitro phosphorylation analyses using synthetic peptides and site-directed mutagenized recombinant MA-ACS1 have revealed that serine 476 and 479 residues at the C-terminal region of MA-ACS1 are phosphorylated. Overall, this study provides important novel evidence for in vivo phosphorylation of MA-ACS1 at the molecular level as a possible mechanism of post-translational regulation of this key regulatory protein in ethylene signaling pathway in banana fruit during ripening.

  17. Lead induced changes in phosphorylation of PSII proteins in low light grown pea plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wioleta, Wasilewska; Anna, Drożak; Ilona, Bacławska; Kamila, Kąkol; Elżbieta, Romanowska

    2015-02-01

    Light-intensity and redox-state induced thylakoid proteins phosphorylation involved in structural changes and in regulation of protein turnover. The presence of heavy metal ions triggers a wide range of cellular responses including changes in plant growth and photosynthesis. Plants have evolved a number of mechanisms to protect photosynthetic apparatus. We have characterized the effect of lead on PSII protein phosphorylation in pea (Pisum sativum L.) plants grown in low light conditions. Pb ions affected only slightly photochemical efficiency of PSII and had no effect on organization of thylakoid complexes. Lead activated strongly phosphorylation of PSII core D1 protein and dephosphorylation of this protein did not proceed in far red light. D1 protein was also not degraded in this conditions. However, phosphorylation of LHCII proteins was not affected by lead. These results indicate that Pb(2+) stimulate the phosphorylation of PSII core proteins and by disturbing the disassembly of supercomplexes play a role in PSII repair mechanism. LHCII phosphorylation could control the distribution of energy between the photosystems in low light conditions. This demonstrates that plants may respond to heavy metals by induction different pathways responsible for protein protection under stress conditions.

  18. Phosphorylation-induced conformational changes in short peptides probed by fluorescence resonance energy transfer in the 10A domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahoo, Harekrushna; Nau, Werner M

    2007-03-26

    Phosphorylation-induced conformational changes in short polypeptides were probed by a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) method by employing a short-distance FRET pair (R(0) approximately 10 A) based on tryptophan as natural donor and a 2,3-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]oct-2-ene-labeled asparagine (Dbo) as synthetic acceptor. Two substrates for kinases, LeuArgArgTrpSerLeuGly-Dbo (peptide I) and TrpLysArgThrLeuArgArg-Dbo (peptide II), were investigated, with serine and threonine, respectively, as phosphorylation sites. Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence experiments in H(2)O revealed a decrease in FRET efficiency for peptide I and an increase for peptide II; this suggested that the effective distances between donor and acceptor increased and decreased, respectively. The same trends and similar absolute variations in effective donor-acceptor distances were observed in propylene glycol, a less polar and highly viscous solvent; this suggested that the variations are due to intrinsic structural preferences. Fitting of the time-resolved decay traces according to a distribution function model (Gaussian distribution) provided the mean donor-acceptor distances, which showed an increase upon phosphorylation for peptide I (from 9.7 to 10.5 A) and a decrease for peptide II (from 10.9 to 9.3 A) in H(2)O. The broadness (half-width) of the distributions, which provides a measure of the rigidity of the peptides, remained similar upon phosphorylation of peptide I (3.0 versus 3.1 A), but decreased for peptide II (from 3.1 to 0.73 A in H(2)O); this suggests a more compact, structured conformation upon phosphorylation of the latter peptide. The elongation of the peptide backbone (by ca. 0.7 A) for peptide I is attributed to an increase in steric demand upon phosphorylation, which favors an extended conformation. The contraction (by ca. 1.4 A) and structural rigidification of peptide II is attributed to attractive Coulombic interactions and hydrogen bonding between the

  19. De-phosphorylation of TRα-1 by p44/42 MAPK inhibition enhances T3-mediated GLUT5 gene expression in the intestinal cell line Caco-2 cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mochizuki, Kazuki; Sakaguchi, Naomi; Takabe, Satsuki; Goda, Toshinao

    2007-01-01

    Thyroid hormone and p44/42 MAPK inactivation are important in intestinal differentiation. We demonstrated not only that treatment with p44/42 MAPK inhibitor U0126 in intestinal cell line Caco-2 cells reduced the phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues of TRα-1, but also that T 3 and U0126 synergistically induced GLUT5 gene expression. EMSA demonstrated that the binding activity of TRα-1-RXR heterodimer on GLUT5-TRE in nuclear proteins of Caco-2 cells was synergistically enhanced by co-incubation in vitro with T 3 and CIAP, which strongly de-phosphorylates proteins. ChIP and transfection assays revealed that co-treatment of T 3 and U0126 induces TRα-1-RXR binding to GLUT5-TRE on the human GLUT5 enhancer region, and recruitment of the transcriptional complex in cells. These results suggest that inactivation of p44/42 MAPK enhances T 3 -induced GLUT5 gene expression in Caco-2 cells through increasing TRα-1 transactivity and binding activity to the GLUT5-TRE, probably due to de-phosphorylation of TRα-1

  20. Smurf1 Inhibits Osteoblast Differentiation, Bone Formation, and Glucose Homeostasis through Serine 148

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junko Shimazu

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The E3 ubiquitin ligase Smurf1 targets the master regulator of osteoblast differentiation, Runx2, for degradation, yet the function of Smurf1, if any, during osteoblast differentiation in vivo is ill defined. Here, we show that Smurf1 prevents osteoblast differentiation by decreasing Runx2 accumulation in osteoblasts. Remarkably, mice harboring a substitution mutation at serine 148 (S148 in Smurf1 that prevents its phosphorylation by AMPK (Smurf1ki/ki display a premature osteoblast differentiation phenotype that is equally severe as that of Smurf1−/− mice, as well as a high bone mass, and are also hyperinsulinemic and hypoglycemic. Consistent with the fact that Smurf1 targets the insulin receptor for degradation, there is, in Smurf1ki/ki mice, an increase in insulin signaling in osteoblasts that triggers a rise in the circulating levels of osteocalcin, a hormone that favors insulin secretion. These results identify Smurf1 as a determinant of osteoblast differentiation during the development of bone formation and glucose homeostasis post-natally and demonstrate the necessity of S148 for these functions.

  1. Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) Mediates Amino Acid Inhibition of Insulin Signaling through Serine 727 Phosphorylation*

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Jeong-Ho; Yoon, Mee-Sup; Chen, Jie

    2009-01-01

    Nutrient overload is associated with the development of obesity, insulin resistance, and type II diabetes. High plasma concentrations of amino acids have been found to correlate with insulin resistance. At the cellular level, excess amino acids impair insulin signaling, the mechanisms of which are not fully understood. Here, we report that STAT3 plays a key role in amino acid dampening of insulin signaling in hepatic cells. Excess amino acids inhibited insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation a...

  2. The HtrA-like serine protease PepD interacts with and modulates the Mycobacterium tuberculosis 35-kDa antigen outer envelope protein.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark J White

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a significant global health concern largely due to its ability to persist for extended periods within the granuloma of the host. While residing within the granuloma, the tubercle bacilli are likely to be exposed to stress that can result in formation of aberrant proteins with altered structures. Bacteria encode stress responsive determinants such as proteases and chaperones to deal with misfolded or unfolded proteins. pepD encodes an HtrA-like serine protease and is thought to process proteins altered following exposure of M. tuberculosis to extra-cytoplasmic stress. PepD functions both as a protease and chaperone in vitro, and is required for aspects of M. tuberculosis virulence in vivo. pepD is directly regulated by the stress-responsive two-component signal transduction system MprAB and indirectly by extracytoplasmic function (ECF sigma factor SigE. Loss of PepD also impacts expression of other stress-responsive determinants in M. tuberculosis. To further understand the role of PepD in stress adaptation by M. tuberculosis, a proteomics approach was taken to identify binding proteins and possible substrates of this protein. Using subcellular fractionation, the cellular localization of wild-type and PepD variants was determined. Purified fractions as well as whole cell lysates from Mycobacterium smegmatis or M. tuberculosis strains expressing a catalytically compromised PepD variant were immunoprecipitated for PepD and subjected to LC-MS/MS analyses. Using this strategy, the 35-kDa antigen encoding a homolog of the PspA phage shock protein was identified as a predominant binding partner and substrate of PepD. We postulate that proteolytic cleavage of the 35-kDa antigen by PepD helps maintain cell wall homeostasis in Mycobacterium and regulates specific stress response pathways during periods of extracytoplasmic stress.

  3. Phosphorylation of histone H2AX as an indicator of received dose of gamma radiation after whole-body irradiation of rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radim Havelek

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of our study was to determine whether phosphorylation of histone H2AX can be used as an indicator of received dose of gamma radiation after whole-body irradiation of rats. Wistar rats were irradiated by 1-10 Gy of gamma radiation by 60Co source. Value LD50/60 was 7.37 (4.68-8.05 Gy. Histone H2AX is phosphorylated by ATM kinase on serine 139 (γH2AX quickly after the irradiation. It forms microscopically visible foci in the site of double strand breaks of DNA. Flow-cytometric method was used for quantitative detection. This study is the first one that evaluated dose-dependency of H2AX phosphorylation in peripheral lymphocytes of rats irradiated by whole-body dose 1-10 Gy. Our data show a dose-dependent increase in γH2AX in rat peripheral blood lymphocytes 1 h after whole-body irradiation by the dose of 1-10 Gy. We proved that phosphorylation of histone H2AX is a prompt and reliable indicator of the received radiation dose suitable for rapid measurement before the number of lymphocytes in peripheral blood starts to decrease. It can be used already 1 h after the irradiation for an estimation of the received dose of radiation. Blood samples can be stored in 4 °C for 23 h without significantly affecting the result.

  4. Modulating uranium binding affinity in engineered Calmodulin EF-hand peptides: effect of phosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pardoux, Romain; Sauge-Merle, Sandrine; Lemaire, David; Guilloreau, Luc; Berthomieu, Catherine; Delangle, Pascale; Adriano, Jean-Marc

    2012-01-01

    To improve our understanding of uranium toxicity, the determinants of uranyl affinity in proteins must be better characterized. In this work, we analyzed the contribution of a phosphoryl group on uranium binding affinity in a protein binding site, using the site 1 EF-hand motif of calmodulin. The recombinant domain 1 of calmodulin from A. thaliana was engineered to impair metal binding at site 2 and was used as a structured template. Threonine at position 9 of the loop was phosphorylated in vitro, using the recombinant catalytic subunit of protein kinase CK2. Hence, the T 9 TKE 12 sequence was substituted by the CK2 recognition sequence TAAE. A tyrosine was introduced at position 7, so that uranyl and calcium binding affinities could be determined by following tyrosine fluorescence. Phosphorylation was characterized by ESI-MS spectrometry, and the phosphorylated peptide was purified to homogeneity using ion-exchange chromatography. The binding constants for uranyl were determined by competition experiments with iminodiacetate. At pH 6, phosphorylation increased the affinity for uranyl by a factor of ∼5, from K d =25±6 nM to K d =5±1 nM. The phosphorylated peptide exhibited a much larger affinity at pH 7, with a dissociation constant in the sub-nanomolar range (K d = 0.25±0.06 nM). FTIR analyses showed that the phospho-threonine side chain is partly protonated at pH 6, while it is fully deprotonated at pH 7. Moreover, formation of the uranyl-peptide complex at pH 7 resulted in significant frequency shifts of the ν as (P-O) and ν s (P-O) IR modes of phospho-threonine, supporting its direct interaction with uranyl. Accordingly, a bathochromic shift in ν as (UO 2 ) 2+ vibration (from 923 cm -1 to 908 cm -1 ) was observed upon uranyl coordination to the phosphorylated peptide. Together, our data demonstrate that the phosphoryl group plays a determining role in uranyl binding affinity to proteins at physiological pH. (authors)

  5. Trypsin- and Chymotrypsin-Like Serine Proteases in Schistosoma mansoni - 'The Undiscovered Country'

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Horn, Martin; Fajtová, Pavla; Arreola, L. R.; Ulrychová, Lenka; Bartošová-Sojková, Pavla; Franta, Zdeněk; Protasio, A. V.; Opavský, David; Vondrášek, Jiří; McKerrow, J. H.; Mareš, Michael; Caffrey, C. R.; Dvořák, Jan

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 8, č. 3 (2014), e2766/1-e2766/13 ISSN 1935-2735 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP302/11/1481; GA MŠk(CZ) ME10011 EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 248642 - SCHISTOSOMA PROTEASE Institutional support: RVO:61388963 ; RVO:68378050 ; RVO:60077344 Keywords : schistosomiasis * blood fluke * serine protease Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry; EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology (UMG-J); FN - Epidemiology, Contagious Diseases ; Clinical Immunology (BC-A) Impact factor: 4.446, year: 2014 http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0002766

  6. Phosphorylation-mediated control of histone chaperone ASF1 levels by Tousled-like kinases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maxim Pilyugin

    Full Text Available Histone chaperones are at the hub of a diverse interaction networks integrating a plethora of chromatin modifying activities. Histone H3/H4 chaperone ASF1 is a target for cell-cycle regulated Tousled-like kinases (TLKs and both proteins cooperate during chromatin replication. However, the precise role of post-translational modification of ASF1 remained unclear. Here, we identify the TLK phosphorylation sites for both Drosophila and human ASF1 proteins. Loss of TLK-mediated phosphorylation triggers hASF1a and dASF1 degradation by proteasome-dependent and independent mechanisms respectively. Consistent with this notion, introduction of phosphorylation-mimicking mutants inhibits hASF1a and dASF1 degradation. Human hASF1b is also targeted for proteasome-dependent degradation, but its stability is not affected by phosphorylation indicating that other mechanisms are likely to be involved in control of hASF1b levels. Together, these results suggest that ASF1 cellular levels are tightly controlled by distinct pathways and provide a molecular mechanism for post-translational regulation of dASF1 and hASF1a by TLK kinases.

  7. Serine/Threonine Protein Phosphatase PstP of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is Necessary for Accurate Cell Division and Survival of Pathogen*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Aditya K.; Arora, Divya; Singh, Lalit K.; Gangwal, Aakriti; Sajid, Andaleeb; Molle, Virginie; Singh, Yogendra; Nandicoori, Vinay Kumar

    2016-01-01

    Protein phosphatases play vital roles in phosphorylation-mediated cellular signaling. Although there are 11 serine/threonine protein kinases in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, only one serine/threonine phosphatase, PstP, has been identified. Although PstP has been biochemically characterized and multiple in vitro substrates have been identified, its physiological role has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we have investigated the impact of PstP on cell growth and survival of the pathogen in the host. Overexpression of PstP led to elongated cells and partially compromised survival. We find that depletion of PstP is detrimental to cell survival, eventually leading to cell death. PstP depletion results in elongated multiseptate cells, suggesting a role for PstP in regulating cell division events. Complementation experiments performed with PstP deletion mutants revealed marginally compromised survival, suggesting that all of the domains, including the extracellular domain, are necessary for complete rescue. On the other hand, the catalytic activity of PstP is absolutely essential for the in vitro growth. Mice infection experiments establish a definitive role for PstP in pathogen survival within the host. Depletion of PstP from established infections causes pathogen clearance, indicating that the continued presence of PstP is necessary for pathogen survival. Taken together, our data suggest an important role for PstP in establishing and maintaining infection, possibly via the modulation of cell division events. PMID:27758870

  8. Synaptotagmin-7 phosphorylation mediates GLP-1-dependent potentiation of insulin secretion from β-cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Bingbing; Wei, Shunhui; Petersen, Natalia

    2015-01-01

    Glucose stimulates insulin secretion from β-cells by increasing intracellular Ca(2+). Ca(2+) then binds to synaptotagmin-7 as a major Ca(2+) sensor for exocytosis, triggering secretory granule fusion and insulin secretion. In type-2 diabetes, insulin secretion is impaired; this impairment...... is ameliorated by glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) or by GLP-1 receptor agonists, which improve glucose homeostasis. However, the mechanism by which GLP-1 receptor agonists boost insulin secretion remains unclear. Here, we report that GLP-1 stimulates protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent phosphorylation...... of synaptotagmin-7 at serine-103, which enhances glucose- and Ca(2+)-stimulated insulin secretion and accounts for the improvement of glucose homeostasis by GLP-1. A phospho-mimetic synaptotagmin-7 mutant enhances Ca(2+)-triggered exocytosis, whereas a phospho-inactive synaptotagmin-7 mutant disrupts GLP-1...

  9. Phosphorylated nano-diamond/ Polyimide Nanocomposites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beyler-Çiǧil, Asli; Çakmakçi, Emrah; Kahraman, Memet Vezir

    2014-01-01

    In this study, a novel route to synthesize polyimide (PI)/phosphorylated nanodiamond films with improved thermal and mechanical properties was developed. Surface phosphorylation of nano-diamond was performed in dichloromethane. Phosphorylation dramatically enhanced the thermal stability of nano-diamond. Poly(amic acid) (PAA), which is the precursor of PI, was successfully synthesized with 3,3',4,4'-Benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA) and 4,4'-oxydianiline (4,4'-ODA) in the solution of N,N- dimethylformamide (DMF). Pure BTDA-ODA polyimide films and phosphorylated nanodiamond containing BTDA-ODA PI films were prepared. The PAA displayed good compatibility with phosphorylated nano-diamond. The morphology of the polyimide (PI)/phosphorylated nano-diamond was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Chemical structure of polyimide and polyimide (PI)/phosphorylated nano-diamond was characterized by FTIR. SEM and FTIR results showed that the phosphorylated nano-diamond was successfully prepared. Thermal properties of the polyimide (PI)/phosphorylated nanodiamond was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA results showed that the thermal stability of (PI)/phosphorylated nano-diamond film was increased

  10. Rat vas deferens SERCA2 is modulated by Ca{sup 2+}/calmodulin protein kinase II-mediated phosphorylation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rodriguez, J.B.R.; Muzi-Filho, H. [Programa de Farmacologia e Inflamação, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Valverde, R.H.F. [Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Quintas, L.E.M. [Programa de Farmacologia e Inflamação, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Noel, F. [Programa de Desenvolvimento de Fármacos, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Einicker-Lamas, M. [Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Cunha, V.M.N. [Programa de Farmacologia e Inflamação, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2013-03-19

    Ca{sup 2+} pumps are important players in smooth muscle contraction. Nevertheless, little information is available about these pumps in the vas deferens. We have determined which subtype of sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca{sup 2+}-ATPase isoform (SERCA) is expressed in rat vas deferens (RVD) and its modulation by calmodulin (CaM)-dependent mechanisms. The thapsigargin-sensitive Ca{sup 2+}-ATPase from a membrane fraction containing the highest SERCA levels in the RVD homogenate has the same molecular mass (∼115 kDa) as that of SERCA2 from the rat cerebellum. It has a very high affinity for Ca{sup 2+} (Ca{sub 0.5} = 780 nM) and a low sensitivity to vanadate (IC{sub 50} = 41 µM). These facts indicate that SERCA2 is present in the RVD. Immunoblotting for CaM and Ca{sup 2+}/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) showed the expression of these two regulatory proteins. Ca{sup 2+} and CaM increased serine-phosphorylated residues of the 115-kDa protein, indicating the involvement of CaMKII in the regulatory phosphorylation of SERCA2. Phosphorylation is accompanied by an 8-fold increase of thapsigargin-sensitive Ca{sup 2+} accumulation in the lumen of vesicles derived from these membranes. These data establish that SERCA2 in the RVD is modulated by Ca{sup 2+} and CaM, possibly via CaMKII, in a process that results in stimulation of Ca{sup 2+} pumping activity.

  11. Alteration in insulin action

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tanti, J F; Gual, P; Grémeaux, T

    2004-01-01

    Insulin resistance, when combined with impaired insulin secretion, contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is characterised by a decrease in insulin effect on glucose transport in muscle and adipose tIssue. Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS......-1) and its binding to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) are critical events in the insulin signalling cascade leading to insulin-stimulated glucose transport. Modification of IRS-1 by serine phosphorylation could be one of the mechanisms leading to a decrease in IRS-1 tyrosine...... to phosphorylate these serine residues have been identified. These exciting results suggest that serine phosphorylation of IRS-1 is a possible hallmark of insulin resistance in biologically insulin responsive cells or tIssues. Identifying the pathways by which "diabetogenic" factors activate IRS-1 kinases...

  12. Aggregation of Ribosomal Protein S6 at Nucleolus Is Cell Cycle-Controlled and Its Function in Pre-rRNA Processing Is Phosphorylation Dependent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Duo; Chen, Hui-Peng; Duan, Hai-Feng; Gao, Li-Hua; Shao, Yong; Chen, Ke-Yan; Wang, You-Liang; Lan, Feng-Hua; Hu, Xian-Wen

    2016-07-01

    Ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6) has long been regarded as one of the primary r-proteins that functions in the early stage of 40S subunit assembly, but its actual role is still obscure. The correct forming of 18S rRNA is a key step in the nuclear synthesis of 40S subunit. In this study, we demonstrate that rpS6 participates in the processing of 30S pre-rRNA to 18S rRNA only when its C-terminal five serines are phosphorylated, however, the process of entering the nucleus and then targeting the nucleolus does not dependent its phosphorylation. Remarkably, we also find that the aggregation of rpS6 at the nucleolus correlates to the phasing of cell cycle, beginning to concentrate in the nucleolus at later S phase and disaggregate at M phase. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 1649-1657, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. The quiescent and mitogen stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells after gamma irradiation and their P53, P21 and H2AX expression

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vilasova, Z.; Vavrova, J.; Sinkorova, Z.; Tichy, A.; Oesterreicher, J.; Rezacova, M.; Zoelzer, F.

    2008-01-01

    The aim of this study was to compare reaction of quiescent and proliferating PHA (mitogenic lectin phytohemagglutinin)-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to γ-irradiation and analyze changes of proteins related to repair if DNA damage and apoptosis, such as γH2A.X, p53 and its phosphorylations on serine 15 and 392, and p21. Protein changes induced by radiation are different in quiescent and stimulated PBMCs. W e analyzed changes in proteins related to DNA damage repair and apoptosis using the western blot method in quiescent and stimulated PBMCs. Western blot technique can detect γH2A.X increase only at later times, when the phosphorylation of H2A.X is related to the onset of apoptosis (24-72 h after irradiation by the dose of 4 Gy). The level of H2A.X phosphorylation increased after stimulation of PBMC by PHA (72 h, 10 μg/ml) and as shown here it was detectable by western blot analysis. The increase in γH2A.X that we detected by western blot 4 h after irradiation of stimulated lymphocytes was dose dependent. It can be concluded that measurement of γH2A.X during the first hours after the irradiation is a good marker of the received dose of radiation. We compared the dynamics of p53 induction after irradiation by IR in both quiescent and stimulated lymphocytes. p53 increase was observed only in stimulated lymphocytes, as was p53 phosphorylation at serines-392 and -15. The increase in the amount of p53 was not dose-dependent 4 h after the irradiation. On the other hand, phosphorylation of p53 at serine-15 analyzed 4 h after the irradiation is dose-dependent over the studied dose range. Despite the fact that p53 was not detected in quiescent lymphocytes and a reaction to irradiation was not observed either, p21 levels increased after irradiation in both quiescent and stimulated lymphocytes in a dose-dependent manner. IR induces phosphorylation of p53 at both serines-15 and -392 in PHA stimulated human lymphocytes. However

  14. Phosphorylation of the norepinephrine transporter at threonine 258 and serine 259 is linked to protein kinase C-mediated transporter internalization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jayanthi, Lankupalle D; Annamalai, Balasubramaniam; Samuvel, Devadoss J

    2006-01-01

    . Most interestingly, the plasma membrane insertion of the WT-hNET and hNET double mutant were not affected by beta-PMA. Although the WT-hNET showed increased endocytosis and redistribution from caveolin-rich plasma membrane domains following beta-PMA treatment, the hNET double mutant was completely......-regulation. These results suggest that Thr-258 and Ser-259 serve as a PKC-specific phospho-acceptor site and that phosphorylation of this motif is linked to PKC-induced NET internalization....

  15. Phosphorylation of MgrA and its effect on expression of the NorA and NorB efflux pumps of Staphylococcus aureus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truong-Bolduc, Que Chi; Hooper, David C

    2010-05-01

    MgrA is a global regulator in Staphylococcus aureus that controls the expression of diverse genes encoding virulence factors and multidrug resistance (MDR) efflux transporters. We identified pknB, which encodes the (Ser/Thr) kinase PknB, in the S. aureus genome. PknB was able to autophosphorylate as well as phosphorylate purified MgrA. We demonstrated that rsbU, which encodes a Ser/Thr phosphatase and is involved in the activation of the SigB regulon, was able to dephosphorylate MgrA-P but not PknB-P. Serines 110 and 113 of MgrA were found to be phosphorylated, and Ala substitutions at these positions resulted in reductions in the level of phosphorylation of MgrA. DNA gel shift binding assays using norA and norB promoters showed that MgrA-P was able to bind the norB promoter but not the norA promoter, a pattern which was the reverse of that for unphosphorylated MgrA. The double mutant MgrA(S110A-S113A) bound to the norA promoter but not the norB promoter. The double mutant led to a 2-fold decrease in norA transcripts and a 2-fold decrease in the MICs of norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin in strain RN6390. Thus, phosphorylation of MgrA results in loss of binding to the norA promoter, but with a gain of the ability to bind the norB promoter. Loss of the ability to phosphorylate MgrA by Ala substitution resulted in increased repression of norA expression and in reductions in susceptibilities to NorA substrates.

  16. Characterization of a novel phosphorylation site in the sodium-chloride cotransporter, NCC

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rosenbaek, L L; Assentoft, M; Pedersen, N B

    2012-01-01

    The sodium-chloride cotransporter, NCC, is essential for renal electrolyte balance. NCC function can be modulated by protein phosphorylation. In this study, we characterized the role and physiological regulation of a novel phosphorylation site in NCC at Ser124 (S124). Novel phospho-specific antib......The sodium-chloride cotransporter, NCC, is essential for renal electrolyte balance. NCC function can be modulated by protein phosphorylation. In this study, we characterized the role and physiological regulation of a novel phosphorylation site in NCC at Ser124 (S124). Novel phospho......-related proline-alanine-rich kinase and oxidative stress-response kinases (SPAK and OSR1) were not able to phosphorylate NCC at S124. Protein kinase arrays identified multiple kinases that were able to bind to the region surrounding S124. Four of these kinases (IRAK2, CDK6/Cyclin D1, NLK and m...

  17. Spinal Tolerance and Dependence: Some Observations on the Role of Spinal N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptors and Phosphorylation in the Loss of Opioid Analgesic Responses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tony L Yaksh

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available The continuous delivery of opiates can lead to a reduction in analgesic effects. In humans, as in other animals, some component of this change in sensitivity seems likely to have a strong pharmacodynamic component. Such loss of effect, deemed to be tolerance in the present article, can be readily demonstrated in animals with repeated bolus and continuous intrathecal infusion of mu and delta opioids and alpha-2 adrenergic agonists. Research has shown that this loss of effect can be diminished by concurrent treatment with N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA receptor antagonists and by the suppression of the activity of spinal protein kinase C (PKC. This suggests in part the probable role of PKC-mediated phosphorylation in the right shift in the dose-effect curves observed with continuous opiate or adrenergic exposure. Importantly, this right shift is seen to occur in parallel with an increase in the phosphorylating activity in the dorsal horn and in the expression of several PKC isozymes. The target of this phosphorylation is not certain. Phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor enhances its functionality, while phosphorylation of the opioid receptor or associated channels seems to diminish their activity or to enhance internalization. While the focus is on several specific components, the accumulating data emphasize the biological complexity of these changes in spinal drug reactivity.

  18. Modulation of P1798 lymphosarcoma proliferation by protein phosphorylation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michnoff, C.A.H.

    1983-01-01

    The role of protein kinases in modulating cell proliferation was examined. Studies characterized the regulation of cell proliferation by adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase (cA-Pk). Calcium/calmodulin-dependent myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) was isolated and examined as a potential substrate regulated by cA-PK in the rapidly proliferating P1798 lymphosarcoma. Modulation of cell proliferation by cA-PK was characterized by quantitating cell division by [methyl- 3 H] thymidine ([ 3 H]-dT) incorporation into DNA, cAMP accumulations, and activation of cA-PK using P1798 lymphosarcoma cells. Epinephrine and prostaglandin E 1 (PGE 1 ) were demonstrated to suppress [ 3 H]-dT incorporation into DNA, to stimulate cAMP accumulation, and to activate cA-PK with dose-dependency. Calcium/calmodulin-dependent MLCK was partially purified from P1798 lymphosarcoma. P1798 MLCK phosphorylated myosin regulatory light chains (P-LC) from thymus, cardiac and skeletal muscles. One mol [ 32 Pi] was transferred into one mol cardiac or skeletal P-LC by P1798 MLCK. Apparent Km values of 65 μM and 51 μM were determined for ATP and cardiac P-LC, respectively. The apparent molecular weight of P1798 MLCK was 135,000. P1798 MLCK was phosphorylated by cA-PK. Phosphorylated MLCK showed a 41% decrease in calcium-dependent activity. Two additional protein kinases from P1798 lymphosarcoma phosphorylated cardiac and skeletal light chains

  19. Beyond the Dopamine Receptor: Regulation and Roles of Serine/Threonine Protein Phosphatases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sven I Walaas

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Dopamine plays an important modulatory role in the central nervous system, helping to control critical aspects of motor function and reward learning. Alteration in normal dopaminergic neurotransmission underlies multiple neurological diseases including schizophrenia, Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Modulation of dopamine-regulated signaling pathways is also important in the addictive actions of most drugs of abuse. Our studies over the last 30 years have focused on the molecular actions of dopamine acting on medium spiny neurons, the predominant neurons of the neostriatum. Striatum-enriched phosphoproteins, particularly DARPP-32, RCS (Regulator of Calmodulin Signaling and ARPP-16, mediate pleiotropic actions of dopamine. Notably, each of these proteins, either directly or indirectly, regulates the activity of one of the three major subclasses of serine/threonine protein phosphatases, PP1, PP2B and PP2A, respectively. For example, phosphorylation of DARPP-32 at Thr34 by protein kinase A results in potent inhibition of PP1, leading to potentiation of dopaminergic signaling at multiple steps from the dopamine receptor to the nucleus. The discovery of DARPP-32 and its emergence as a critical molecular integrator of striatal signaling will be discussed, as will more recent studies that highlight novel roles for RCS and ARPP-16 in dopamine-regulated striatal signaling pathways.

  20. Kazal-type serine proteinase inhibitors in the midgut of Phlebotomus papatasi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leah Theresa Sigle

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae are important disease vectors of parasites of the genus Leishmania, as well as bacteria and viruses. Following studies of the midgut transcriptome of Phlebotomus papatasi, the principal vector of Leishmania major, two non-classical Kazal-type serine proteinase inhibitors were identified (PpKzl1 and PpKzl2. Analyses of expression profiles indicated that PpKzl1 and PpKzl2 transcripts are both regulated by blood-feeding in the midgut of P. papatasi and are also expressed in males, larva and pupa. We expressed a recombinant PpKzl2 in a mammalian expression system (CHO-S free style cells that was applied to in vitro studies to assess serine proteinase inhibition. Recombinant PpKzl2 inhibited α-chymotrypsin to 9.4% residual activity and also inhibited α-thrombin and trypsin to 33.5% and 63.9% residual activity, suggesting that native PpKzl2 is an active serine proteinase inhibitor and likely involved in regulating digestive enzymes in the midgut. Early stages of Leishmania are susceptible to killing by digestive proteinases in the sandfly midgut. Thus, characterising serine proteinase inhibitors may provide new targets and strategies to prevent transmission of Leishmania.

  1. D-serine in health and disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fuchs, S.A.

    2010-01-01

    Amino acids are among the most important molecules for living beings, since they are used to build peptides and proteins. Depending on their spatial positioning, amino acids can occur as D- or L-amino acids. This determines the function of peptides and proteins in the human body. It was long thought

  2. Reprogramming One-Carbon Metabolic Pathways To Decouple l-Serine Catabolism from Cell Growth in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yun; Shang, Xiuling; Lai, Shujuan; Zhang, Yu; Hu, Qitiao; Chai, Xin; Wang, Bo; Liu, Shuwen; Wen, Tingyi

    2018-02-16

    l-Serine, the principal one-carbon source for DNA biosynthesis, is difficult for microorganisms to accumulate due to the coupling of l-serine catabolism and microbial growth. Here, we reprogrammed the one-carbon unit metabolic pathways in Corynebacterium glutamicum to decouple l-serine catabolism from cell growth. In silico model-based simulation showed a negative influence on glyA-encoding serine hydroxymethyltransferase flux with l-serine productivity. Attenuation of glyA transcription resulted in increased l-serine accumulation, and a decrease in purine pools, poor growth and longer cell shapes. The gcvTHP-encoded glycine cleavage (Gcv) system from Escherichia coli was introduced into C. glutamicum, allowing glycine-derived 13 CH 2 to be assimilated into intracellular purine synthesis, which resulted in an increased amount of one-carbon units. Gcv introduction not only restored cell viability and morphology but also increased l-serine accumulation. Moreover, comparative proteomic analysis indicated that abundance changes of the enzymes involved in one-carbon unit cycles might be responsible for maintaining one-carbon unit homeostasis. Reprogramming of the one-carbon metabolic pathways allowed cells to reach a comparable growth rate to accumulate 13.21 g/L l-serine by fed-batch fermentation in minimal medium. This novel strategy provides new insights into the regulation of cellular properties and essential metabolite accumulation by introducing an extrinsic pathway.

  3. Structure of smAKAP and its regulation by PKA-mediated phosphorylation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgers, Pepijn P.; Bruystens, Jessica; Burnley, Rebecca J.; Nikolaev, Viacheslav O.; Keshwani, Malik; Wu, Jian; Janssen, Bert J. C.; Taylor, Susan S.; Heck, Albert J. R.; Scholten, Arjen

    2016-01-01

    The A-kinase anchoring protein (AKAP) smAKAP has three extraordinary features; it is very small, it is anchored directly to membranes by acyl motifs, and it interacts almost exclusively with the type I regulatory subunits (RI) of cAMP-dependent kinase (PKA). Here, we determined the crystal structure of smAKAP’s A-kinase binding domain (smAKAP-AKB) in complex with the dimerization/docking (D/D) domain of RIα which reveals an extended hydrophobic interface with unique interaction pockets that drive smAKAP’s high specificity for RI subunits. We also identify a conserved PKA phosphorylation site at Ser66 in the AKB domain which we predict would cause steric clashes and disrupt binding. This correlates with in vivo colocalization and fluorescence polarization studies, where Ser66 AKB phosphorylation ablates RI binding. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange studies confirm that the AKB helix is accessible and dynamic. Furthermore, full-length smAKAP as well as the unbound AKB is predicted to contain a break at the phosphorylation site, and circular dichroism measurements confirm that the AKB domain loses its helicity following phosphorylation. As the active site of PKA’s catalytic subunit does not accommodate α-helices, we predict that the inherent flexibility of the AKB domain enables its phosphorylation by PKA. This represents a novel mechanism, whereby activation of anchored PKA can terminate its binding to smAKAP affecting the regulation of localized cAMP signaling events. PMID:27028580

  4. Integration of ARTP mutagenesis with biosensor-mediated high-throughput screening to improve L-serine yield in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xin; Zhang, Xiaomei; Xu, Guoqiang; Zhang, Xiaojuan; Shi, Jinsong; Xu, Zhenghong

    2018-05-03

    L-Serine is widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. Although direct fermentative production of L-serine from sugar in Corynebacterium glutamicum has been achieved, the L-serine yield remains relatively low. In this study, atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis was used to improve the L-serine yield based on engineered C. glutamicum ΔSSAAI strain. Subsequently, we developed a novel high-throughput screening method using a biosensor constructed based on NCgl0581, a transcriptional factor specifically responsive to L-serine, so that L-serine concentration within single cell of C. glutamicum can be monitored via fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Novel L-serine-producing mutants were isolated from a large library of mutagenized cells. The mutant strain A36-pDser was screened from 1.2 × 10 5 cells, and the magnesium ion concentration in the medium was optimized specifically for this mutant. C. glutamicum A36-pDser accumulated 34.78 g/L L-serine with a yield of 0.35 g/g sucrose, which were 35.9 and 66.7% higher than those of the parent C. glutamicum ΔSSAAI-pDser strain, respectively. The L-serine yield achieved in this mutant was the highest of all reported L-serine-producing strains of C. glutamicum. Moreover, the whole-genome sequencing identified 11 non-synonymous mutations of genes associated with metabolic and transport pathways, which might be responsible for the higher L-serine production and better cell growth in C. glutamicum A36-pDser. This study explored an effective mutagenesis strategy and reported a novel high-throughput screening method for the development of L-serine-producing strains.

  5. Phosphorylation of Ribosomal Protein S6 Mediates Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1-Induced Parathyroid Cell Proliferation in Secondary Hyperparathyroidism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volovelsky, Oded; Cohen, Gili; Kenig, Ariel; Wasserman, Gilad; Dreazen, Avigail; Meyuhas, Oded; Silver, Justin; Naveh-Many, Tally

    2016-04-01

    Secondary hyperparathyroidism is characterized by increased serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) level and parathyroid cell proliferation. However, the molecular pathways mediating the increased parathyroid cell proliferation remain undefined. Here, we found that the mTOR pathway was activated in the parathyroid of rats with secondary hyperparathyroidism induced by either chronic hypocalcemia or uremia, which was measured by increased phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6), a downstream target of the mTOR pathway. This activation correlated with increased parathyroid cell proliferation. Inhibition of mTOR complex 1 by rapamycin decreased or prevented parathyroid cell proliferation in secondary hyperparathyroidism rats and in vitro in uremic rat parathyroid glands in organ culture. Knockin rpS6(p-/-) mice, in which rpS6 cannot be phosphorylated because of substitution of all five phosphorylatable serines with alanines, had impaired PTH secretion after experimental uremia- or folic acid-induced AKI. Uremic rpS6(p-/-) mice had no increase in parathyroid cell proliferation compared with a marked increase in uremic wild-type mice. These results underscore the importance of mTOR activation and rpS6 phosphorylation for the pathogenesis of secondary hyperparathyroidism and indicate that mTORC1 is a significant regulator of parathyroid cell proliferation through rpS6. Copyright © 2016 by the American Society of Nephrology.

  6. Comparison of the phosphorylation events in membranes prepared from proliferating versus quiescent endothelial cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kazlauskas, A.; DiColeto, P.E.

    1986-01-01

    Little is known of the intracellular events which regulate the proliferation of endothelial cells (EC). Triton-solubilized membranes from proliferating (sparse) and quiescent (confluent) EC were incubated at pH 6.5 in the presence of divalent cations and [ 32 P]ATP. Membrane proteins were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. The overall kinase activity per mg protein was slightly greater in membranes prepared from proliferating versus quiescent cells. They found four proteins labeled in sparse cells to a dramatically greater extent having the following approximate molecular masses: 180, 100, 97 and 55 kilodalton (kd). The first two phosphoproteins were phosphorylated on serine residues exclusively; the 97 kd phosphoprotein contained 39% phosphoserine (p-ser) and 61% phosphothreonine (p-thr); and the 55 kd phosphoprotein contained 62% p-ser, 16% p-thr, and 22% phosphotyrosine (p-tyr). The kinases acting on all four phosphoproteins were independent of Ca 2+ , cAMP, cGMP, or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. The observed differences in phosphorylation events between sparse and confluent membranes occurred in membranes from two EC lines - pig aortic and bovine aortic - but were not apparent in membranes prepared from human foreskin fibroblasts or 3T3 cells. Sparse endothelial cells made quiescent by serum deprivation were found to resemble confluent cells in the kinase activity; therefore, the enhanced kinase activity in sparse membranes may be growth dependent

  7. Effect of SPL (Spent Pot Liner) and its main components on root growth, mitotic activity and phosphorylation of Histone H3 in Lactuca sativa L.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freitas, Aline Silva; Fontes Cunha, Isabela Martinez; Andrade-Vieira, Larissa Fonseca; Techio, Vânia Helena

    2016-02-01

    Spent Pot Liner (SPL) is a solid waste from the aluminum industry frequently disposed of in industrial landfills; it can be leached and contaminate the soil, sources of drinking water and plantations, and thus may pose a risk to human health and to ecosystems. Its composition is high variable, including cyanide, fluoride and aluminum salts, which are highly toxic and environmental pollutants. This study evaluated the effect of SPL and its main components on root growth and the mitosis of Lactuca sativa, by investigating the mechanisms of cellular and chromosomal alterations with the aid of immunolocalization. To this end, newly emerged roots of L. sativa were exposed to SPL and its main components (solutions of cyanide, fluoride and aluminum) and to calcium chloride (control) for 48h. After this, root length was measured and cell cycle was examined by means of conventional cytogenetics and immunolocalization. Root growth was inhibited in the treatments with SPL and aluminum; chromosomal and nuclear alterations were observed in all treatments. The immunolocalization evidenced normal dividing cells with regular temporal and spatial distribution of histone H3 phosphorylation at serine 10 (H3S10ph). However, SPL and its main components inhibited the phosphorylation of histone H3 at serine 10, inactivated pericentromeric regions and affected the cohesion of sister chromatids, thus affecting the arrangement of chromosomes in the metaphase plate and separation of chromatids in anaphase. In addition, these substances induced breaks in pericentromeric regions, characterized as fragile sites. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. The Conserved ATM Kinase RAG2-S365 Phosphorylation Site Limits Cleavage Events in Individual Cells Independent of Any Repair Defect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susannah L. Hewitt

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Many DNA lesions associated with lymphoid malignancies are linked to off-target cleavage by the RAG1/2 recombinase. However, off-target cleavage has mostly been analyzed in the context of DNA repair defects, confounding any mechanistic understanding of cleavage deregulation. We identified a conserved SQ phosphorylation site on RAG2 365 to 366 that is involved in feedback control of RAG cleavage. Mutation of serine 365 to a non-phosphorylatable alanine permits bi-allelic and bi-locus RAG-mediated breaks in the same cell, leading to reciprocal translocations. This phenomenon is analogous to the phenotype we described for ATM kinase inactivation. Here, we establish deregulated cleavage itself as a driver of chromosomal instability without the associated repair defect. Intriguingly, a RAG2-S365E phosphomimetic rescues the deregulated cleavage of ATM inactivation, reducing the incidence of reciprocal translocations. These data support a model in which feedback control of cleavage and maintenance of genome stability involves ATM-mediated phosphorylation of RAG2.

  9. Oxidative phosphorylation revisited

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nath, Sunil; Villadsen, John

    2015-01-01

    The fundamentals of oxidative phosphorylation and photophosphorylation are revisited. New experimental data on the involvement of succinate and malate anions respectively in oxidative phosphorylation and photophosphorylation are presented. These new data offer a novel molecular mechanistic...

  10. A New Bacillus licheniformis Mutant Strain Producing Serine Protease Efficient for Hvdrolvqis of Sov Meal Proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kostyleva, E V; Sereda, A S; Velikoretskaya, I A; Nefedova, L I; Sharikov, A Yu; Tsurikova, N V; Lobanov, N S; Semenova, M V; Sinitsyn, A P

    2016-07-01

    Induced mutagenesis with y-irradiation of the industrial strain Bacillus licheniformis-60 VKM B-2366,D was used to obtain a new highly active producer of an extracellular serine protease, Bacillus licheni- formis7 145. Samples of dry.concentrated preparations of serine protease produced by the original and mutant strains were obtained, and identity of their protein composition was'established. Alkaline serine protease sub- tilisin DY was the main component of the preparations. The biochemical and physicochemical properties of the Protolkheterm-145 enzyme preparation obtained from the mutant strain were studied. It exhibited pro- teolytic activity (1.5 times higher than the preparation from the initial strain) within broad ranges of pH (5- 11) and temperature (30-70'C).-Efficient hydrolysis of extruded soy meal protein at high concentrations (2 to 50%) in-the reaction mixture was.the main advantage of the Protolikheterm 145 preparation. Compared to,. the preparation obtained using the initial strain, the new preparation with increased proteolytic-activity pro- vided for more complete hydrolysis of the main non-nutritious soy,proteins.(glycinin and 0-conglycinin) with the yield of soluble protein increased by 19-28%, which decreased the cost of bioconversion of the protein- aceous material and indicated promise of the new preparation in resource-saving technologies for processing soy meals and cakes.

  11. PprA phosphorylation by STPK of Deinococcus radiodurans changes its in vitro functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rajpurohit, Yogendra S.; Misra, H.S.

    2011-01-01

    Deinococcus radiodurans shows amazing resistance to both ionizing and non-ionizing radiations. This phenotype is attributed also to its efficient DNA double strand breaks (DSB) repair capability of this bacterium. PprA (pleiotropic protein promoting DNA repair) is unique to D. radiodurans and its role in gamma radiation resistance and DSB repair has been shown in this bacterium. Recombinant PrA protects dsDNA from exonuclease degradation and stimulates the DNA ends joining activity of both T4 DNA ligase and E.coli NAD ligase in vitro. Phosphomotif search showed that PprA has putative phosphorylation site similar to that is characterized for Ser/Thr protein kinases in eukaryotic system. A eukaryotic type Ser/Thr protein kinase (DR2518) of D. radiodurans, could phosphorylate recombinant PprA at Thr amino acid in vitro and the phosphorylation of PprA was also observed in vivo. DR2518 kinase mediated protein phosphorylation of PprA, improves its DNA binding affinity by nearly four fold and stimulated T4 DNA ligase activity more towards intermolecular ligation, as compared to unphosphorylated PprA. Interestingly, the phospho-PprA showed lesser protection of dsDNA than unphospho-PprA when incubated with exonuclease III in solution. The putative Thr of PprA was replaced with Ala (T48A) by site directed mutagenesis, which resulted in significant reduction of PprA phosphorylation by DR2518 kinase. Detailed studies on PprA phosphorylation and its functional significance would be presented. (author)

  12. CK2 phosphorylation of Schistosoma mansoni HMGB1 protein regulates its cellular traffic and secretion but not its DNA transactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Abreu da Silva, Isabel Caetano; Carneiro, Vitor Coutinho; Maciel, Renata de Moraes; da Costa, Rodrigo Furtado Madeiro; Furtado, Daniel Rodrigues; de Oliveira, Francisco Meirelles Bastos; da Silva-Neto, Mário Alberto Cardoso; Rumjanek, Franklin David; Fantappié, Marcelo Rosado

    2011-01-01

    The helminth Schistosoma mansoni parasite resides in mesenteric veins where fecundated female worms lay hundred of eggs daily. Some of the egg antigens are trapped in the liver and induce a vigorous granulomatous response. High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1), a nuclear factor, can also be secreted and act as a cytokine. Schistosome HMGB1 (SmHMGB1) is secreted by the eggs and stimulate the production of key cytokines involved in the pathology of schistosomiasis. Thus, understanding the mechanism of SmHMGB1 release becomes mandatory. Here, we addressed the question of how the nuclear SmHMGB1 can reach the extracellular space. We showed in vitro and in vivo that CK2 phosphorylation was involved in the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of SmHMGB1. By site-directed mutagenesis we mapped the two serine residues of SmHMGB1 that were phosphorylated by CK2. By DNA bending and supercoiling assays we showed that CK2 phosphorylation of SmHMGB1 had no effect in the DNA binding activities of the protein. We showed by electron microscopy, as well as by cell transfection and fluorescence microscopy that SmHMGB1 was present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of adult schistosomes and mammalian cells. In addition, we showed that treatments of the cells with either a phosphatase or a CK2 inhibitor were able to enhance or block, respectively, the cellular traffic of SmHMGB1. Importantly, we showed by confocal microscopy and biochemically that SmHMGB1 is significantly secreted by S. mansoni eggs of infected animals and that SmHMGB1 that were localized in the periovular schistosomotic granuloma were phosphorylated. We showed that secretion of SmHMGB1 is regulated by phosphorylation. Moreover, our results suggest that egg-secreted SmHMGB1 may represent a new egg antigen. Therefore, the identification of drugs that specifically target phosphorylation of SmHMGB1 might block its secretion and interfere with the pathogenesis of schistosomiasis.

  13. CK2 phosphorylation of Schistosoma mansoni HMGB1 protein regulates its cellular traffic and secretion but not its DNA transactions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isabel Caetano de Abreu da Silva

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The helminth Schistosoma mansoni parasite resides in mesenteric veins where fecundated female worms lay hundred of eggs daily. Some of the egg antigens are trapped in the liver and induce a vigorous granulomatous response. High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1, a nuclear factor, can also be secreted and act as a cytokine. Schistosome HMGB1 (SmHMGB1 is secreted by the eggs and stimulate the production of key cytokines involved in the pathology of schistosomiasis. Thus, understanding the mechanism of SmHMGB1 release becomes mandatory. Here, we addressed the question of how the nuclear SmHMGB1 can reach the extracellular space. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We showed in vitro and in vivo that CK2 phosphorylation was involved in the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of SmHMGB1. By site-directed mutagenesis we mapped the two serine residues of SmHMGB1 that were phosphorylated by CK2. By DNA bending and supercoiling assays we showed that CK2 phosphorylation of SmHMGB1 had no effect in the DNA binding activities of the protein. We showed by electron microscopy, as well as by cell transfection and fluorescence microscopy that SmHMGB1 was present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of adult schistosomes and mammalian cells. In addition, we showed that treatments of the cells with either a phosphatase or a CK2 inhibitor were able to enhance or block, respectively, the cellular traffic of SmHMGB1. Importantly, we showed by confocal microscopy and biochemically that SmHMGB1 is significantly secreted by S. mansoni eggs of infected animals and that SmHMGB1 that were localized in the periovular schistosomotic granuloma were phosphorylated. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that secretion of SmHMGB1 is regulated by phosphorylation. Moreover, our results suggest that egg-secreted SmHMGB1 may represent a new egg antigen. Therefore, the identification of drugs that specifically target phosphorylation of SmHMGB1 might block its secretion and interfere with the pathogenesis of schistosomiasis.

  14. Insulin treatment promotes tyrosine phosphorylation of PKR and inhibits polyIC induced PKR threonine phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swetha, Medchalmi; Ramaiah, Kolluru V A

    2015-11-01

    Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor beta (IRβ) in insulin treated HepG2 cells is inversely correlated to ser(51) phosphorylation in the alpha-subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2α) that regulates protein synthesis. Insulin stimulates interaction between IRβ and PKR, double stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase, also known as EIF2AK2, and phosphorylation of tyrosine residues in PKR, as analyzed by immunoprecipitation and pull down assays using anti-IRβ and anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies, recombinant IRβ and immunopurified PKR. Further polyIC or synthetic double stranded RNA-induced threonine phosphorylation or activation of immunopurified and cellular PKR is suppressed in the presence of insulin treated purified IRβ and cell extracts. Acute, but not chronic, insulin treatment enhances tyrosine phosphorylation of IRβ, its interaction with PKR and tyrosine phosphorylation of PKR. In contrast, lipopolysaccharide that stimulates threonine phosphorylation of PKR and eIF2α phosphorylation and AG 1024, an inhibitor of the tyrosine kinase activity of IRβ, reduces PKR association with the receptor, IRβ in HepG2 cells. These findings therefore may suggest that tyrosine phosphorylated PKR plays a role in the regulation of insulin induced protein synthesis and in maintaining insulin sensitivity, whereas, suppression of polyIC-mediated threonine phosphorylation of PKR by insulin compromises its ability to fight against virus infection in host cells. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. LOCALIZATION OF POLYSOME-BOUND ALBUMIN AND SERINE DEHYDRATASE IN RAT LIVER CELL FRACTIONS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikehara, Yukio; Pitot, Henry C.

    1973-01-01

    The polysomes involved in albumin and serine dehydratase synthesis were identified and localized by the binding to rat liver polysomes of anti-rat serum albumin and anti-serine dehydratase [125I]Fab dimer and monomer. Techniques were developed for the isolation of undegraded free and membrane-bound polysomes and for the preparation of [125I]Fab monomers and dimers from the IgG obtained from the antisera to the two proteins, rat serum albumin and serine dehydratase. The distribution of anti-rat serum albumin [125I]Fab dimer in the polysome profile is in accordance with the size of polysomes that are expected to be synthesizing albumin. By direct precipitation, it has been demonstrated that nascent chains isolated from the membrane-bound polysomes by puromycin were precipitated by anti-rat serum albumin-IgG at a level of 5–6 times those released from free polysomes. Anti-rat serum albumin-[125I]Fab dimer reacted with membrane-bound polysomes almost exclusively compared to the binding of nonimmune, control [125I]Fab dimer; a significant degree of binding of anti-rat serum albumin-[125I]Fab to free polysomes was also obtained. The [125I]Fab dimer made from normal control rabbit serum does not react with polysomes from liver at all and this preparation will not interact with polysomes extracted from tissues that do not synthesize rat serum albumin. Both anti-serine dehydratase-[125I]Fab monomer and dimer react with free and bound polysomes from livers of animals fed a chow diet or those fed a high 90% protein diet and given glucagon. In the latter instance, however, it is clear that the majority of the binding occurs to the bound polysomes. Furthermore, the specificity of this reaction may be further shown by the use of kidney polysomes that do not normally synthesize serine dehydratase. When these latter polysomes are isolated, even after the addition of crude and purified serine dehydratase, no reaction with anti-serine dehydratase-Fab fragments could be

  16. Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles synthesized from serine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jayaprakash, N. [Catalysis and Nanomaterials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Loyola College, Chennai 600 034 (India); SRM Valliammai Engineering College, Department of Chemistry, Chennai 603 203 (India); Judith Vijaya, J., E-mail: jjvijayaloyola@yahoo.co.in [Catalysis and Nanomaterials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Loyola College, Chennai 600 034 (India); John Kennedy, L. [Materials Division, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Chennai Campus, Chennai 600 048 (India); Priadharsini, K.; Palani, P. [Department of Center for Advanced Study in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025 (India)

    2015-04-01

    Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were synthesized by a simple microwave irradiation method using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent and serine as a reducing agent. UV–Visible spectra were used to confirm the formation of Ag NPs by observing the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at 443 nm. The emission spectrum of Ag NPs showed an emission band at 484 nm. In the presence of microwave radiation, serine acts as a reducing agent, which was confirmed by Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectrum. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) were used to investigate the morphology of the synthesized sample. These images showed the sphere-like morphology. The elemental composition of the sample was determined by the energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) was used to find the crystalline nature of the Ag NPs. The electrochemical behavior of the synthesized Ag NPs was analyzed by the cyclic voltammetry (CV). Antibacterial experiments showed that the prepared Ag NPs showed relatively similar antibacterial activities, when compared with AgNO{sub 3} against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. - Highlights: • Microwave irradiation method is used to synthesize silver nanoparticles. • Highly stable silver nanoparticles are produced from serine. • A detailed study of antibacterial activities is discussed. • Formation mechanism of silver microspheres has been proposed.

  17. Distinctive Roles of D-Amino Acids in the Homochiral World: Chirality of Amino Acids Modulates Mammalian Physiology and Pathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sasabe, Jumpei; Suzuki, Masataka

    2018-05-22

    Living organisms enantioselectively employ L-amino acids as the molecular architecture of protein synthesized in the ribosome. Although L-amino acids are dominantly utilized in most biological processes, accumulating evidence points to the distinctive roles of D-amino acids in non-ribosomal physiology. Among the three domains of life, bacteria have the greatest capacity to produce a wide variety of D-amino acids. In contrast, archaea and eukaryotes are thought generally to synthesize only two kinds of D-amino acids: D-serine and D-aspartate. In mammals, D-serine is critical for neurotransmission as an endogenous coagonist of N-methyl D-aspartate receptors. Additionally, D-aspartate is associated with neurogenesis and endocrine systems. Furthermore, recognition of D-amino acids originating in bacteria is linked to systemic and mucosal innate immunity. Among the roles played by D-amino acids in human pathology, the dysfunction of neurotransmission mediated by D-serine is implicated in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Non-enzymatic conversion of L-aspartate or L-serine residues to their D-configurations is involved in age-associated protein degeneration. Moreover, the measurement of plasma or urinary D-/L-serine or D-/L-aspartate levels may have diagnostic or prognostic value in the treatment of kidney diseases. This review aims to summarize current understanding of D-amino-acid-associated biology with a major focus on mammalian physiology and pathology.

  18. Cdc25A promotes cell survival by stimulating NF-κB activity through IκB-α phosphorylation and destabilization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong, Hey-Young; Choi, Jiyeon; Cho, Young-Wook; Kim, Byung-Chul

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► We examine the antiapoptotic mechanisms of Cdc25A. ► Smad7 decreases the phosphorylation of IκB-alpha at Ser-32. ► Smad7 positively regulates NF-κB activity through IκB-alpha ubiquitination. -- Abstract: Cell division cycle 25A (Cdc25A), a dual specificity protein phosphatase, exhibits anti-apoptotic activity, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly characterized. Here we report that Cdc25A inhibits cisplatin-induced apoptotic cell death by stimulating nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activity. In HEK-293 cells, Cdc25A decreased protein level of inhibitor subunit kappa B alpha (Iκ-Bα) in association with increased serine 32-phosphorylation, followed by stimulation of transcriptional activity of NF-κB. Inhibition of NF-κB activity by chemical inhibitor or overexpression of Iκ-Bα in Cdc25A-elevated cancer cells resistant to cisplatin improved their sensitivity to cisplatin-induced apoptosis. Our data show for the first time that Cdc25A has an important physiological role in NF-κB activity regulation and it may be an important survival mechanism of cancer cells.

  19. Phosphorylation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Ser/Thr phosphatase by PknA and PknB.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andaleeb Sajid

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available The integrated functions of 11 Ser/Thr protein kinases (STPKs and one phosphatase manipulate the phosphorylation levels of critical proteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, we show that the lone Ser/Thr phosphatase (PstP is regulated through phosphorylation by STPKs.PstP is phosphorylated by PknA and PknB and phosphorylation is influenced by the presence of Zn(2+-ions and inorganic phosphate (Pi. PstP is differentially phosphorylated on the cytosolic domain with Thr(137, Thr(141, Thr(174 and Thr(290 being the target residues of PknB while Thr(137 and Thr(174 are phosphorylated by PknA. The Mn(2+-ion binding residues Asp(38 and Asp(229 are critical for the optimal activity of PstP and substitution of these residues affects its phosphorylation status. Native PstP and its phosphatase deficient mutant PstP(c (D38G are phosphorylated by PknA and PknB in E. coli and addition of Zn(2+/Pi in the culture conditions affect the phosphorylation level of PstP. Interestingly, the phosphorylated phosphatase is more active than its unphosphorylated equivalent.This study establishes the novel mechanisms for regulation of mycobacterial Ser/Thr phosphatase. The results indicate that STPKs and PstP may regulate the signaling through mutually dependent mechanisms. Consequently, PstP phosphorylation may play a critical role in regulating its own activity. Since, the equilibrium between phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated states of mycobacterial proteins is still unexplained, understanding the regulation of PstP may help in deciphering the signal transduction pathways mediated by STPKs and the reversibility of the phenomena.

  20. dbPAF: an integrative database of protein phosphorylation in animals and fungi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ullah, Shahid; Lin, Shaofeng; Xu, Yang; Deng, Wankun; Ma, Lili; Zhang, Ying; Liu, Zexian; Xue, Yu

    2016-03-24

    Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications (PTMs) and regulates a broad spectrum of biological processes. Recent progresses in phosphoproteomic identifications have generated a flood of phosphorylation sites, while the integration of these sites is an urgent need. In this work, we developed a curated database of dbPAF, containing known phosphorylation sites in H. sapiens, M. musculus, R. norvegicus, D. melanogaster, C. elegans, S. pombe and S. cerevisiae. From the scientific literature and public databases, we totally collected and integrated 54,148 phosphoproteins with 483,001 phosphorylation sites. Multiple options were provided for accessing the data, while original references and other annotations were also present for each phosphoprotein. Based on the new data set, we computationally detected significantly over-represented sequence motifs around phosphorylation sites, predicted potential kinases that are responsible for the modification of collected phospho-sites, and evolutionarily analyzed phosphorylation conservation states across different species. Besides to be largely consistent with previous reports, our results also proposed new features of phospho-regulation. Taken together, our database can be useful for further analyses of protein phosphorylation in human and other model organisms. The dbPAF database was implemented in PHP + MySQL and freely available at http://dbpaf.biocuckoo.org.

  1. Intervention with Serine Protease Activity with Small Peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Peng

    2015-01-01

    Serine proteases perform proteolytic reactions in many physiological and metabolic processes and have been certified as targets for therapeutics. Small peptides can be used as potent antagonists to target serine proteases and intervene with their activities. Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u......PA) plays an important role in plasminogen activation system, which has many physiological and pathological functions and is closely associated with the metastasis of tumor cells. Based on a mono-cyclic peptidic inhibitor of murine uPA (muPA), mupain-1, which was screened out from a phage-display library...... before, we elucidated the binding and inhibitory mechanism by using multiple techniques, like X-ray crystallography, site-directed mutagenesis, isothermal titration calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance analysis. By studying the peptide-enzyme interaction, we discovered an unusual inhibitor...

  2. Impaired insulin-induced site-specific phosphorylation of TBC1 domain family, member 4 (TBC1D4) in skeletal muscle of type 2 diabetes patients is restored by endurance exercise-training

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vind, B. F.; Pehmøller, Christian; Treebak, Jonas Thue

    2011-01-01

    AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Insulin-mediated glucose disposal rates (R (d)) are reduced in type 2 diabetic patients, a process in which intrinsic signalling defects are thought to be involved. Phosphorylation of TBC1 domain family, member 4 (TBC1D4) is at present the most distal insulin receptor signalling...... event linked to glucose transport. In this study, we examined insulin action on site-specific phosphorylation of TBC1D4 and the effect of exercise training on insulin action and signalling to TBC1D4 in skeletal muscle from type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS: During a 3 h euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic (80...... mU min(-1) m(-2)) clamp, we obtained M. vastus lateralis biopsies from 13 obese type 2 diabetic and 13 obese, non-diabetic control individuals before and after 10 weeks of endurance exercise-training. RESULTS: Before training, reductions in insulin-stimulated R (d), together with impaired insulin...

  3. Serine esterase and hemolytic activity in human cloned cytotoxic T lymphocytes

    OpenAIRE

    1988-01-01

    Target cell lysis by most murine cytotoxic T lymphocytes appears to be mediated by a complement (C9)-like protein called perforin, contained in high-density cytoplasmic granules. These granules also contain high levels of serine esterase activity, which may also play a role in cytolysis. Analysis of 17 cloned human cytotoxic T lymphocytes revealed the presence of serine esterase that is very similar to its murine counterpart in substrate and inhibitor specificities, pH optimum, and molecular ...

  4. Tobacco-specific carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) induces cell proliferation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells through NFκB activation and cyclin D1 up-regulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ho, Y.-S.; Chen, Chien-Ho; Wang, Y.-J.; Pestell, Richard G.; Albanese, Chris; Chen, R.-J.; Chang, M.-C.; Jeng, J.-H.; Lin, S.-Y.; Liang, Y.-C.; Tseng, H.; Lee, W.-S.; Lin, J.-K.; Chu, J.-S.; Chen, L.-C.; Lee, C.-H.; Tso, W.-L.; Lai, Y.-C.; Wu, C.-H.

    2005-01-01

    Cigarette smoke contains several carcinogens known to initiate and promote tumorigenesis as well as metastasis. Nicotine is one of the major components of the cigarette smoke and the 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is a tobacco-specific carcinogen. Here, we demonstrated that NNK stimulated cell proliferation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) and small airway epithelial cells (SAEC). Cells exposed to NNK resulted in an increase in the level of cyclin D1 protein (as early as 3-6 h). Increased phosphorylation of the Rb Ser 795 was detected at 6-15 h after NNK treatment and thereby promoted cells entering into the S phase (at 15-21 h). The increased cyclin D1 protein level was induced through activation of the transcription factor, nuclear factor kB (NFκB), in the NHBE cells. Treatment of the NHBE cells with PD98059, an ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase)-specific inhibitor, specifically suppressed the NNK-induced IκBα phosphorylation at position 32 of the serine residue, suggesting that the ERK1/2 kinase was involved in the IκBα phosphorylation induced by NFκB activation. To determine whether the NNK-induced NFκB activation and cyclin D1 induction were also observed in vivo, A/J mice were treated with NNK (9.1 mg) for 20 weeks and the results showed a significant induction of cyclin D1 and NFκB translocation determined by immunoblotting analyses. We further demonstrated that the nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAchR), which contains the α3-subunit, was the major target mediating NNK-induced cyclin D1 expression in the NHBE cells. In summary, our findings demonstrate for the first time that NNK could stimulate normal human bronchial cell proliferation through activation of the NFκB, which in turn up-regulated the cyclin D1 expression

  5. Pnserpin: A Novel Serine Protease Inhibitor from Extremophile Pyrobaculum neutrophilum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huan Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Serine protease inhibitors (serpins are native inhibitors of serine proteases, constituting a large protein family with members spread over eukaryotes and prokaryotes. However, only very few prokaryotic serpins, especially from extremophiles, have been characterized to date. In this study, Pnserpin, a putative serine protease inhibitor from the thermophile Pyrobaculum neutrophilum, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli for purification and characterization. It irreversibly inhibits chymotrypsin-, trypsin-, elastase-, and subtilisin-like proteases in a temperature range from 20 to 100 °C in a concentration-dependent manner. The stoichiometry of inhibition (SI of Pnserpin for proteases decreases as the temperature increases, indicating that the inhibitory activity of Pnserpin increases with the temperature. SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that Pnserpin inhibits proteases by forming a SDS-resistant covalent complex. Homology modeling and molecular dynamic simulations predicted that Pnserpin can form a stable common serpin fold. Results of the present work will help in understanding the structural and functional characteristics of thermophilic serpin and will broaden the current knowledge about serpins from extremophiles.

  6. Inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation in ascites tumor mitochondria and cells by intramitochondrial Ca2+.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villalobo, A; Lehninger, A L

    1980-03-25

    Accumulation of Ca2+ (+ phosphate) by respiring mitochondria from Ehrlich ascites or AS30-D hepatoma tumor cells inhibits subsequent phosphorylating respiration in response to ADP. The respiratory chain is still functional since a proton-conducting uncoupler produces a normal stimulation of electron transport. The inhibition of phosphorylating respiration is caused by intramitochondrial Ca2+ (+ phosphate). ATP + Mg2+ together, but not singly, prevents the inhibitory action of Ca2+. Neither AMP, GTP, GDP, nor any other nucleoside 5'-triphosphate or 5'-diphosphate could replace ATP in this effect. Phosphorylating respiration on NAD(NADP)-linked substrates was much more susceptible to the inhibitory effect of intramitochondrial Ca2+ than succinate-linked respiration. Significant inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation is given by the endogenous Ca2+ present in freshly isolated tumor mitochondria. The phosphorylating respiration of permeabilized Ehrlich ascites tumor cells is also inhibited by Ca2+ accumulated by the mitochondria in situ. Possible causes of the Ca2+-induced inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation are considered.

  7. Phosphorylation of a splice variant of collapsin response mediator protein 2 in the nucleus of tumour cells links cyclin dependent kinase-5 to oncogenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Nicola J; Coates, Philip J; Woods, Yvonne L; Bray, Susan E; Morrice, Nicholas A; Hastie, C James; Lamont, Douglas J; Carey, Francis A; Sutherland, Calum

    2015-11-10

    Cyclin-dependent protein kinase-5 (CDK5) is an unusual member of the CDK family as it is not cell cycle regulated. However many of its substrates have roles in cell growth and oncogenesis, raising the possibility that CDK5 modulation could have therapeutic benefit. In order to establish whether changes in CDK5 activity are associated with oncogenesis one could quantify phosphorylation of CDK5 targets in disease tissue in comparison to appropriate controls. However the identity of physiological and pathophysiological CDK5 substrates remains the subject of debate, making the choice of CDK5 activity biomarkers difficult. Here we use in vitro and in cell phosphorylation assays to identify novel features of CDK5 target sequence determinants that confer enhanced CDK5 selectivity, providing means to select substrate biomarkers of CDK5 activity with more confidence. We then characterize tools for the best CDK5 substrate we identified to monitor its phosphorylation in human tissue and use these to interrogate human tumour arrays. The close proximity of Arg/Lys amino acids and a proline two residues N-terminal to the phosphorylated residue both improve recognition of the substrate by CDK5. In contrast the presence of a proline two residues C-terminal to the target residue dramatically reduces phosphorylation rate. Serine-522 of Collapsin Response Mediator-2 (CRMP2) is a validated CDK5 substrate with many of these structural criteria. We generate and characterise phosphospecific antibodies to Ser522 and show that phosphorylation appears in human tumours (lung, breast, and lymphoma) in stark contrast to surrounding non-neoplastic tissue. In lung cancer the anti-phospho-Ser522 signal is positive in squamous cell carcinoma more frequently than adenocarcinoma. Finally we demonstrate that it is a specific and unusual splice variant of CRMP2 (CRMP2A) that is phosphorylated in tumour cells. For the first time this data associates altered CDK5 substrate phosphorylation with

  8. Roles of the cytoskeleton and of Protein Phosphorylation Events in the Osmotic Stress Response in EEL Intestinal Epithelium

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lionetto, Maria G; Pedersen, Stine F; Hoffmann, Else K

    2002-01-01

    The eel intestinal epithelium responds to an acute hypertonic challenge by a biphasic increase of the rate of Cl(-) absorption (measured as short circuit current, Isc, and creating a negative transepithelial potential, V(te), at the basolateral side of the epithelium). While the first, transient...... phase is bumetanide-insensitive, the second, sustained phase is bumetanide-sensitive, reflecting activation of the apically located Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) (NKCC) cotransporter, which correlates with the cellular RVI response. Here, we investigated the involvement of the cytoskeleton and of serine....../threonine phosphorylation events in the osmotic stress-induced ion transport in the eel intestinal epithelium, focusing on the sustained RVI phase, as well as on the previously uncharacterized response to hypotonic stress. The study was carried out using confocal laser scanning microscopy, a quantitative F-actin assay...

  9. Dopaminergic and cholinergic regulation of Fyn tyrosine kinase phosphorylation in the rat striatum in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Li-Min; Wang, John Q

    2015-12-01

    Src and Fyn are two Src family kinase (SFK) members that are expressed in mammalian brains and play important roles in the regulation of a variety of neuronal and synaptic substrates. Here we investigated the responsiveness of these SFKs to changing dopamine receptor signals in dopamine responsive regions of adult rat brains in vivo. Pharmacological activation of dopamine D1 receptors (D1Rs) by a systemic injection of the selective agonist SKF81297 increased phosphorylation of SFKs at a conserved and activation-associated autophosphorylation site (Y416) in the striatum, indicating activation of SFKs following SKF81297 injection. The dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) agonist quinpirole had no effect. Blockade of D1Rs with an antagonist SCH23390 did not alter striatal Y416 phosphorylation, while the D2R antagonist eticlopride elevated it. Between Src and Fyn, SKF81297 seemed to preferentially facilitate Fyn phosphorylation. Activation of muscarinic acetylcholine M4 receptors (M4Rs) with a positive allosteric modulator VU0152100 suppressed SFK Y416 responses to SKF81297. Additionally, SKF81297 induced a correlated increase in phosphorylation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor GluN2B subunits at a Fyn site (Y1472), which was attenuated by VU0152100. SKF81297 also enhanced synaptic recruitments of active Fyn and GluN1/GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors. These data demonstrate that D1Rs regulate Fyn and downstream NMDA receptors in striatal neurons in vivo. Acetylcholine through activating M4Rs inhibits Fyn and NMDA receptors in their sensitivity to D1R signaling. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Phosphorylation of TET proteins is regulated via O-GlcNAcylation by the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Christina; Göbel, Klaus; Nagaraj, Nagarjuna; Colantuoni, Christian; Wang, Mengxi; Müller, Udo; Kremmer, Elisabeth; Rottach, Andrea; Leonhardt, Heinrich

    2015-02-20

    TET proteins oxidize 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine, and 5-carboxylcytosine and thus provide a possible means for active DNA demethylation in mammals. Although their catalytic mechanism is well characterized and the catalytic dioxygenase domain is highly conserved, the function of the regulatory regions (the N terminus and the low-complexity insert between the two parts of the dioxygenase domains) is only poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that TET proteins are subject to a variety of post-translational modifications that mostly occur at these regulatory regions. We mapped TET modification sites at amino acid resolution and show for the first time that TET1, TET2, and TET3 are highly phosphorylated. The O-linked GlcNAc transferase, which we identified as a strong interactor with all three TET proteins, catalyzes the addition of a GlcNAc group to serine and threonine residues of TET proteins and thereby decreases both the number of phosphorylation sites and site occupancy. Interestingly, the different TET proteins display unique post-translational modification patterns, and some modifications occur in distinct combinations. In summary, our results provide a novel potential mechanism for TET protein regulation based on a dynamic interplay of phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation at the N terminus and the low-complexity insert region. Our data suggest strong cross-talk between the modification sites that could allow rapid adaption of TET protein localization, activity, or targeting due to changing environmental conditions as well as in response to external stimuli. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  11. PKA regulates calcineurin function through the phosphorylation of RCAN1: Identification of a novel phosphorylation site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Seon Sook; Lee, Eun Hye; Lee, Kooyeon; Jo, Su-Hyun; Seo, Su Ryeon

    2015-01-01

    Calcineurin is a calcium/calmodulin-dependent phosphatase that has been implicated in T cell activation through the induction of nuclear factors of activated T cells (NFAT). We have previously suggested that endogenous regulator of calcineurin (RCAN1, also known as DSCR1) is targeted by protein kinase A (PKA) for the control of calcineurin activity. In the present study, we characterized the PKA-mediated phosphorylation site in RCAN1 by mass spectrometric analysis and revealed that PKA directly phosphorylated RCAN1 at the Ser 93. PKA-induced phosphorylation and the increase in the half-life of the RCAN1 protein were prevented by the substitution of Ser 93 with Ala (S93A). Furthermore, the PKA-mediated phosphorylation of RCAN1 at Ser 93 potentiated the inhibition of calcineurin-dependent pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression by RCAN1. Our results suggest the presence of a novel phosphorylation site in RCAN1 and that its phosphorylation influences calcineurin-dependent inflammatory target gene expression. - Highlights: • We identify novel phosphorylation sites in RCAN1 by LC-MS/MS analysis. • PKA-dependent phosphorylation of RCAN1 at Ser 93 inhibits calcineurin-mediated intracellular signaling. • We show the immunosuppressive function of RCAN1 phosphorylation at Ser 93 in suppressing cytokine expression

  12. D-glyceric aciduria is caused by genetic deficiency of D-glycerate kinase (GLYCTK)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sass, Jörn Oliver; Fischer, Kathleen; Wang, Raymond

    2010-01-01

    D-glyceric aciduria is a rare inborn error of serine and fructose metabolism that was first described in 1974. Most affected individuals have presented with neurological symptoms. The molecular basis of D-glyceric aciduria is largely unknown; possible causes that have been discussed are deficienc...

  13. The three α1-adrenoceptor subtypes show different spatio-temporal mechanisms of internalization and ERK1/2 phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perez-Aso, M; Segura, V; Montó, F; Barettino, D; Noguera, M A; Milligan, G; D'Ocon, P

    2013-10-01

    We analyzed the kinetic and spatial patterns characterizing activation of the MAP kinases ERK 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) by the three α1-adrenoceptor (α1-AR) subtypes in HEK293 cells and the contribution of two different pathways to ERK1/2 phosphorylation: protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent ERK1/2 activation and internalization-dependent ERK1/2 activation. The different pathways of phenylephrine induced ERK phosphorylation were determined by western blot, using the PKC inhibitor Ro 31-8425, the receptor internalization inhibitor concanavalin A and the siRNA targeting β-arrestin 2. Receptor internalization properties were studied using CypHer5 technology and VSV-G epitope-tagged receptors. Activation of α1A- and α1B-ARs by phenylephrine elicited rapid ERK1/2 phosphorylation that was directed to the nucleus and inhibited by Ro 31-8425. Concomitant with phenylephrine induced receptor internalization α1A-AR, but not α1B-AR, produced a maintained and PKC-independent ERK phosphorylation, which was restricted to the cytosol and inhibited by β-arrestin 2 knockdown or concanavalin A treatment. α1D-AR displayed constitutive ERK phosphorylation, which was reduced by incubation with prazosin or the selective α1D antagonist BMY7378. Following activation by phenylephrine, α1D-AR elicited rapid, transient ERK1/2 phosphorylation that was restricted to the cytosol and not inhibited by Ro 31-8425. Internalization of the α1D-AR subtype was not observed via CypHer5 technology. The three α1-AR subtypes present different spatio-temporal patterns of receptor internalization, and only α1A-AR stimulation translates to a late, sustained ERK1/2 phosphorylation that is restricted to the cytosol and dependent on β-arrestin 2 mediated internalization. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. SIMAC - A phosphoproteomic strategy for the rapid separation of mono-phosphorylated from multiply phosphorylated peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thingholm, Tine E; Jensen, Ole N; Robinson, Phillip J

    2008-01-01

    spectrometric analysis, such as immobilized metal affinity chromatography or titanium dioxide the coverage of the phosphoproteome of a given sample is limited. Here we report a simple and rapid strategy - SIMAC - for sequential separation of mono-phosphorylated peptides and multiply phosphorylated peptides from...... and an optimized titanium dioxide chromatographic method. More than double the total number of identified phosphorylation sites was obtained with SIMAC, primarily from a three-fold increase in recovery of multiply phosphorylated peptides....

  15. Targeting NF-κB RelA/p65 phosphorylation overcomes RITA resistance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bu, Yiwen; Cai, Guoshuai; Shen, Yi; Huang, Chenfei; Zeng, Xi; Cao, Yu; Cai, Chuan; Wang, Yuhong; Huang, Dan; Liao, Duan-Fang; Cao, Deliang

    2016-12-28

    Inactivation of p53 occurs frequently in various cancers. RITA is a promising anticancer small molecule that dissociates p53-MDM2 interaction, reactivates p53 and induces exclusive apoptosis in cancer cells, but acquired RITA resistance remains a major drawback. This study found that the site-differential phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) RelA/p65 creates a barcode for RITA chemosensitivity in cancer cells. In naïve MCF7 and HCT116 cells where RITA triggered vast apoptosis, phosphorylation of RelA/p65 increased at Ser536, but decreased at Ser276 and Ser468; oppositely, in RITA-resistant cells, RelA/p65 phosphorylation decreased at Ser536, but increased at Ser276 and Ser468. A phosphomimetic mutation at Ser536 (p65/S536D) or silencing of endogenous RelA/p65 resensitized the RITA-resistant cells to RITA while the phosphomimetic mutant at Ser276 (p65/S276D) led to RITA resistance of naïve cells. In mouse xenografts, intratumoral delivery of the phosphomimetic p65/S536D mutant increased the antitumor activity of RITA. Furthermore, in the RITA-resistant cells ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCC6 was upregulated, and silencing of ABCC6 expression in these cells restored RITA sensitivity. In the naïve cells, ABCC6 delivery led to RITA resistance and blockage of p65/S536D mutant-induced RITA sensitivity. Taken together, these data suggest that the site-differential phosphorylation of RelA/p65 modulates RITA sensitivity in cancer cells, which may provide an avenue to manipulate RITA resistance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Identification and purification of O-acetyl-L-serine sulphhydrylase in Penicillium chrysogenum

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    østergaard, Simon; Theilgaard, Hanne Birgitte; Nielsen, Jens Bredal

    1998-01-01

    We have demonstrated that Penicillium chrysogenum possesses the L-cysteine biosynthetic enzyme O-acetyI-L-serine sulphhydrylase (EC 4.2.99.8) of the direct sulphhydrylation pathway. The finding of this enzyme, and thus the presence of the direct sulphhydrylation pathway in P. chrysogenum, creates...... the potential for increasing the overall yield in penicillin production by enhancing the enzymatic activity of this microorganism. Only O-acetyl-L-serine sulphhydrylase and O-acetyl-L-homoserine sulphhydrylase (EC 4.2.99.10) have been demonstrated to use O-acetyl-L-serine as substrate for the formation of L-cysteine....... The purified enzyme did not catalyse the formation of L-homocysteine from O-acetyl-L-homoserine and sulphide, excluding the possibility that the purified enzyme was O-acetyI-L-homoserine sulphhydrylase with multiple substrate specificity. The purification enhanced the enzymatic specific activity 93-fold...

  17. ABA-Induced Stomatal Closure Involves ALMT4, a Phosphorylation-Dependent Vacuolar Anion Channel of Arabidopsis[OPEN

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baetz, Ulrike; Huck, Nicola V.; Zhang, Jingbo

    2017-01-01

    Stomatal pores are formed between a pair of guard cells and allow plant uptake of CO2 and water evaporation. Their aperture depends on changes in osmolyte concentration of guard cell vacuoles, specifically of K+ and Mal2−. Efflux of Mal2− from the vacuole is required for stomatal closure; however, it is not clear how the anion is released. Here, we report the identification of ALMT4 (ALUMINUM ACTIVATED MALATE TRANSPORTER4) as an Arabidopsis thaliana ion channel that can mediate Mal2− release from the vacuole and is required for stomatal closure in response to abscisic acid (ABA). Knockout mutants showed impaired stomatal closure in response to the drought stress hormone ABA and increased whole-plant wilting in response to drought and ABA. Electrophysiological data show that ALMT4 can mediate Mal2− efflux and that the channel activity is dependent on a phosphorylatable C-terminal serine. Dephosphomimetic mutants of ALMT4 S382 showed increased channel activity and Mal2− efflux. Reconstituting the active channel in almt4 mutants impaired growth and stomatal opening. Phosphomimetic mutants were electrically inactive and phenocopied the almt4 mutants. Surprisingly, S382 can be phosphorylated by mitogen-activated protein kinases in vitro. In brief, ALMT4 likely mediates Mal2− efflux during ABA-induced stomatal closure and its activity depends on phosphorylation. PMID:28874508

  18. Mutational properties of amino acid residues: implications for evolvability of phosphorylatable residues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Creixell, Pau; Schoof, Erwin M.; Tan, Chris Soon Heng

    2012-01-01

    in terms of their mutational activity. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the genetic code and physico-chemical properties of the amino acid residues as likely causes of these inequalities and uncover serine as a mutational hot spot. Finally, we explore the consequences that these different......; it is typically assumed that all amino acid residues are equally likely to mutate or to result from a mutation. Here, by reconstructing ancestral sequences and computing mutational probabilities for all the amino acid residues, we refute this assumption and show extensive inequalities between different residues...... mutational properties have on phosphorylation site evolution, showing that a higher degree of evolvability exists for phosphorylated threonine and, to a lesser extent, serine in comparison with tyrosine residues. As exemplified by the suppression of serine's mutational activity in phosphorylation sites, our...

  19. Rotavirus NSP1 Requires Casein Kinase II-Mediated Phosphorylation for Hijacking of Cullin-RING Ligases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Kaitlin A; Morelli, Marco; Patton, John T

    2017-08-29

    The rotavirus nonstructural protein NSP1 repurposes cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligases (CRLs) to antagonize innate immune responses. By functioning as substrate adaptors of hijacked CRLs, NSP1 causes ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of host proteins that are essential for expression of interferon (IFN) and IFN-stimulated gene products. The target of most human and porcine rotaviruses is the β-transducin repeat-containing protein (β-TrCP), a regulator of NF-κB activation. β-TrCP recognizes a phosphorylated degron (DSGΦXS) present in the inhibitor of NF-κB (IκB); phosphorylation of the IκB degron is mediated by IκB kinase (IKK). Because NSP1 contains a C-terminal IκB-like degron (ILD; DSGXS) that recruits β-TrCP, we investigated whether the NSP1 ILD is similarly activated by phosphorylation and whether this modification is required to trigger the incorporation of NSP1 into CRLs. Based on mutagenesis and phosphatase treatment studies, we found that both serine residues of the NSP1 ILD are phosphorylated, a pattern mimicking phosphorylation of IκB. A three-pronged approach using small-molecule inhibitors, small interfering RNAs, and mutagenesis demonstrated that NSP1 phosphorylation is mediated by the constitutively active casein kinase II (CKII), rather than IKK. In coimmunoprecipitation assays, we found that this modification was essential for NSP1 recruitment of β-TrCP and induced changes involving the NSP1 N-terminal RING motif that allowed formation of Cul3-NSP1 complexes. Taken together, our results indicate a highly regulated stepwise process in the formation of NSP1-Cul3 CRLs that is initiated by CKII phosphorylation of NSP1, followed by NSP1 recruitment of β-TrCP and ending with incorporation of the NSP1-β-TrCP complex into the CRL via interactions dependent on the highly conserved NSP1 RING motif. IMPORTANCE Rotavirus is a segmented double-stranded RNA virus that causes severe diarrhea in young children. A primary mechanism used by the

  20. H2O2 Treatment of HUVECs Facilitates PKC Mediated Thr495 Phosphorylation on eNOS when Pre-treated with High Glucose Levels

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guterbaum, Thomas J; Braunstein, Thomas H; Fossum, Anna

    2015-01-01

    Objective: Metabolic syndrome entails hypertension, hyperglycemia, obesity and hypercholesterolemia. This syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Hyperglycemia during coronary reperfusion is associated with a poor prognosis. Contrastingly, targeting correction of hyper......Objective: Metabolic syndrome entails hypertension, hyperglycemia, obesity and hypercholesterolemia. This syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Hyperglycemia during coronary reperfusion is associated with a poor prognosis. Contrastingly, targeting correction....... The presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in both mitochondria and cytoplasm was measured by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). Phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) on threonine 495 (Thr495) and serine 1177 (Ser1177) was assessed by western blotting. Short-term (20 hours...

  1. A clip domain serine protease involved in moulting in the silkworm, Bombyx mori: cloning, characterization, expression patterns and functional analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, H-W; Wang, L-L; Meng, Z; Tang, X; Li, Y-S; Xia, Q-Y; Zhao, P

    2017-10-01

    Clip domain serine proteases (CLIPs), characterized by one or more conserved clip domains, are essential components of extracellular signalling cascades in various biological processes, especially in innate immunity and the embryonic development of insects. Additionally, CLIPs may have additional non-immune functions in insect development. In the present study, the clip domain serine protease gene Bombyx mori serine protease 95 (BmSP95), which encodes a 527-residue protein, was cloned from the integument of B. mori. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that BmSP95 is a typical CLIP of the subfamily D and possesses a clip domain at the N terminus, a trypsin-like serine protease (tryp_spc) domain at the C terminus and a conserved proline-rich motif between these two domains. At the transcriptional level, BmSP95 is expressed in the integument during moulting and metamorphosis, and the expression pattern is consistent with the fluctuating 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) titre in B. mori. At the translational level, BmSP95 protein is synthesized in the epidermal cells, secreted as a zymogen and activated in the moulting fluid. Immunofluorescence revealed that BmSP95 is distributed into the old endocuticle in the moulting stage. The expression of BmSP95 was upregulated by 20E. Moreover, expression of BmSP95 was downregulated by pathogen infection. RNA interference-mediated silencing of BmSP95 led to delayed moulting from pupa to moth. These results suggest that BmSP95 is involved in integument remodelling during moulting and metamorphosis. © 2017 The Royal Entomological Society.

  2. Serine protease inhibitor A3K suppressed the formation of ocular surface squamous metaplasia in a mouse model of experimental dry eye.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Zhirong; Zhou, Yueping; Wang, Yuqian; Zhou, Tong; Li, Jie; Luo, Pingping; He, Hui; Wu, Huping; Liu, Zuguo

    2014-08-07

    To investigate the effects and possible mechanisms of serine protease inhibitor A3K (SERPINA3K) on the formation of ocular surface squamous metaplasia in a mouse dry eye model induced by topical benzalkonium chloride (BAC). The eye drops containing SERPINA3K were topically administered during the induction of BAC-induced dry eye. The clinical indications of dry eye were evaluated on day (D)16, including tear break-up time (BUT), tear volume, corneal fluorescein staining, and inflammatory index. Global specimens were collected on D16 and the following examinations were performed: histologic investigation, immunostaining of cytokeratin 10 (K10), p63 and Ki67 in the cornea, and Western blot analysis of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Serine protease inhibitor A3K suppressed the formation of BAC-induced dry eye, presenting with longer BUTs, lower corneal fluorescein staining scores, and inflammatory index, while no significant changes in tear volume. It also reduced the severity of abnormal differentiation and proliferation on ocular surface with lower expressions of K10, p63, and Ki67, and retained the number of goblet cells in the conjunctival fornix. Serine protease inhibitor A3K significantly decreased the levels of TNF-α in the cornea. Topical application of SERPINA3K ameliorated the severity of ocular surface squamous metaplasia and suppressed the formation of BAC-induced dry eye. Copyright 2014 The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.

  3. Protein Phosphorylation and Mineral Binding Affect the Secondary Structure of the Leucine-Rich Amelogenin Peptide

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hajime Yamazaki

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Previously, we have shown that serine-16 phosphorylation in native full-length porcine amelogenin (P173 and the Leucine-Rich Amelogenin Peptide (LRAP(+P, an alternative amelogenin splice product, affects protein assembly and mineralization in vitro. Notably, P173 and LRAP(+P stabilize amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP and inhibit hydroxyapatite (HA formation, while non-phosphorylated counterparts (rP172, LRAP(−P guide the growth of ordered bundles of HA crystals. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that the phosphorylation of full-length amelogenin and LRAP induces conformational changes that critically affect its capacity to interact with forming calcium phosphate mineral phases. To test this hypothesis, we have utilized Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR to determine the secondary structure of LRAP(−P and LRAP(+P in the absence/presence of calcium and selected mineral phases relevant to amelogenesis; i.e., hydroxyapatite (HA: an enamel crystal prototype and (ACP: an enamel crystal precursor phase. Aqueous solutions of LRAP(−P or LRAP(+P were prepared with or without 7.5 mM of CaCl2 at pH 7.4. FTIR spectra of each solution were obtained using attenuated total reflectance, and amide-I peaks were analyzed to provide secondary structure information. Secondary structures of LRAP(+P and LRAP(−P were similarly assessed following incubation with suspensions of HA and pyrophosphate-stabilized ACP. Amide I spectra of LRAP(−P and LRAP(+P were found to be distinct from each other in all cases. Spectra analyses showed that LRAP(−P is comprised mostly of random coil and β-sheet, while LRAP(+P exhibits more β-sheet and α-helix with little random coil. With added Ca, the random coil content increased in LRAP(−P, while LRAP(+P exhibited a decrease in α-helix components. Incubation of LRAP(−P with HA or ACP resulted in comparable increases in β-sheet structure. Notably, however, LRAP(+P secondary structure was more affected by

  4. Mobile phone base station-emitted radiation does not induce phosphorylation of Hsp27.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirose, H; Sakuma, N; Kaji, N; Nakayama, K; Inoue, K; Sekijima, M; Nojima, T; Miyakoshi, J

    2007-02-01

    An in vitro study focusing on the effects of low-level radiofrequency (RF) fields from mobile radio base stations employing the International Mobile Telecommunication 2000 (IMT-2000) cellular system was conducted to test the hypothesis that modulated RF fields act to induce phosphorylation and overexpression of heat shock protein hsp27. First, we evaluated the responses of human cells to microwave exposure at a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 80 mW/kg, which corresponds to the limit of the average whole-body SAR for general public exposure defined as a basic restriction in the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines. Second, we investigated whether continuous wave (CW) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) modulated signal RF fields at 2.1425 GHz induced activation or gene expression of hsp27 and other heat shock proteins (hsps). Human glioblastoma A172 cells were exposed to W-CDMA radiation at SARs of 80 and 800 mW/kg for 2-48 h, and CW radiation at 80 mW/kg for 24 h. Human IMR-90 fibroblasts from fetal lungs were exposed to W-CDMA at 80 and 800 mW/kg for 2 or 28 h, and CW at 80 mW/kg for 28 h. Under the RF field exposure conditions described above, no significant differences in the expression levels of phosphorylated hsp27 at serine 82 (hsp27[pS82]) were observed between the test groups exposed to W-CDMA or CW signal and the sham-exposed negative controls, as evaluated immediately after the exposure periods by bead-based multiplex assays. Moreover, no noticeable differences in the gene expression of hsps were observed between the test groups and the negative controls by DNA Chip analysis. Our results confirm that exposure to low-level RF field up to 800 mW/kg does not induce phosphorylation of hsp27 or expression of hsp gene family.

  5. Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines as novel inhibitors of O-acetyl-L-serine sulfhydrylase of Entamoeba histolytica: an in silico study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yadava, Umesh; Shukla, Bindesh Kumar; Roychoudhury, Mihir; Kumar, Devesh

    2015-04-01

    Amoebiasis, a worldwide explosive epidemic, caused by the gastrointestinal anaerobic protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica, infects the large intestine and, in advance stages, liver, kidney, brain and lung. Metronidazole (MNZ)-the first line medicament against amoebiasis-is potentially carcinogenic to humans and shows significant side-effects. Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine compounds have been reported to demonstrate antiamoebic activity. In silico molecular docking simulations on nine pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine molecules without linkers (molecules 1-9) and nine pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine molecules with a trimethylene linker (molecules 10-18) along with the reference drug metronidazole (MNZ) were conducted using the modules of the programs Glide-SP, Glide-XP and Autodock with O-acetyl-L-serine sulfhydrylase (OASS) enzyme-a promising target for inhibiting the growth of Entamoeba histolytica. Docking simulations using Glide-SP demonstrate good agreement with reported biological activities of molecules 1-9 and indicate that molecules 2 and 4 may act as potential high affinity inhibitors. Trimethylene linker molecules show improved binding affinities among which molecules 15 and 16 supersede. MD simulations on the best docked poses of molecules 2, 4, 15, 16 and MNZ were carried out for 20 ns using DESMOND. It was observed that the docking complexes of molecules 4, 15 and MNZ remain stable in aqueous conditions and do not undergo noticeable fluctuations during the course of the dynamics. Relative binding free energy calculations of the ligands with the enzyme were executed on the best docked poses using the molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) approach, which show good agreement with the reported biological activities.

  6. LRRK2 mediated Rab8a phosphorylation promotes lipid storage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Miao; Arshad, Muhammad; Wang, Wenmin; Zhao, Dongyu; Xu, Li; Zhou, Linkang

    2018-02-27

    Several mutations in leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene have been associated with pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder marked by resting tremors, and rigidity, leading to Postural instability. It has been revealed that mutations that lead to an increase of kinase activity of LRRK2 protein are significantly associated with PD pathogenesis. Recent studies have shown that some Rab GTPases, especially Rab8, serve as substrates of LRRK2 and undergo phosphorylation in its switch II domain upon interaction. Current study was performed in order to find out the effects of the phosphorylation of Rab8 and its mutants on lipid metabolism and lipid droplets growth. The phosphorylation status of Rab8a was checked by phos-tag gel. Point mutant construct were generated to investigate the function of Rab8a. 3T3L1 cells were transfected with indicated plasmids and the lipid droplets were stained with Bodipy. Fluorescent microscopy experiments were performed to examine the sizes of lipid droplets. The interactions between Rab8a and Optineurin were determined by immunoprecipitation and western blot. Our assays demonstrated that Rab8a was phosphorylated by mutated LRRK2 that exhibits high kinase activity. Phosphorylation of Rab8a on amino acid residue T72 promoted the formation of large lipid droplets. T72D mutant of Rab8a had higher activity to promote the formation of large lipid droplets compared with wild type Rab8a, with increase in average diameter of lipid droplets from 2.10 μm to 2.46 μm. Moreover, phosphorylation of Rab8a weakened the interaction with its effector Optineurin. Y1699C mutated LRRK2 was able to phosphorylate Rab8a and phosphorylation of Rab8a on site 72 plays important role in the fusion and enlargement of lipid droplets. Taken together, our study suggests an indirect relationship between enhanced lipid storage capacity and PD pathogenesis.

  7. Protein phosphorylation in isolated human adipocytes - Adrenergic control of the phosphorylation of hormone-sensitive lipase

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smiley, R.M.; Paul, S.; Browning, M.D.; Leibel, R.L.; Hirsch, J.

    1990-01-01

    The effect of adrenergic agents on protein phosphorylation in human adipocytes was examined. Freshly isolated human fat cells were incubated with 32 PO 4 in order to label intracellular ATP, then treated with a variety of adrenergic and other pharmacologic agents. Treatment with the β-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol led to a significant increase in phosphate content of at least five protein bands (M r 52, 53, 63, 67, 84 kDa). The increase in phosphorylation was partially inhibited by the α-2 agonist clonidine. Epinephrine, a combined α and β agonist, was less effective at increasing phosphate content of the proteins than was isoproterenol. Neither insulin nor the α-1 agonist phenylephrine had any discernible effect on the pattern of protein phosphorylation. The 84 kDa phosphorylated peptide band appears to contain hormone-sensitive lipase, a key enzyme in the lipolytic pathway which is activated by phosphorylation. These results are somewhat different than previously reported results for rat adipocytes, and represent the first report of overall pattern and adrenergic modulation of protein phosphorylation in human adipocytes

  8. Proteolytic cleavage and PKA phosphorylation of α1C subunit are not required for adrenergic regulation of CaV1.2 in the heart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katchman, Alexander; Yang, Lin; Zakharov, Sergey I; Kushner, Jared; Abrams, Jeffrey; Chen, Bi-Xing; Liu, Guoxia; Pitt, Geoffrey S; Colecraft, Henry M; Marx, Steven O

    2017-08-22

    Calcium influx through the voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel (Ca V 1.2) rapidly increases in the heart during "fight or flight" through activation of the β-adrenergic and protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway. The precise molecular mechanisms of β-adrenergic activation of cardiac Ca V 1.2, however, are incompletely known, but are presumed to require phosphorylation of residues in α 1C and C-terminal proteolytic cleavage of the α 1C subunit. We generated transgenic mice expressing an α 1C with alanine substitutions of all conserved serine or threonine, which is predicted to be a potential PKA phosphorylation site by at least one prediction tool, while sparing the residues previously shown to be phosphorylated but shown individually not to be required for β-adrenergic regulation of Ca V 1.2 current (17-mutant). A second line included these 17 putative sites plus the five previously identified phosphoregulatory sites (22-mutant), thus allowing us to query whether regulation requires their contribution in combination. We determined that acute β-adrenergic regulation does not require any combination of potential PKA phosphorylation sites conserved in human, guinea pig, rabbit, rat, and mouse α 1C subunits. We separately generated transgenic mice with inducible expression of proteolytic-resistant α 1C Prevention of C-terminal cleavage did not alter β-adrenergic stimulation of Ca V 1.2 in the heart. These studies definitively rule out a role for all conserved consensus PKA phosphorylation sites in α 1C in β-adrenergic stimulation of Ca V 1.2, and show that phosphoregulatory sites on α 1C are not redundant and do not each fractionally contribute to the net stimulatory effect of β-adrenergic stimulation. Further, proteolytic cleavage of α 1C is not required for β-adrenergic stimulation of Ca V 1.2.

  9. The serine protease inhibitor TLCK attenuates intrinsic death pathways in neurons upstream of mitochondrial demise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reuther, C; Ganjam, G K; Dolga, A M; Culmsee, C

    2014-11-01

    It is well-established that activation of proteases, such as caspases, calpains and cathepsins are essential components in signaling pathways of programmed cell death (PCD). Although these proteases have also been linked to mechanisms of neuronal cell death, they are dispensable in paradigms of intrinsic death pathways, e.g. induced by oxidative stress. However, emerging evidence implicated a particular role for serine proteases in mechanisms of PCD in neurons. Here, we investigated the role of trypsin-like serine proteases in a model of glutamate toxicity in HT-22 cells. In these cells glutamate induces oxytosis, a form of caspase-independent cell death that involves activation of the pro-apoptotic protein BH3 interacting-domain death agonist (Bid), leading to mitochondrial demise and ensuing cell death. In this model system, the trypsin-like serine protease inhibitor Nα-tosyl-l-lysine chloromethyl ketone hydrochloride (TLCK) inhibited mitochondrial damage and cell death. Mitochondrial morphology alterations, the impairment of the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP depletion were prevented and, moreover, lipid peroxidation induced by glutamate was completely abolished. Strikingly, truncated Bid-induced cell death was not affected by TLCK, suggesting a detrimental activity of serine proteases upstream of Bid activation and mitochondrial demise. In summary, this study demonstrates the protective effect of serine protease inhibition by TLCK against oxytosis-induced mitochondrial damage and cell death. These findings indicate that TLCK-sensitive serine proteases play a crucial role in cell death mechanisms upstream of mitochondrial demise and thus, may serve as therapeutic targets in diseases, where oxidative stress and intrinsic pathways of PCD mediate neuronal cell death.

  10. Sonic Hedgehog dependent phosphorylation by CK1α and GRK2 is required for ciliary accumulation and activation of smoothened.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongbin Chen

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Hedgehog (Hh signaling regulates embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis through the GPCR-like protein Smoothened (Smo, but how vertebrate Smo is activated remains poorly understood. In Drosophila, Hh dependent phosphorylation activates Smo. Whether this is also the case in vertebrates is unclear, owing to the marked sequence divergence between vertebrate and Drosophila Smo (dSmo and the involvement of primary cilia in vertebrate Hh signaling. Here we demonstrate that mammalian Smo (mSmo is activated through multi-site phosphorylation of its carboxyl-terminal tail by CK1α and GRK2. Phosphorylation of mSmo induces its active conformation and simultaneously promotes its ciliary accumulation. We demonstrate that graded Hh signals induce increasing levels of mSmo phosphorylation that fine-tune its ciliary localization, conformation, and activity. We show that mSmo phosphorylation is induced by its agonists and oncogenic mutations but is blocked by its antagonist cyclopamine, and efficient mSmo phosphorylation depends on the kinesin-II ciliary motor. Furthermore, we provide evidence that Hh signaling recruits CK1α to initiate mSmo phosphorylation, and phosphorylation further increases the binding of CK1α and GRK2 to mSmo, forming a positive feedback loop that amplifies and/or sustains mSmo phosphorylation. Hence, despite divergence in their primary sequences and their subcellular trafficking, mSmo and dSmo employ analogous mechanisms for their activation.

  11. Characterization of four plasma membrane aquaporins in tulip petals: a putative homolog is regulated by phosphorylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azad, Abul Kalam; Katsuhara, Maki; Sawa, Yoshihiro; Ishikawa, Takahiro; Shibata, Hitoshi

    2008-08-01

    We suggested previously that temperature-dependent tulip (Tulipa gesneriana) petal movement that is concomitant with water transport is regulated by reversible phosphorylation of an unidentified plasma membrane intrinsic protein (PIP). In this study, four full-length cDNAs of PIPs from tulip petals were identified and cloned. Two PIPs, namely TgPIP1;1 and TgPIP1;2, are members of the PIP1 subfamily, and the remaining two PIPs, namely TgPIP2;1 and TgPIP2;2, belong to the PIP2 subfamily of aquaporins and were named according to the nomenclature of PIP genes in plants. Of these four homologs, only TgPIP2;2 displayed significant water channel activity in the heterologous expression assay using Xenopus laevis oocytes. The water channel activity of this functional isoform was abolished by mercury and was affected by inhibitors of protein kinase and protein phosphatase. Using a site-directed mutagenesis approach to substitute several serine residues with alanine, and assessing water channel activity using the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris expression assay, we showed that Ser35, Ser116 and Ser274 are the putative phosphorylation sites of TgPIP2;2. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis revealed that the transcript levels of TgPIP1;1 and TgPIP1;2 in tulip petals, stems, leaves, bulbs and roots are very low when compared with those of TgPIP2;1 and TgPIP2;2. The transcript level of TgPIP2;1 is negligible in roots, and TgPIP2;2 is ubiquitously expressed in all organs with significant transcript levels. From the data reported herein, we suggest that TgPIP2;2 might be modulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation for regulating water channel activity, and may play a role in transcellular water transport in all tulip organs.

  12. Proteome-wide mapping of the Drosophila acetylome demonstrates a high degree of conservation of lysine acetylation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weinert, Brian T; Wagner, Sebastian A; Horn, Heiko

    2011-01-01

    Posttranslational modification of proteins by acetylation and phosphorylation regulates most cellular processes in living organisms. Surprisingly, the evolutionary conservation of phosphorylated serine and threonine residues is only marginally higher than that of unmodified serines and threonines....... With high-resolution mass spectrometry, we identified 1981 lysine acetylation sites in the proteome of Drosophila melanogaster. We used data sets of experimentally identified acetylation and phosphorylation sites in Drosophila and humans to analyze the evolutionary conservation of these modification sites...... between flies and humans. Site-level conservation analysis revealed that acetylation sites are highly conserved, significantly more so than phosphorylation sites. Furthermore, comparison of lysine conservation in Drosophila and humans with that in nematodes and zebrafish revealed that acetylated lysines...

  13. Mimicking the phosphorylation of Rsp5 in PKA site T761 affects its function and cellular localization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jastrzebska, Zaneta; Kaminska, Joanna; Chelstowska, Anna; Domanska, Anna; Rzepnikowska, Weronika; Sitkiewicz, Ewa; Cholbinski, Piotr; Gourlay, Campbell; Plochocka, Danuta; Zoladek, Teresa

    2015-12-01

    Rsp5 ubiquitin ligase belongs to the Nedd4 family of proteins, which affect a wide variety of processes in the cell. Here we document that Rsp5 shows several phosphorylated variants of different mobility and the migration of the phosphorylated forms of Rsp5 was faster for the tpk1Δ tpk3Δ mutant devoid of two alternative catalytic subunits of protein kinase A (PKA), indicating that PKA possibly phosphorylates Rsp5 in vivo. We demonstrated by immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis of GFP-HA-Rsp5 protein using the anti-phospho PKA substrate antibody that Rsp5 is phosphorylated in PKA sites. Rsp5 contains the sequence 758-RRFTIE-763 with consensus RRXS/T in the catalytic HECT domain and four other sites with consensus RXXS/T, which might be phosphorylated by PKA. The strain bearing the T761D substitution in Rsp5 which mimics phosphorylation grew more slowly at 28°C and did not grow at 37°C, and showed defects in pre-tRNA processing and protein sorting. The rsp5-T761D strain also demonstrated a reduced ability to form colonies, an increase in the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and hypersensitivity to ROS-generating agents. These results indicate that PKA may downregulate many functions of Rsp5, possibly affecting its activity. Rsp5 is found in the cytoplasm, nucleus, multivesicular body and cortical patches. The rsp5-T761D mutation led to a strongly increased cortical localization while rsp5-T761A caused mutant Rsp5 to locate more efficiently in internal spots. Rsp5-T761A protein was phosphorylated less efficiently in PKA sites under specific growth conditions. Our data suggests that Rsp5 may be phosphorylated by PKA at position T761 and that this regulation is important for its localization and function. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  14. Structural basis of metallo-β-lactamase, serine-β-lactamase and penicillin-binding protein inhibition by cyclic boronates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brem, Jürgen; Cain, Ricky; Cahill, Samuel; McDonough, Michael A.; Clifton, Ian J.; Jiménez-Castellanos, Juan-Carlos; Avison, Matthew B.; Spencer, James; Fishwick, Colin W. G.; Schofield, Christopher J.

    2016-08-01

    β-Lactamases enable resistance to almost all β-lactam antibiotics. Pioneering work revealed that acyclic boronic acids can act as `transition state analogue' inhibitors of nucleophilic serine enzymes, including serine-β-lactamases. Here we report biochemical and biophysical analyses revealing that cyclic boronates potently inhibit both nucleophilic serine and zinc-dependent β-lactamases by a mechanism involving mimicking of the common tetrahedral intermediate. Cyclic boronates also potently inhibit the non-essential penicillin-binding protein PBP 5 by the same mechanism of action. The results open the way for development of dual action inhibitors effective against both serine- and metallo-β-lactamases, and which could also have antimicrobial activity through inhibition of PBPs.

  15. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 inhibits ATM kinase activity in DNA damage response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Fumiaki; Fukazawa, Hidesuke; Masutani, Mitsuko; Suzuki, Hiroshi; Teraoka, Hirobumi; Mizutani, Shuki; Uehara, Yoshimasa

    2004-01-01

    DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) mobilize DNA-repair machinery and cell cycle checkpoint by activating the ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) mutated (ATM). Here we show that ATM kinase activity is inhibited by poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) in vitro. It was shown by biochemical fractionation procedure that PARP-1 as well as ATM increases at chromatin level after induction of DSB with neocarzinostatin (NCS). Phosphorylation of histone H2AX on serine 139 and p53 on serine 15 in Parp-1 knockout (Parp-1 -/- ) mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) was significantly induced by NCS treatment compared with MEF derived from wild-type (Parp-1 +/+ ) mouse. NCS-induced phosphorylation of histone H2AX on serine 139 in Parp-1 -/- embryonic stem cell (ES) clones was also higher than that in Parp-1 +/+ ES clone. Furthermore, in vitro, PARP-1 inhibited phosphorylation of p53 on serine 15 and 32 P-incorporation into p53 by ATM in a DNA-dependent manner. These results suggest that PARP-1 negatively regulates ATM kinase activity in response to DSB

  16. Phosphorylation of chicken growth hormone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aramburo, C.; Montiel, J.L.; Donoghue, D.; Scanes, C.G.; Berghman, L.R.

    1990-01-01

    The possibility that chicken growth hormone (cGH) can be phosphorylated has been examined. Both native and biosynthetic cGH were phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (and γ- 32 P-ATP). The extent of phosphorylation was however less than that observed with ovine prolactin. Under the conditions employed, glycosylated cGH was not phosphorylated. Chicken anterior pituitary cells in primary culture were incubated in the presence of 32 P-phosphate. Radioactive phosphate was incorporated in vitro into the fraction immunoprecipitable with antisera against cGH. Incorporation was increased with cell number and time of incubation. The presence of GH releasing factor (GRF) increased the release of 32 P-phosphate labeled immunoprecipitable GH into the incubation media but not content of immunoprecipitable GH in the cells. The molecular weight of the phosphorylated immunoreactive cGH in the cells corresponded to cGH dimer

  17. Ex vivo modulation of the Foxo1 phosphorylation state does not lead to dysfunction of T regulatory cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristen Kelley Penberthy

    Full Text Available Peripheral regulatory CD4+ T cells (Treg cells prevent maladaptive inflammatory responses to innocuous foreign antigens. Treg cell dysfunction has been linked to many inflammatory diseases, including allergic airway inflammation. Glucocorticoids that are used to treat allergic airway inflammation and asthma are thought to work in part by promoting Treg cell differentiation; patients who are refractory to these drugs have defective induction of anti-inflammatory Treg cells. Previous observations suggest that Treg cells deficient in the transcription factor FoxO1 are pro-inflammatory, and that FoxO1 activity is regulated by its phosphorylation status and nuclear localization. Here, we asked whether altering the phosphorylation state of FoxO1 through modulation of a regulatory phosphatase might affect Treg cell function. In a mouse model of house dust mite-induced allergic airway inflammation, we observed robust recruitment of Treg cells to the lungs and lymph nodes of diseased mice, without an apparent increase in the Treg cytokine interleukin-10 in the airways. Intriguingly, expression of PP2A, a serine/threonine phosphatase linked to the regulation of FoxO1 phosphorylation, was decreased in the mediastinal lymph nodes of HDM-treated mice, mirroring the decreased PP2A expression seen in peripheral blood monocytes of glucocorticoid-resistant asthmatic patients. When we asked whether modulation of PP2A activity alters Treg cell function via treatment with the PP2A inhibitor okadaic acid, we observed increased phosphorylation of FoxO1 and decreased nuclear localization. However, dysregulation of FoxO1 did not impair Treg cell differentiation ex vivo or cause Treg cells to adopt a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Moreover, inhibition of PP2A activity did not affect the suppressive function of Treg cells ex vivo. Collectively, these data suggest that modulation of the phosphorylation state of FoxO1 via PP2A inhibition does not modify Treg cell function ex

  18. Stimulation of glucose phosphorylation by fructose in isolated rat hepatocytes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Schaftingen, E; Vandercammen, A

    1989-01-15

    The phosphorylation of glucose was measured by the formation of [3H]H2O from [2-3H]glucose in suspensions of freshly isolated rat hepatocytes. Fructose (0.2 mM) stimulated 2-4-fold the rate of phosphorylation of 5 mM glucose although not of 40 mM glucose, thus increasing the apparent affinity of the glucose phosphorylating system. A half-maximal stimulatory effect was observed at about 50 microM fructose. Stimulation was maximal 5 min after addition of the ketose and was stable for at least 40 min, during which period 60% of the fructose was consumed. The effect of fructose was reversible upon removal of the ketose. Sorbitol and tagatose were as potent as fructose in stimulating the phosphorylation of 5 mM glucose. D-Glyceraldehyde also had a stimulatory effect but at tenfold higher concentrations. In contrast, dihydroxyacetone had no significant effect and glycerol inhibited the detritiation of glucose. Oleate did not affect the phosphorylation of glucose, even in the presence of fructose, although it stimulated the formation of ketone bodies severalfold, indicating that it was converted to its acyl-CoA derivative. These results allow the conclusion that fructose stimulates glucokinase in the intact hepatocyte. They also suggest that this effect is mediated through the formation of fructose 1-phosphate, which presumably interacts with a competitive inhibitor of glucokinase other than long-chain acyl-CoAs.

  19. Phosphorylation of a splice variant of collapsin response mediator protein 2 in the nucleus of tumour cells links cyclin dependent kinase-5 to oncogenesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grant, Nicola J.; Coates, Philip J.; Woods, Yvonne L.; Bray, Susan E.; Morrice, Nicholas A.; Hastie, C. James; Lamont, Douglas J.; Carey, Francis A.; Sutherland, Calum

    2015-01-01

    Cyclin-dependent protein kinase-5 (CDK5) is an unusual member of the CDK family as it is not cell cycle regulated. However many of its substrates have roles in cell growth and oncogenesis, raising the possibility that CDK5 modulation could have therapeutic benefit. In order to establish whether changes in CDK5 activity are associated with oncogenesis one could quantify phosphorylation of CDK5 targets in disease tissue in comparison to appropriate controls. However the identity of physiological and pathophysiological CDK5 substrates remains the subject of debate, making the choice of CDK5 activity biomarkers difficult. Here we use in vitro and in cell phosphorylation assays to identify novel features of CDK5 target sequence determinants that confer enhanced CDK5 selectivity, providing means to select substrate biomarkers of CDK5 activity with more confidence. We then characterize tools for the best CDK5 substrate we identified to monitor its phosphorylation in human tissue and use these to interrogate human tumour arrays. The close proximity of Arg/Lys amino acids and a proline two residues N-terminal to the phosphorylated residue both improve recognition of the substrate by CDK5. In contrast the presence of a proline two residues C-terminal to the target residue dramatically reduces phosphorylation rate. Serine-522 of Collapsin Response Mediator-2 (CRMP2) is a validated CDK5 substrate with many of these structural criteria. We generate and characterise phosphospecific antibodies to Ser522 and show that phosphorylation appears in human tumours (lung, breast, and lymphoma) in stark contrast to surrounding non-neoplastic tissue. In lung cancer the anti-phospho-Ser522 signal is positive in squamous cell carcinoma more frequently than adenocarcinoma. Finally we demonstrate that it is a specific and unusual splice variant of CRMP2 (CRMP2A) that is phosphorylated in tumour cells. For the first time this data associates altered CDK5 substrate phosphorylation with

  20. Microstructure and nanomechanical properties of enamel remineralized with asparagine-serine-serine peptide

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chung, Hsiu-Ying, E-mail: hychung@mail.fcu.edu.tw; Li, Cheng Che

    2013-03-01

    A highly biocompatible peptide, triplet repeats of asparagine-serine-serine (3NSS) was designed to regulate mineral deposition from aqueous ions in saliva for the reconstruction of enamel lesions. Healthy human enamel was sectioned and acid demineralized to create lesions, then exposed to the 3NSS peptide solution, and finally immersed in artificial saliva for 24 h. The surface morphology and roughness were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to identify the phases and crystallinity of the deposited minerals observed on the enamel surface. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was used to quantitatively analyze the mineral variation by calculating the relative integrated-area of characteristic bands. Nanohardness and elastic modulus measured by nanoindentation at various treatment stages were utilized to evaluate the degree of recovery. Biomimetic effects were accessed according to the degree of nanohardness recovery and the amount of hydroxyapatite deposition. The charged segments in the 3NSS peptide greatly attracted aqueous ions from artificial saliva to form hydroxyapatite crystals to fill enamel caries, in particular the interrod areas, resulting in a slight reduction in overall surface roughness. Additionally, the deposited hydroxyapatites were of a small crystalline size in the presence of the 3NSS peptide, which effectively restrained the plastic deformations and thus resulted in greater improvements in nanohardness and elastic modulus. The degree of nanohardness recovery was 5 times greater for remineralized enamel samples treated with the 3NSS peptide compared to samples without peptide treatment. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The degree of nanohardness recovery of enamel was 4 times greater with the aid of 3NSS peptide. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer 3NSS peptide promoted the formation of hydroxyapatites with