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Journal of Virology, February 2002, p. 1033-1042, Vol. 76, No. 3
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.76.3.1033-1042.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Sandra Afione, and Robert Kotin*
Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Received 3 August 2001/ Accepted 26 October 2001
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A variety of hormones and neurotransmitters utilize cAMP as a second messenger in signal transduction pathways to regulate cell growth and division, differentiation, gene expression, and metabolism (7). PKA is the major responder of cAMP in the mammalian cell. In the absence of cAMP, PKA forms an inactive heterotetramer consisting of two regulatory subunits (R) and two catalytic subunits (C). There are two classes of PKA, types I and II, which contain RI or RII regulatory subunits bound to a common C subunit (41). RI and RII differ in tissue specificity, subcellular localization, and affinity for cAMP (7). Multiple isoforms of the regulatory subunits (RI
, RIß, RII
, RIIß) and catalytic subunits (C
, Cß, C
) are expressed and may contribute to the specificity of PKA (37). Upon binding of cAMP, the PKA holoenzyme dissociates into R2-cAMP4 and the active catalytic subunits. PKA affects the cell by transcriptional regulation as well as by controlling the activity of metabolic enzymes, such as glycogen synthase and pyruvate kinase, via phosphorylation (13). PKA activates gene expression via cAMP-responsive promoter elements (CRE). The active C subunit translocates into the nucleus, where it is able to phosphorylate, and thereby activate, transcription factors such as CREB, which when bound to a CRE site of cAMP-regulated promoters induce gene expression (27). Examples of CREB-regulated genes include c-fos and eNOS (31, 48).
PRKX has 53% identity and 75% homology to the catalytic subunit of PKA (C
). PRKX has been shown to transactivate CREB-dependent expression via CREs (9) and phosphorylates a synthetic PKA peptide substrate, kemptide. These results suggest that PRKX is a member of the cAMP second messenger system pathway. One report describes the PRKX gene as specifically expressed in macrophages and granulocytes and as essential for myeloid differentiation (35).
In this study, we mapped the domain of Rep78 necessary to bind and inhibit the cAMP-dependent kinases PKA and PRKX. The kinetics and mechanism of this inhibition were analyzed. We show that Rep78 competes for the substrate binding and shares limited homology with a naturally occurring pseudosubstrate inhibitor of PKAthe protein kinase inhibitor PKI. Our results suggest that Rep7-mediated inhibition of PKA and PRKX occur through the same mechanism.
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TABLE 1. Primers used
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(Invitrogen) were purified by amylose affinity chromatography as previously described (39). The GST- and His-tagged PKA fusion protein (GST-PKA) was produced from pET-41/PKA-transformed E. coli BL21(DE3) (Novagen) and purified using His-Bind Quick Columns (Novagen) according to the manufacturers instructions.
GST-PKA and GST-PRKX coprecipitation. Radiolabeled recombinant proteins were generated by in vitro translation using the TNT Quick Coupled Transcription/Translation System (Promega) and [35S]methionine according to the manufacturers instructions. In vitro translation reaction mixtures were diluted 10-fold with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 1 mg of bovine serum albumin (BSA; Sigma)/ml and 0.5% NP-40 (Pierce). After addition of 1 µg of either GST-PKA or GST-PRKX (6), reaction mixtures were incubated for 30 min at 4°C before 40 µl of glutathione-conjugated resin (Cytosignal) was added. Following a 30-min incubation at 4°C, samples were washed three times with 0.5% NP-40 in PBS using the GSTcatcher system (Cytosignal). The precipitated protein was eluted from the resin with 10 mM glutathione in PBS. Eluates were analyzed by electrophoresis on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-Tris-glycine polyacrylamide gels. After drying under a vacuum, the gels were autoradiographically imaged with X-ray film (Kodak).
Kinase assay. The kinase activities of GST-PRKX and PKA toward a dye-labeled synthetic PKA peptide substrate (kemptide) were determined using the PepTag cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase Assay (Promega) under various conditions in a final volume of 25 µl of 1x reaction buffer (20 mM Tris [pH. 7.4], 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM ATP). Reactions were stopped by boiling for 10 min. The degree of kemptide phosphorylation was quantified by fractionating the samples by agarose electrophoresis followed by quantitative analysis using a Storm 860 PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics). In an electric field, phosphorylated kemptide migrates toward the anode, while nonphosphorylated peptide migrates toward the cathode. Data were analyzed and plotted using Prism 3 for Macintosh (GraphPad Software).
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FIG. 1. Interactions of Rep78-derived peptides with PKA and PRKX. Radiolabeled proteins were produced by coupled in vitro transcription-translation in the presence of [35S]Met. (A) Autoradiograph of SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showing aliquots of the in vitro translation reactions. (B and C) Soluble GST-kinase fusion proteins were precipitated from the reaction with glutathione-agarose resin. Recovery of radiolabeled protein is due to interaction between the in vitro translation products and GST-kinase. (B) Interaction between in vitro-translated proteins and PKA. (C) Interaction between in vitro translated proteins and PRKX. R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 are amino-truncated Rep peptides; RA1, RA2, RA3, RA4, and RA5 are carboxyl-truncated Rep peptides; and R3/RA3 is truncated at both the amino and carboxy termini. All of the Rep peptides are fused to the carboxy terminus of MBP. The in vitro-translated protein(s) used in each reaction is given above the gel.
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Mapping of the PKA/PRKX inhibition region of Rep78. In order to map the residues of Rep78 necessary for PKA/PRKX inhibition, we studied the effects of bacterially expressed Rep polypeptides fused to MBP, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, RA1, RA2, RA3, RA4, and RA5, on the kinase activity of PKA and PRKX toward the artificial heptapeptide substrate referred to as kemptide (LRRASLG) (Fig. 2). The ATPase-deficient Rep78 mutant Rep78 (K340H) (39) was used as a control instead of wild type Rep78, since the ATPase activity of Rep is constitutive and independent of a DNA substrate (51). The truncated Rep78 fusion protein R1 inhibited PKA- and PRK-mediated phosphorylation of kemptide at levels comparable to those with full-length Rep78 (K340H) fusion protein, while MBP by itself had little effect on the kinase activity of either PKA or PKRX. The R1 amino-terminal deletion products R2 and R3 efficiently inhibited cAMP-dependent kinase activity, while R4 and R5 were much less effective inhibitors of PKA and PRKX. All carboxy-terminal deletions of R1 showed little (RA1, RA2, and RA3) or no (RA4 and RA5) effect on PKA-mediated phosphorylation, while the carboxy-terminal 60 aa of Rep78 were not essential for PRKX inhibition (this sequence is deleted in RA3). Extending the carboxy-terminal deletions in RA4 and RA5 resulted in a profound loss of PRKX inhibition. R3/RA3, containing the Rep78 residues 526 to 561 fused to MBP, was sufficient to efficiently inhibit PRKX but showed little effect on PKA. The results of the mapping study are summarized in Fig. 3.
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FIG. 2. Effects of Rep78 (K340H) and Rep78 derivatives on PKA and PRKX phosphorylation of kemptide. Recombinant proteins (1 µg) were incubated in the presence of 2 µg of fluorescently labeled kemptide with either 8 ng of PKAC for 15 min (A) or 150 ng of PRKX for 30 min (B) at ambient temperatures. The phosphorylated form of kemptide (+ P) was resolved from the aphosphorylated form (- P) by agarose gel electrophoresis. The extent of phosphorylation could then be determined quantitatively. The lane marked "pos" is kinase without inhibitor and defines the 0% inhibition level. Rep78 (K340H), ATPase-deficient Rep78 mutant; R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5, amino-truncated Rep peptides; RA1, RA2, RA3, RA4, and RA5, carboxyl-truncated Rep peptides; R3/RA3 is truncated both at the amino and carboxy termini. All of the Rep peptides are fused to the carboxy terminus of MBP.
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FIG. 3. Schematic representation of Rep78 and Rep peptides. The Rep peptides used in the experiments are listed on the left, with the corresponding Rep amino acid numbers given in parentheses. Arrows represent the regions of Rep in each peptide. The extents of binding to PRKX and PKA are represented by plus signs (strong interaction), minus signs (little or no interaction), or plus-or-minus signs (weak interaction), and the extents of inhibition are shown as percentages. NLS, nuclear localization signal; ZN, putative zinc finger domain.
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FIG. 4. Inhibition of PKA and PRKX by Rep-derived peptides. Phosphorylation of fluorescently labeled kemptide was measured with increasing amounts of inhibitor. (A) PKA (10 nM) and kemptide (60 µM)were incubated for 15 min at ambient temperature with increasing amounts of MBP-Rep78 (K340H) or R3. (B) PRKX (88 nM) was incubated with kemptide (60 µM) for 15 min at ambient temperature with increasing amounts of either MBP-Rep78 (K340H), R3, or R3/RA3. Phosphorylated kemptide and unphosphorylated kemptide were resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the relative amounts of each form of kemptide were determined on a Storm 860 PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics). Vo, reaction velocity in the absence of inhibitor; Vi, reaction velocity in the presence of inhibitor. Each data point is the arithmetic mean of three reactions. Error bars, sample standard deviations.
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FIG. 5. Steady-state kinetic analysis of PKA inhibition. PKA (8 ng) was incubated for 15 min at ambient temperature with various amounts of fluorescently labeled kemptide in the absence (squares) or presence (triangles) of MBP-Rep78 (K340H) (300 ng). Phosphorylated kemptide and unphosphorylated kemptide were resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the amount of phosphorylated kemptide was determined by analysis on a Storm 860 PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics) in order to calculate the velocity of the reaction (v [expressed as nanomoles of phosphorylated kemptide per minute per milligram of enzyme]). Values for Km and Vmax were obtained by fitting the data to the hyperbolic function Y = Vmax · X/(Km + X), where X is the substrate concentration ([s]), Vmax is the maximal velocity at saturation, and Km (the Michaelis constant) is the substrate concentration required to reach half-maximal velocity. (B) The data obtained in panel A were analyzed by Lineweaver-Burk algorithm and displayed as a double-reciprocal graph. Maximum velocity, 1/Vmax, is obtained from the Y-intercept, and the X-intercept is -1/Km.
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FIG. 6. Steady-state kinetic analysis of PRKX inhibition. (A) PRKX (150 ng) was incubated for 30 min at ambient temperature with various amounts of fluorescently labeled kemptide in the absence (squares) or presence (triangles) of MBP-Rep78 (K340H) (500 ng). Phosphorylated kemptide and unphosphorylated kemptide were resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the amount of phosphorylated kemptide was determined by analysis on a Storm 860 PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics) in order to determine the velocity of the reaction (v). Values for Km and Vmax were obtained by fitting the data to the hyperbolic function. (B) The data obtained in panel A were analyzed by Lineweaver-Burk algorithm and displayed as a double-reciprocal graph. Maximum velocity, 1/Vmax, is obtained from the Y-intercept, and the X-intercept is -1/Km.
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FIG. 7. Alignment of PKI and Rep. Amino acid residues 6 to 30 of PKI and 525 to 548 of Rep78 are juxtaposed. Boxed residues are similar; dark shading indicates residues conserved between Rep78 and PKI. Alignments were performed with MacVector software (Oxford Molecular Group). The position of the pseudosubstrate element of PKI is shown. Numbers on top indicate residues substituted in M1 (R536A), M2 (H537A), M3 (G539S), and M4 (R548A).
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FIG. 8. Interactions between Rep-derived peptides and PKA or PRKX. Point mutations were introduced into the putative pseudosubstrate motif and expressed in a coupled in vitro transcription-translation reaction with [35S]Met. (A) Autoradiograph of in vitro-translated products following SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. (B and C) The GST-kinase fusion proteins were precipitated from the reaction with glutathione-agarose resin and resolved by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Recovery of radiolabeled protein is due to interaction between the in vitro translation products and GST-kinase. (B) Interaction between in vitro-translated proteins and PKA. (C) Interaction between in vitro-translated proteins and PRKX. Substitutions: R2-M1, R536A; R2-M2, H537A; R2-M3, G539S; R2-M4, R548A.
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FIG. 9. Inhibition of kinase activity in the presence of Rep peptide and mutated Rep peptide inhibitors. Rep pseudosubstrate site amino acids were expressed as MBP fusion proteins and incubated with 8 ng of PKA (A) or 150 ng of PRKX (B). The fluorescently labeled kemptide (2 µg) was used as a substrate, which can be resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis into phosphorylated and aphosphorylated forms. The amounts of each form of kemptide were determined by Storm 860 PhosphorImager analysis. Inhibition of phosphorylation was calculated as the percentage of kemptide phosphorylation in the presence of inhibitor compared to that for the untreated control. Data presented are means ± standard errors of values from three experiments. Substitutions: R2-M1, R536A; R2-M2, H537A; R2-M3, G539S; R2-M4, R548A.
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We analyzed which region of Rep78 interacts with PRKX and PKA. Comparison of the sequence and structure of the Rep78 kinase inhibitory domain with those of other known kinase inhibitors might give some indication of the mechanism of Rep78-mediated kinase inhibition. Our initial experiments showed that the carboxy-terminal 140 aa (R1) bind and inhibit both PKA and PRKX at levels comparable to those for full-length Rep78. Amino- and carboxy-terminal deletion mutation analysis of this Rep78 polypeptide led to identification of the Rep78 domain, necessary for PRKX and PKA interaction. We observed that every deletion mutant of R1 that bound to PRKX was also capable of inhibiting PRKX. This suggests that the PRKX binding and inhibition domains of Rep78 coincide or are continuous. The Rep78 fragment comprising aa 526 to 561 (R3/RA3) fused to MBP was necessary and sufficient for stable interaction with PRKX and inhibition of PRKX kinase activity. R3/RA3 inhibited PRKX but demonstrated relatively low affinity to PKA and acted as a poor inhibitor of PKA. Rep78 residues 526 to 621 (R3) were needed for efficient blockage of PKA-mediated phosphorylation of kemptide, while aa 481 to 561 were sufficient to mediate PKA interaction but not inhibition. The PRKX and PKA interaction domains of Rep78 appear to be distinct but overlapping. These domains share the same amino-terminal region (aa 526 to 561), but a carboxy-terminal extension of aa 562 to 621 was needed to inhibit PKA. This result suggests that the interactions of Rep78 with PKA and PRKX are different. It might be that the Rep78/PKA interaction domain is noncontinuous with additional elements in the region between aa 562 to 621. This region might also act indirectly, by affecting the folding of aa 512 to 561. In addition, the carboxy-terminal region of Rep78 contains a putative zinc finger motif (9, 16) which might interact with other proteins to mediate PKA inhibition. Differences in binding to PRKX and PKAC were also observed with regulatory subunit types I and II (52). RI and RII bind to PKAC, but only type II interacts with PRKX. RI and RII have significant sequence diversity amino-terminal of the inhibition site and interact with different sites on the catalytic subunit of PKA (5). The interactions of the regulatory subunits RI and RII with PKAC are also described as bipartite. Distinct and nonoverlapping regions of RI and RII mediate binding and inhibition of PKAC (5, 41).
The potencies of Rep78 and Rep-derived peptides to inhibit the serine/threonine kinase activities of PRKX and PKA were compared by determining the respective IC50s. Deletion of the amino-terminal 525 aa of Rep78 in R3 had no effect on the efficiency of its function as a PKA inhibitor, since we observed PKA IC50s of about 100 nM for Rep78 (K340H) and 150 nM for R3. This finding demonstrates that the carboxy-terminal 96 aa (R3) are almost as effective as full-length Rep78 in interference with substrate phosphorylation, and it indicates that this region might contain the complete Rep78/PKA interaction domain. The comparable IC50s for Rep78 (K340H), R3, and R3/RA3 (all around 80 nM) define the Rep78/PRKX inhibition domain as residues 526 to 561 (R3/RA3).
The inhibition curves indicate that at a 1:1 stoichiometry of kinase and inhibitor, Rep78 (K340H) inhibits PRKX about 50%. Physiological kinase inhibitors, PKI and the regulatory subunit RI
, were shown to inhibit PRKX 60 and 80%, respectively, at a 1:1 molar ratio (52). Therefore, Rep78 (K340H) appears to be a potent inhibitor of PRKX. A 10-fold molar excess of Rep78 (K340H) versus PKA was required to inhibit PKA activity 50%. This result indicates that Rep78 inhibits PRKX more efficiently than it inhibits PKA. This result was unexpected, since our coprecipitation experiments indicate similar levels of interaction between Rep78 and PRKX or PKA. Also, the binding constants of Rep52 for PKA and PRKX were shown to be similar (6). These data suggest that the observed differences in the abilities to inhibit PKA and PRKX kinase activities are due not to a lower affinity of Rep78 with PKA than with PRKX but to other mechanisms not yet identified.
The 36-aa fragment of Rep78, R3/RA3, shares limited homology with the protein kinase inhibitor PKI. PKI is a competitive inhibitor of PKA with respect to the peptide substrate (43, 46). PKI contains an inhibitor sequence (18-RRNAI) which resembles the PKA substrate consensus sequence RRXSU, where X is any residue, U is a hydrophobic amino acid, and serine is the phosphate acceptor (47). Many natural PKA substrates contain only a single basic residue at position -2 or -3 relative to the site of phosphate transfer but have additional basic residues more amino-terminal at position -4 or -6 (28, 47). PKI mimics the natural PKA substrate and inhibits PKA by pseudosubstrate inhibition. The inhibitory sequence alone is not sufficient to mediate PKA inhibition. Residues that are amino-terminal of the pseudosubstrate element form an
-helix that interacts with PKA and are essential for efficient inhibition (23). The interaction between PKI and PKA is therefore bipartite, with distinct inhibition and binding elements which are continuous. The PKI derived peptide, aa 5 to 24, is sufficient for PKA inhibition (12). We observed homology between Rep78 and this PKI polypeptide. Replacement of the arginine residues in positions 18 and 19 of PKI caused a substantial decrease in inhibitory potency (34). Mutation of the homologous amino acids of R2 in R2-M1 (R536A) and R2-M2 (H537A) resulted in decreased efficiency in PKA and PRKX inhibition and, in the case of R2-M1, caused a loss of affinity to PRKX and PKA. These results demonstrate that the amino acids of Rep78, which are homologous to the PKI pseudosubstrate site, have a significant impact on the inhibitor potency of Rep78. In PKI, replacement of alanine-21 with serine converted the inhibitor into a substrate with a relatively low affinity (Km, 280 µM) for the enzyme (34). Substitution of the homologous amino acid in R2-M3 (G539S) resulted in no obvious change in inhibitor potency with regard to either PKA or PRKX. This might be explained in part by our observation that the binding affinities of R2-M2 and R2 for PKA and PRKX are the same. The inhibitory sites of the PKA regulatory subunits that occupy the peptide binding site of PKAC contain either a pseudosubstrate motif, RRGAI, as in RI, or a PKA substrate sequence, RRVSV, as in RII. That demonstrates that even a substrate can act as an inhibitor of PKA and might also explain the results obtained with R2-M2. The results so far indicate that Rep78 might inhibit PKA and PRKX by pseudosubstrate inhibition analogous to that of PKI and RI. This was further confirmed when we analyzed the steady-state kinetics of the Rep78-mediated inhibition of PKA and PRKX. Rep78 had no effect on the maximal velocity of the kinases but reduced the apparent affinity for the peptide substrate kemptide. These findings are characteristic of competitive inhibition, in this case with respect to the peptide substrate. The data presented here provide strong evidence that Rep78 inhibits PKA and PRKX by pseudosubstrate inhibition. The function of Rep78-mediated PRKX and PKA inhibition still remains unclear. AAV appears to inhibit adenovirus production during an AAV-adenovirus coinfection (3). The modulation of signal transduction pathways by Rep78 might be one of several mechanisms of AAV to interfere with helper virus replication. The adenovirus genome has been shown to contain several PKA-dependent CREs. Inhibition of PKA might therefore result in a selective reduction of adenovirus gene expression. On the other hand, adenovirus E1A protein also interferes with PKA-induced cellular gene expression by interaction with the cellular coactivator CBP, which binds to phosphorylated CREB. E1A can disturb PKA-induced expression by disruption of the CREB/CBP transcription factor-coactivator complex (11). E1A has also been shown to stimulate expression of some CRE-dependent genes, for example, PCNA (26). It might therefore be the case that Rep78 and E1A cooperate on different levels of the PKA pathways. One report has shown that PRKX is crucial during myeloid differentiation (35). The idea that AAV might interfere with the immune response by blocking the maturation of infiltrated monocytes to macrophages is intriguing and should be analyzed.
Present address: Gene Therapy and Therapeutics Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892. ![]()
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and IIß to the catalytic subunit. J. Biol. Chem. 10:10.
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