Immobilized soybean trypsin inhibitor in the stabilization, resolution and purification of adenosine-3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinases

Orientation of the brush-border membranal proteinase which specifically splits the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase

The active site of the rat intestinal brush-border membranal proteinase [Alhanaty E. and Shaltiel S. (1979) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 89, 323-332], which splits the catalytic subunit (C) of cAMP-dependent protein kinase with a remarkable specificity [Alhanaty E., Tauber-Finkelstein, M., Schmeeda, H. and Shaltiel, S. (1985) Curr. Topics Cell. Regul. 27, 267-277], is shown to face predominantly the cell exterior; vesicles prepared from these brush-borders (mostly sealed and right-side-out) fully express the proteinase activity as judged by the fact that there is no increase in activity upon rupture or solubilization of the vesicles. Although the brush-border vesicles contain a cAMP-dependent protein kinase, this membrane-bound kinase is not likely to be the physiological target of the proteinase, since it appears to have an intracellular orientation and, at least in the vesicles, to be inaccessible to the proteinase. It is, therefore, suggested that the physiological substrate of the proteinase might be either an extracellular cAMP-dependent protein kinase, which is lost (e.g. removed, inactivated or degraded) in the course of vesicle isolation, or a kinase domain in one of the family of proteins recently shown to have a considerable structural and conformational homology with C. Alternatively the physiological site of action of this kinase-splitting proteinase might be an intracellular organelle to which it is translocated by endocytosis.

Influence of the state of ribosome association on the phosphorylation of ribosomal proteins in isolated ribosome--protein kinase systems from rat cerebral cortex

Ribosomal protein phosphorylation was investigated in isolated ribosomal subunits and polyribosomes from rat cerebral cortex in the presence of [gamma-32P]ATP and purified catalytic subunit of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase from the same tissue. Ribosomal proteins that were most readily phosphorylated in isolated cerebral ribosomal subunits included proteins S2, S3a, S6 and S10 of the 40 S subunit and proteins L6, L13, L14, L19 and L29 of the 60 S subunit. These proteins were also phosphorylated in cellular preparations of rat cerebral cortex in situ or in vitro [Roberts & Ashby (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 253, 288-296; Roberts & Morelos (1979) Biochem. J. 184, 233-244]. However, several additional ribosomal proteins were phosphorylated when isolated 40 S or 60 S subunits were separately incubated in the reconstituted system. Analogous results were obtained with an equimolar mixture of cerebral 40 S and 60 S subunits under comparable conditions. In contrast, extensive exposure of purified cerebral polyribosomes to the catalytic subunit resulted in phosphorylation of only those ribosomal proteins of the 40 S subunit that were most highly labelled after the administration of [32P]Pi in vivo: proteins S2, S6 and S10. Ribosomal proteins of 60 S subunits that were readily phosphorylated in isolated cerebral polyribosomes included proteins L6, L13 and L29. These results indicate that polyribosome formation markedly decreases the number of ribosomal protein sites available for phosphorylation by the catalytic subunit of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Moreover, the findings suggest that, of the ribosomal protein phosphorylations observed in rat cerebral cortex in vivo, proteins S2, S6, S10, L6, L13 and L29 can be phosphorylated in polyribosomes, whereas proteins S3a, S5, L14 and L19 may become phosphorylated only in free ribosomal subunits.