Calcium‐dependent serine phosphorylation of synaptophysin

Abstract

The phosphorylation of synaptophysin, a major integral membrane protein of small synaptic vesicles, was found to be regulated in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner in rat cerebrocortical slices, synaptosome preparations, and highly purified synaptic vesicles isolated from rat forebrain. K(+)-induced depolarization of slices and synaptosomes prelabeled with 32P-orthophosphate produced a rapid, transient increase in serine phosphorylation of synaptophysin. In synaptosomes, the depolarization-dependent increase in synaptophysin phosphorylation required the presence of external Ca2+ in the incubation medium. The addition of Ca2+ plus calmodulin to purified synaptic vesicles resulted in a 4-fold increase in serine phosphorylation of synaptophysin, and this phosphorylation was antagonized by a peptide inhibitor of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II(. Purified rat forebrain CaM kinase II phosphorylated both purified synaptophysin and endogenous, vesicle-associated synaptophysin, and the resulting 2-dimensional chymotryptic phosphopeptide maps were similar to those derived from synaptophysin phosphorylated in cerebrocortical slices. These data demonstrate that Ca(2+)-dependent phosphorylation of synaptophysin, mediated by CaM kinase II, occurs under physiological conditions.