Protein Phosphorylation Cycle Research Articles

CK1 and PP1 regulate Rift Valley fever virus genome replication through L protein phosphorylation

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arbovirus in the Phenuiviridae family identified initially by the large ‘abortion storms’ observed among ruminants; RVFV can also infect humans. In humans, there is a wide variation of clinical symptoms ranging from subclinical to mild febrile illness to hepatitis, retinitis, delayed-onset encephalitis, or even hemorrhagic fever. The RVFV is a tri-segmented negative-sense RNA virus consisting of S, M, and L segments. The L segment encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), termed the L protein, which is responsible for both viral mRNA synthesis and genome replication. Phosphorylation of viral RdRps is known to regulate viral replication. This study shows that RVFV L protein is serine phosphorylated and identified Casein Kinase 1 alpha (CK1α) and protein phosphatase 1 alpha (PP1α) as L protein binding partners. Inhibition of CK1 and PP1 through small molecule inhibitor treatment, D4476 and 1E7-03, respectively, caused a change in the phosphorylated status of the L protein. Inhibition of PP1α resulted in increased L protein phosphorylation whereas inhibition of CK1α decreased L protein phosphorylation. It was also found that in RVFV infected cells, PP1α localized to the cytoplasmic compartment. Treatment of RVFV infected cells with CK1 inhibitors reduced virus production in both mammalian and mosquito cells. Lastly, inhibition of either CK1 or PP1 reduced viral genomic RNA levels. These data indicate that L protein is phosphorylated and that CK1 and PP1 play a crucial role in regulating the L protein phosphorylation cycle, which is critical to viral RNA production and viral replication.

On the existence of Hopf bifurcations in the sequential and distributive double phosphorylation cycle.

Protein phosphorylation cycles are important mechanisms of the post translational modification of a protein and as such an integral part of intracellular signaling and control. We consider the sequential phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of a protein at two binding sites. While it is known that proteins where phosphorylation is processive and dephosphorylation is distributive admit oscillations (for some value of the rate constants and total concentrations) it is not known whether or not this is the case if both phosphorylation and dephosphorylation are distributive. We study simplified mass action models of sequential and distributive phosphorylation and show that for each of those there do not exist rate constants and total concentrations where a Hopf bifurcation occurs. To arrive at this result we use convex parameters to parametrize the steady state and Hurwitz matrices.

Dynamic Influence Networks for Rule-Based Models.

We introduce the Dynamic Influence Network (DIN), a novel visual analytics technique for representing and analyzing rule-based models of protein-protein interaction networks. Rule-based modeling has proved instrumental in developing biological models that are concise, comprehensible, easily extensible, and that mitigate the combinatorial complexity of multi-state and multi-component biological molecules. Our technique visualizes the dynamics of these rules as they evolve over time. Using the data produced by KaSim, an open source stochastic simulator of rule-based models written in the Kappa language, DINs provide a node-link diagram that represents the influence that each rule has on the other rules. That is, rather than representing individual biological components or types, we instead represent the rules about them (as nodes) and the current influence of these rules (as links). Using our interactive DIN-Viz software tool, researchers are able to query this dynamic network to find meaningful patterns about biological processes, and to identify salient aspects of complex rule-based models. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we investigate a simulation of a circadian clock model that illustrates the oscillatory behavior of the KaiC protein phosphorylation cycle.

A thermodynamically consistent model of the post-translational Kai circadian clock.

The principal pacemaker of the circadian clock of the cyanobacterium S. elongatus is a protein phosphorylation cycle consisting of three proteins, KaiA, KaiB and KaiC. KaiC forms a homohexamer, with each monomer consisting of two domains, CI and CII. Both domains can bind and hydrolyze ATP, but only the CII domain can be phosphorylated, at two residues, in a well-defined sequence. While this system has been studied extensively, how the clock is driven thermodynamically has remained elusive. Inspired by recent experimental observations and building on ideas from previous mathematical models, we present a new, thermodynamically consistent, statistical-mechanical model of the clock. At its heart are two main ideas: i) ATP hydrolysis in the CI domain provides the thermodynamic driving force for the clock, switching KaiC between an active conformational state in which its phosphorylation level tends to rise and an inactive one in which it tends to fall; ii) phosphorylation of the CII domain provides the timer for the hydrolysis in the CI domain. The model also naturally explains how KaiA, by acting as a nucleotide exchange factor, can stimulate phosphorylation of KaiC, and how the differential affinity of KaiA for the different KaiC phosphoforms generates the characteristic temporal order of KaiC phosphorylation. As the phosphorylation level in the CII domain rises, the release of ADP from CI slows down, making the inactive conformational state of KaiC more stable. In the inactive state, KaiC binds KaiB, which not only stabilizes this state further, but also leads to the sequestration of KaiA, and hence to KaiC dephosphorylation. Using a dedicated kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm, which makes it possible to efficiently simulate this system consisting of more than a billion reactions, we show that the model can describe a wealth of experimental data.

The Robust Ticking of a Circadian Clock

Many organisms use circadian clocks to anticipate changes between day and night. It had long been believed that these clocks are driven primarily by transcription translation cycles (TTCs) built on negative feedback on gene expression. However, while circadian clocks can maintain robust rhythms for years in the absence of any daily cue, recent experiments have vividly demonstrated that gene expression is often highly stochastic. This raises the question of how these clocks can be so robust against biochemical noise. In multicellular organisms, the robustness might be explained by intercellular interactions, but it is now known that even unicellular organisms can have very stable circadian rhythms. The clock of the cyanobacterium S. elongatus, for example, has a correlation time of several months, even though the clocks of the different cells in a population hardly interact with one another. How circadian clocks can be so stable even at the single cell level is not understood. Interestingly, it has recently been discovered that the S. elongatus clock also includes a protein phosphorylation cycle (PPC) that can run independently of the transcription-translation cycle (TTC). Here, we use mathematical modeling to study how these two clocks interact in growing, dividing cells. We find that a clock built on a PPC alone is highly stable when protein turnover is low. For high protein turnover rates, however, a PPC becomes unstable; indeed, at high growth rates, when protein turnover is necessarily high, a TTC becomes indispensable for the PPC to function. On the other hand, a clock based on a TTC alone functions only when the protein turnover rate is large; it fails dramatically at low growth rates in the absence of active protein degradation. The power of coupling a PPC to a TTC is that the clock becomes robust over the full range of growth conditions. Importantly, the TTC and the PPC in S. elongatus are much more tightly intertwined than conventional coupled phase oscillators; as a result, particularly for intermediate growth rates, the combination of the two far outperforms not just each of its two components individually, but also a hypothetical system in which the two parts are coupled in normal textbook fashion.

Robust circadian clocks from coupled protein-modification and transcription–translation cycles

The cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus uses both a protein phosphorylation cycle and a transcription-translation cycle to generate circadian rhythms that are highly robust against biochemical noise. We use stochastic simulations to analyze how these cycles interact to generate stable rhythms in growing, dividing cells. We find that a protein phosphorylation cycle by itself is robust when protein turnover is low. For high decay or dilution rates (and compensating synthesis rates), however, the phosphorylation-based oscillator loses its integrity. Circadian rhythms thus cannot be generated with a phosphorylation cycle alone when the growth rate, and consequently the rate of protein dilution, is high enough; in practice, a purely posttranslational clock ceases to function well when the cell doubling time drops below the 24-h clock period. At higher growth rates, a transcription-translation cycle becomes essential for generating robust circadian rhythms. Interestingly, although a transcription-translation cycle is necessary to sustain a phosphorylation cycle at high growth rates, a phosphorylation cycle can dramatically enhance the robustness of a transcription-translation cycle at lower protein decay or dilution rates. In fact, the full oscillator built from these two tightly intertwined cycles far outperforms not just each of its two components individually, but also a hypothetical system in which the two parts are coupled as in textbook models of coupled phase oscillators. Our analysis thus predicts that both cycles are required to generate robust circadian rhythms over the full range of growth conditions.

Fosforilación en células eucarióticas: Papel de fosfatasas y quinasas en la biología, patogenia y control de protozoosis tisulares y sanguíneas

Cells respond to environmental or cellular changes, rapidly switching protein activities from one state to another. In eukaryotes, a way to achieve these changes is through protein phosphorylation cycles, involving independent protein kinase and protein phosphatase activities. Current evidences show that phosphatases and kinases are also involved in the molecular basis of immune response and in disease such as diabetes obesity and Alzheimer. In protozoan parasites like Trypanosoma and Leishmania, several kinases and phosphatases have been identified, many of them have been cloned but in several cases their biological role remains undetermined. In this review, the state-of-the art is summarized and the role of phosphatases and kinases in biological phenomena such as remodeling, invasion and pathogenic capacity of protozoan parasites is described. The real chance to use these components of signal transduction pathways as target for chemotherapeutic intervention is also discussed (Rev Méd Chile 2000; 128: 1150-60).

A discrete 3' region of U6 small nuclear RNA modulates the phosphorylation cycle of the C1 heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle protein.

The C heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein particle (hnRNP) protein bind to nascent pre-mRNA and may participate in assembly of the early prespliceosome. Ser/Thr phosphorylation of the C1 hnRNP protein in HeLa nuclear extracts regulates its binding to pre-mRNA (S. H. Mayrand, P. Dwen, and T. Pederson, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:7764-7768, 1993). We have now further investigated the phosphorylation cycle of the C1 hnRNP protein, with emphasis on its regulation. Pretreatment of nuclear extracts with micrococcal nuclease eliminated the phosphorylation of C1 hnRNP protein, but pretreatment with DNase did not, suggesting a dependence on RNA. Oligodeoxynucleotide-targeted RNase H cleavage of U1, U2, and U4 small nuclear RNAs did not affect the phosphorylation of C1 hnRNP protein. However, cleavage of nucleotides 78 to 95, but not other regions, of U6 small nuclear RNA resulted in an inhibition of the dephosphorylation step of the C1 hnRNP protein phosphorylation cycle. This inhibition was as pronounced as that seen with the serine/threonine protein phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid. C1 hnRNP protein dephosphorylation could be completely restored by the addition of intact U6 RNA. Add-back experiments with mutant RNAs further delineated the minimal region essential for C1 protein dephosphorylation as residing in nucleotides 85 to 92 of U6 RNA. These results illuminate a hitherto unanticipated function of U6 RNA: the modulation of a phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle of C1 hnRNP protein that influences the binding affinity of this protein for pre-mRNA. This newly revealed function of U6 RNA is likely to play a very early role in the prespliceosome assembly pathway, prior to U6 RNA's entry into the mature spliceosome's active center.