Effects of ethanol on protein kinase C activity induced by filamentous actin.

Protein kinase C (PKC) can be activated by interaction with filamentous actin (F-actin) in the absence of membrane lipids (S.J. Slater, S.K. Milano, B.A. Stagliano, K.J. Gergich, J.P. Curry, F.J. Taddeo and C.D. Stubbs, Biochemistry 39 (2000) 271-280). Here, the effects of ethanol on the F-actin-induced activities of a panel of PKC isoforms consisting of 'conventional' (cPKC) alpha, betaI, gamma, 'novel' (nPKC) delta, epsilon and 'atypical' (aPKC) zeta were investigated using purified PKC and F-actin. Ethanol was found to inhibit the Ca2+- and phorbol ester-dependent activities of cPKCalpha and betaI, and the Ca2+- and phorbol ester-independent activity of cPKCgamma, whereas the activities of nPKCdelta, epsilon and aPKCzeta were unaffected. Although the activities of cPKCalpha and betaI induced by saturating levels of phorbol ester were inhibited by ethanol, the binding of these isozymes to F-actin was unaffected within the same phorbol ester concentration range. Conversely, within submaximal levels of phorbol ester, cPKCalpha and betaI activities were unaffected by ethanol whereas binding to F-actin was inhibited. The potency of the inhibition of F-actin-induced cPKCbetaI activity increased with n-alkanol chain length up to n-hexanol, after which it declined. The results indicate that PKC activities associated with F-actin, and therefore cellular processes involving the actin cytoskeleton, are potential targets for ethanol action. The effects of ethanol on these processes may differ according to the particular regulating PKC isoform, its intracellular localization and the presence of activators and cofactors.

Interaction of protein kinase C with filamentous actin: isozyme specificity resulting from divergent phorbol ester and calcium dependencies.

The mechanism of activation of protein kinase C isoforms by filamentous actin (F-actin) was investigated with respect to isozyme specificity and phorbol ester and Ca(2+) dependencies. It was found that the "conventional" (cPKC), alpha, betaI, betaII, and gamma, "novel" (nPKC) delta and epsilon, and "atypical" (aPKC) zeta isoforms were each activated by F-actin with varying potencies. The level of activity along with the affinity for binding to F-actin was further potentiated by the phorbol ester 4beta-12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA), the potency of which again varied for each isoform. By contrast to the other cPKC isoforms, the level of cPKC-gamma activity was unaffected by TPA, as was also the case for aPKC-zeta. It was found that whereas in the absence of F-actin the soluble form of cPKC-betaI contained two phorbol ester binding sites of low and high affinity, respectively, as previously reported for cPKC-alpha [Slater et al. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 23160-23168], the F-actin-bound form of the isozyme contained only a single site of relatively low affinity. The level of TPA required to induce cPKC-alpha, -betaI, and -betaII activity and the binding of these isozymes to F-actin was reduced in the presence of Ca(2+). By contrast, the activity of cPKC-gamma was unaffected by Ca(2+), as were the activities of nPKC-delta and -epsilon and aPKC-zeta, as expected. Thus, the interaction with F-actin appears to be a general property of each of the seven PKC isozymes tested. However, isoform specificity may, in part, be directed by differences in the phorbol ester and Ca(2+) dependences, which, with the notable exception of cPKC-gamma, appear to resemble those observed for the activation of each isoform by membrane association. The observation that cPKC isoforms may translocate to F-actin as well as the membrane as a response to an elevation of Ca(2+) levels may allow for the functional coupling of fluctuations of intracellular Ca(2+) levels through cPKC to F-actin cytoskeleton-mediated processes.

Synergistic activation of protein kinase Calpha, -betaI, and -gamma isoforms induced by diacylglycerol and phorbol ester: roles of membrane association and activating conformational changes.

Protein kinase Calpha (PKCalpha) has been shown to contain two discrete activator sites with differing binding affinities for phorbol esters and diacylglycerols. The interaction of diacylglycerol with a low-affinity phorbol ester binding site leads to enhanced high-affinity phorbol ester binding and to a potentiated level of activity [Slater, S. J., Ho, C., Kelly, M. B., Larkin, J. D. , Taddeo, F. J., Yeager, M. D., and Stubbs, C. D. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 4627-4631]. In this study, the mechanism of this enhancement of activity was examined with respect to the Ca2+ dependences of membrane association and accompanying conformational changes that lead to activation. The association of PKCalpha with membranes containing 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) or 1, 2-dioleoylglycerol (DAG), determined from tryptophan to dansyl-PE resonance energy transfer (RET) measurements, was found to occur at relatively low Ca2+ levels (