The cyanobacterial toxin microcystin binds covalently to cysteine-273 on protein phosphatase 1.

The interaction between protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and microcystin (MC) was stable in 1% SDS or 70% formic acid indicative of a covalent interaction. Here we isolate the MC-binding peptide and demonstrate that Cys273 of PP1 binds covalently to the methyl-dehydroalanine (Mdha) residue of the toxin. Mutation of Cys273 to Ala, Ser or Leu abolished covalent binding to MC, as did reduction of the Mdha residue of the toxin with ethanethiol. The abolition of covalent binding increased the IC50 for toxin inhibition of PP1 by 5- to 20-fold. The covalent binding of MC to protein serine/threonine phosphatases explains the failure to detect this toxin post-mortem in suspected cases of MC poisoning.

Purification of type 1 protein (serine/threonine) phosphatases by microcystin-Sepharose affinity chromatography.

A microcystin (MC)-Sepharose column was prepared by addition of 2-aminoethanethiol to the alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl of the N-methyldehydroalanine residue of MC-LR, followed by reaction of the introduced amino group with N-hydroxysuccinimide-activated CH-Sepharose. The MC-Sepharose bound protein phosphatase-1 (PP1) with high capacity and purified human PP1 gamma in one step from E. coli extracts. It was also used to purify forms of PP1 bound to myofibrils from skeletal muscle. Two of these comprised PP1 complexed to N-terminal fragments of the M-subunit which enhance its myosin phosphatase activity, while the third comprised PP1 and an N-terminal fragment of the glycogen-binding (G)-subunit.

Inhibitors of protein kinases and phosphatases.

Inhibitors of eukaryotic protein kinases and phosphatases are a chemically diverse array of natural and synthetic compounds, including medicines, potions and poisons. These substances are valuable pharmacological probes and affinity ligands for the kinases and phosphatases of signalling pathways, enhancing our knowledge of the cellular effects of the pathway in question. More broadly, this basic research is also leading to the development of drugs to control specific cellular responses, and enzyme-based assays to detect toxins in food and water.

Evidence for a protein kinase cascade in higher plants. 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase kinase.

Protein phosphorylation is well established as a regulatory mechanism in higher plants, but only a handful of plant enzymes are known to be regulated in this manner, and relatively few plant protein kinases have been characterized. AMP-activated protein kinase regulates key enzymes of mammalian fatty acid, sterol and isoprenoid metabolism, including 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase. We now show that there is an activity in higher plants which, by functional criteria, is a homologue of the AMP-activated protein kinase, although it is not regulated by AMP. The plant kinase inactivates mammalian HMG-CoA reductase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and peptide mapping suggests that it phosphorylates the same sites on these proteins as the mammalian kinase. However, with the target enzymes purified from plant sources, it inactivates HMG-CoA reductase but not acetyl-CoA carboxylase. The kinase is located in the soluble, and not the chloroplast, fraction of leaf cells, consistent with the idea that it regulates HMG-CoA reductase, and hence isoprenoid biosynthesis, in vivo. The plant kinase also appears to be part of a protein kinase cascade which has been highly conserved during evolution, since the kinase is inactivated and reactivated by mammalian protein phosphatases (2A or 2C) and mammalian kinase kinase, respectively. This contrasts with the situation for many other mammalian protein kinases involved in signal transduction, which appear to have no close homologue in higher plants. To our knowledge, this represents the first direct evidence for a protein kinase cascade in higher plants.

AMP-activated protein kinase--an archetypal protein kinase cascade?

Mammalian AMP-activated protein kinase is the central component of a protein kinase cascade which inactivates three key enzymes involved in the synthesis or release of free fatty acids and cholesterol inside the cell. The kinase cascade is activated by elevation of AMP, and perhaps also by fatty acid and cholesterol metabolites. The system may fulfil a protective function, preventing damage caused by depletion of ATP or excessive intracellular release of free lipids, a type of stress response. Recent evidence suggests that it may have been in existence for at least a billion years, since a very similar protein kinase cascade is present in higher plants. This system therefore represents an early eukaryotic protein kinase cascade, which is unique in that it is regulated by intracellular metabolites rather than extracellular signals or cell cycle events.

Molecular cloning of higher-plant 3-oxoacyl-(acyl carrier protein) reductase. Sequence identities with the nodG-gene product of the nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium Rhizobium meliloti.

cDNA clones encoding the fatty-acid- biosynthetic enzyme NADPH-linked 3-oxoacyl-(acyl carrier protein) (ACP) reductase were isolated from a Brassica napus (rape) developing seed library and from an Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) leaf library. The N-terminal end of the coding region shows features typical of a stromal-targeting plastid-transit peptide. The deduced amino acid sequences have 41% and 55% identity respectively with the nodG-gene product of Rhizobium meliloti, one of the host-specific genes that restrict infectivity of this bacterium to a small range of host plants. The probability that the nodG-gene product is a oxoreductase strengthens the hypothesis that some of the host-specific nod-gene products are enzymes which synthesize polyketides that uniquely modify the Rhizobium nodulation signal molecule.

Identification by molecular cloning of two cDNA sequences from the plant Brassica napus which are very similar to mammalian protein phosphatases-1 and -2A.

Two clones encoding protein phosphatase (PP) catalytic subunits have been isolated from a Brassica napus cDNA library screened with rabbit muscle PP1 alpha and PP2A alpha cDNAs. The deduced protein sequences are very similar to those of mammalian PP1 alpha and PP2A alpha (72% and 79% overall identity, respectively) indicating that they are the plant homologues of PP1 alpha and PP2A alpha. This high degree of similarity provides a molecular explanation for the remarkable conservation of the catalytic and regulatory properties between animal and plant protein phosphatases and supports the concept that PP1 and PP2A may be the most highly conserved of known enzymes.

Benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus. Substrate specificities and inhibition studies.

The apparent Km and maximum velocity values of benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus were determined for a range of alcohols and aldehydes and the corresponding turnover numbers and specificity constants were calculated. Benzyl alcohol was the most effective alcohol substrate for benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase. Perillyl alcohol was the second most effective substrate, and was the only non-aromatic alcohol oxidized. The other substrates of benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase were all aromatic in nature, with para-substituted derivatives of benzyl alcohol being better substrates than other derivatives. Coniferyl alcohol and cinnamyl alcohol were also substrates. Benzaldehyde was much the most effective substrate for benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II. Benzaldehydes with a single small substituent group in the meta or para position were better substrates than any other benzaldehyde derivatives. Benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II could also oxidize the aliphatic aldehydes hexan-1-al and octan-1-al, although poorly. Benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II was substrate-inhibited by benzaldehyde when the assay concentration exceeded approx. 10 microM. Benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II, but not benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase, exhibited esterase activity with 4-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate. Both benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II were inhibited by the thiol-blocking reagents iodoacetate, iodoacetamide, 4-chloromercuribenzoate and N-ethylmaleimide. Benzyl alcohol or benzaldehyde respectively protected against these inhibitions. NAD+ also gave some protection. Neither benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase nor benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II was inhibited by the metal-ion-chelating agents EDTA, 2,2'-bipyridyl, pyrazole or 2-phenanthroline. Neither enzyme was inhibited by a range of plausible metabolic inhibitors such as mandelate, phenylglyoxylate, benzoate, succinate, acetyl-CoA, ATP or ADP. Benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II was sensitive to inhibition by several aromatic aldehydes; in particular, ortho-substituted benzaldehydes such as 2-bromo-, 2-chloro- and 2-fluoro-benzaldehydes were potent inhibitors of the enzyme.

Benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus. Purification and preliminary characterization.

A quick, reliable, purification procedure was developed for purifying both benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II from a single batch of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus N.C.I.B. 8250. The procedure involved disruption of the bacteria in the French pressure cell and preparation of a high-speed supernatant, followed by chromatography on DEAE-Sephacel, affinity chromatography on Blue Sepharose CL-6B and Matrex Gel Red A, and finally gel filtration through a Superose 12 fast-protein-liquid-chromatography column. The enzymes co-purified as far as the Blue Sepharose CL-6B step were separated on the Matrex Gel Red A column. The final preparations of benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II gave single bands on electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions or on SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. The enzymes are tetramers, as judged by comparison of their subunit (benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase, 39,700; benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II, 55,000) and native (benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase, 155,000; benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II, 222,500) Mr values, estimated by SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis and gel filtration respectively. The optimum pH values for the oxidation reactions were 9.2 for benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and 9.5 for benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II. The pH optimum for the reduction reaction for benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase was 8.9. The equilibrium constant for oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde by benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase was determined to be 3.08 x 10(-11) M; the ready reversibility of the reaction catalysed by benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase necessitated the development of an assay procedure in which hydrazine was used to trap the benzaldehyde formed by the NAD+-dependent oxidation of benzyl alcohol. The oxidation reaction catalysed by benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II was essentially irreversible. The maximum velocities for the oxidation reactions catalysed by benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II were 231 and 76 mumol/min per mg of protein respectively; the maximum velocity of the reduction reaction of benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase was 366 mumol/min per mg of protein. The pI values were 5.0 for benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase and 4.6 for benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II. Neither enzyme activity was affected when assayed in the presence of a range of salts. Absorption spectra of the two enzymes showed no evidence that they contain any cofactors such as cytochrome, flavin, or pyrroloquinoline quinone. The kinetic coefficients of the purified enzymes with benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, NAD+ and NADH are also presented.