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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 34, 35228-35235, August 20, 2004
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From the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland
Received for publication, April 23, 2004 , and in revised form, June 8, 2004.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The kinase domain sequence of NDR is related to that of other members of the AGC group of kinases, e.g. protein kinases A, B, C, and G, PRK, p70S6K, p90RSK, and phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (1). NDR contains all 12 subdomains of the kinase catalytic domain as described by Hanks and Hunter (16). However, the catalytic domains of all of the members of the NDR family are interrupted by an insert of 3060 amino acids between subdomains VII and VIII. This inserted sequence is not well conserved but is always rich in the basic amino acids, arginine and lysine. The catalytic domain insert has been shown to act as a non-consensus nuclear localization signal in the case of NDR1. NDR1 localizes predominantly to the nucleus in COS-1 cells, whereas mutant NDR1 with a deletion in the insert is localized to the cytosol (17). An additional special feature of the NDR family of kinases is a highly conserved N-terminal domain. In the case of NDR1, this domain consists of 81 amino acids and encompasses a region predicted to form an amphiphilic
-helix that binds to the EF-hand Ca2+-binding protein, S100B (18). Finally, the C-terminal extension of NDR kinase contains a broadly conserved hydrophobic motif phosphorylation site that is an important regulatory site within the AGC group of kinases (19).
NDR kinase is efficiently (20100-fold) activated upon treatment of cells with the protein phosphatase 2A inhibitor, okadaic acid (OA). OA treatment induces the phosphorylation of the activation segment site, Ser-281, and the hydrophobic motif site, Thr-444 (20). We have shown that Ser-281 is autophosphorylated, whereas Thr-444 is targeted by an as yet unidentified upstream kinase. Both sites are crucial for NDR activity in vivo and in vitro. NDR activation is Ca2+-dependent as shown by the treatment of COS-1 cells with the Ca2+ chelator, BAPTA-AM, which abolishes NDR activation. It has been shown that the EF-hand Ca2+-binding protein, S100B, binds to the N-terminal domain of NDR in vivo and in vitro and that Ca2+/S100B activates NDR in vitro. S100B induces increased autophosphorylation on Ser-281. During investigations of the mechanism of S100B-induced autophosphorylation, a third autophosphorylation site, Thr-74, in the N-terminal domain was discovered (21). This site is also crucial for NDR activation, because its mutation to alanine affected NDR activity in vivo.
The results of several recent studies indicate a novel conserved signaling pathway involving NDR kinase family members. It has been shown in D. melanogaster that NDR genetically interacts with FURRY, a 300-kDa protein of unknown function (22). In S. cerevisiae, the FURRY relative, Tao3/Pag1, lies on the Cbk1 pathway. Furthermore, Tao3/Pag1 and Cbk1 interact physically and their localization is interdependent (23). In S. pombe, the FURRY-like protein, Mor2/Cps12, interacts physically with Orb6, the S. pombe NDR orthologue (24). The FURRY-like proteins are conserved in mammals, and thus, it is likely that other proteins interacting genetically and/or physically with S. cerevisiae Cbk1 or Dbf2 also play a role in the NDR kinase family pathway in higher eukaryotes. Most of these proteins are fairly well conserved throughout evolution.
S. cerevisiae Mob1 is a member of the mitotic exit network (25, 26). Dbf2 associates with Mob1, and Mob1 is required for phosphorylation and activation of Dbf2 (27). S. cerevisiae Mob2, a close relative of Mob1, is a member of the Cbk1 pathway. Mob2 is required for the biological function of Cbk1 in the mother/daughter separation after cytokinesis and maintenance of polarized cell growth. Mob2 associates physically with Cbk1, and Cbk1 kinase activity is dependent on Mob2. Furthermore, Mob2 and Cbk1 show interdependent localization (28, 29). Similarly, S. pombe Mob2 interacts physically with the protein kinase Orb6 and is required for Orb6 function in the coordination of cell polarity with the cell cycle (30). Multicellular organisms possess highly conserved MOB proteins. hMOB1
shares a sequence identity/similarity of 50/65% with S. cerevisiae Mob2 and of 57/78% with S. pombe Mob1. The human MOB protein family consists of two almost identical proteins, hMOB1
and hMOB1
(NCBI accession numbers Gi8922671 and 27735029), sharing a sequence identity/similarity of 95/97%; a more distantly related protein, hMOB2 (NCBI accession numbers Gi38091156), that is 41/60% identical/similar to hMOB1
; three other related proteins, hMOB3
,
, and
(Gi18677731, 41350330, and 3809115), with an identity/similarity of
50/73% to hMOB1
; and the weakly similar protein, phocein (Gi41349451), that is 24/45% identical/similar to hMOB1
. Because the nomenclature of MOB proteins in the data bases is rather confusing, we use the above terminology based on homology as also proposed recently by Stravridi et al. (31). To date, no functional domains have been identified in the MOB proteins and the hMOB proteins have no known functions. It has been shown that the MOB relative, phocein, interacts with the protein phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit, striatin, and with proteins involved in vesicular traffic (32, 33).
Here, we characterize the interaction of hMOB1
, the closest relative of yeast Mob1 and Mob2, with human NDR kinase. We show that hMOB1 binding is dependent on the N-terminal domain of NDR and that hMOB1 stimulates NDR kinase activity both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, we show that a basic sequence within the insert in the catalytic domain of NDR has an autoinhibitory function and that hMOB1 may stimulate NDR activity by releasing the autoinhibitory effect of this sequence.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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PlasmidsMammalian expression vector pCMV5 encoding HA-tagged NDR1 was described previously (21). pCMV5-hMOB1
was constructed by PCR using the Image clone 4854541 (BG 754693) as template and the primers 5'-GGG GTA CCA CCA TGG AAC AGA AAC TCA TCT CTG AAG AGG ATC TGA GCT TCC TCT TCA GCA GCC GCT C-3' and 5'-GCT CTA GAC ATT TAT CTG TCT TTT GAT CCA AGT TTC TCT ATT AAT TCT TGA AGA GG-3' and subcloned into the KpnI and XbaI sites of the vector. pGex2T-hMOB1 was constructed by PCR using the primers 5'-CGG GAT CCA GCT TCC TCT TCA GCA GCC GCT C-3' and 5'-CCG CTC GAG CAT TTA TCT GTC TTT TGA TCC AAG TTT CTC TAT TAA TTC TTG AAG AGG-3' and subcloned into the BamH1 and XhoI sites of the vector. For the bacterial production of the NDR protein kinase, NDR2 was fused to a capsid-stabilizing protein of lambdoid phage 21 (SHP).2 The cloning details and vector maps are available upon request. pCMV5 HA-NDR1 and pSHP-NDR2 point mutations were generated from wild-type vectors using the QuikChange site mutagenesis protocol (Stratagene) and the appropriate primers (primer sequences are available upon request). The sequences of all of the plasmids were confirmed by DNA sequencing.
AntibodiesPhosphorylated anti-Ser-281 and anti-Thr-444 antibodies were as described previously (21). Phosphorylated anti-Thr-74 rabbit polyclonal antiserum was raised against the synthetic peptide, AHARKET(PO4)EFLRLK. The 12CA5 (HA) and the 9E10 (Myc) monoclonal antibody hybridoma supernatants were used for detection of HA-NDR and Myc-hMOB1. Anti-GST-NDR polyclonal antibody was as described previously (17).
Western BlottingTo detect HA-NDR, SHP-NDR, and Myc-hMOB1, samples were resolved by 10 or 12% SDS-PAGE and transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes. Membranes were blocked in TBST (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, and 0.05% Tween 20) containing 5% skimmed milk powder and then probed overnight at 4 °C with anti-GST NDR rabbit polyclonal antibody, 12CA5 (HA) monoclonal antibody supernatant, 9E10 anti-Myc monoclonal antibody supernatant, anti-Thr-444P, anti-Ser-281P, or anti Thr-74P. Bound antibodies were detected with horseradish peroxidase-linked secondary antibodies, or Myc-hMOB1 in HA immunoprecipitations were detected with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated protein A/G and ECL.
Bacterial Expression of Human GST-fused hMOB1 and Human SHP-fused NDR2XL-1 Blue Escherichia coli was transformed with the pGEX-2T-hMOB1 plasmid. Mid-logarithmic phase cells were induced with 0.1 mM isopropyl
-D-thiogalactopyranoside overnight at 20 °C. Bacteria were disrupted using a French press in the presence of 1 mg/ml lysozyme, and the fusion proteins were purified on glutathioneagarose. SHP-NDR2 wild-type and mutant plasmids were transformed into XL-1 Blue E. coli, and the protein was produced as described for GST-hMOB1 and purified on nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid-Sepharose.
HA-NDR Kinase AssayTransfected COS-1 cells were washed once with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline and harvested in 1 ml of ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline containing 1 mM Na3VO4 and 20 mM
-glycerol phosphate before lysis in 500 µl of IP buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 150 mM NaCl, 1% Nonidet P-40, 10% glycerol, 1 mM Na3VO4, 20 mM
-glycerol phosphate, 1 µM microcystin, 50 mM NaF, 0.5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 4 µM leupeptin, and 1 mM benzamidine). Lysates were centrifuged at 20,000 x g for 20 min, and duplicate aliquots (250 µg) of the supernatant were precleared with protein A-Sepharose for 60 min and mixed subsequently for 3 h at 4 °C with 12CA5 antibody prebound to protein A-Sepharose. The beads were then washed twice with IP buffer, once for 10 min with IP buffer containing 1 M NaCl, again for 10 min with IP buffer, and finally twice with 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, containing 4 µM leupeptin and 1 mM benzamidine. Thereafter, the beads were resuspended in 30 µl of buffer containing 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 100 µM [
-32P]ATP (
1,000 cpm/pmol), 1 µM cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor peptide, 4 µM leupeptin, 1 mM benzamidine, 1 µM microcystin, and 1 mM NDR1 substrate peptide (KKRNRRLSVA). After a 60-min incubation at 30 °C, the reactions were processed as described previously (21).
SHP-NDR Kinase Assay1 µg of purified recombinant SHP-NDR wild type and mutants (without further treatment or pre-autophosphorylated in the presence of 10 µM GST-hMOB1 or GST) were assayed in a 30-µl reaction mixture containing 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 100 µM [
-32P]ATP (
1,000 cpm/pmol), and 1 mM NDR1 substrate peptide (KKRNRRLSVA). After incubation at 30 °C, the reactions were processed and kinase activity was determined as described for the HA-NDR kinase assay.
ImmunoprecipitationsCOS-1 cells transfected with HA-NDR wild type or mutants and Myc-hMOB1 were harvested as described above. Cell lysate protein (0.5 mg) was precleared with protein A- or G-Sepharose and mixed subsequently for 3 h at 4 °C with 12CA5 antibody prebound to protein A-Sepharose or with 9E10 antibody prebound to protein G-Sepharose. The beads then were washed twice with IP buffer, once with IP buffer containing 1 M NaCl, once again with IP buffer, and finally twice with 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, containing 4 µM leupeptin and 1 mM benzamidine. Samples were resolved by 12% SDS-PAGE, and Myc-hMOB1 and HA-NDR were detected by Western blotting.
GST Pull-down Assay25-µg aliquots of GST or GST-hMOB1 were incubated with glutathione-Sepharose for 2 h at 4 °C. The beads were washed three times with Tris-buffered saline, and then 5-µg aliquots of SHP-NDR wild type or mutants were added and incubated for 3 h at 4 °C. The beads were washed five times with Tris-buffered saline and resuspended in 30 µl of 1x SDS sample buffer, and the samples were resolved by 12% SDS-PAGE. NDR bound to GST-hMOB1 was detected by Western blotting.
| RESULTS |
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2-fold (data not shown). Furthermore, SHP-NDR2, which was pre-autophosphorylated in the presence of GST-hMOB1, has up to a 6-fold higher kinase activity against the NDR substrate peptide than SHP-NDR pre-autophosphorylated in the presence of GST (Fig. 1B). These results show that hMOB1 has a direct positive effect on NDR kinase activity. We tested the effect of hMOB1 on the phosphorylation state of the NDR phosphorylation sites Thr-74, Ser-281, and Thr-444 (Thr-75, Ser-282, and Thr-442 in the case of NDR2; the phosphorylation sites of NDR2 were recognized by phosphospecific antibodies generated against the corresponding phosphorylation sites of NDR1). SHP-NDR2 phosphorylation on the autophosphorylation sites Ser-282 and Thr-75 was slightly increased, whereas Thr-442 of SHP-NDR2, which is known to be targeted by an upstream kinase in vivo, showed no autophosphorylation (Fig. 1B).
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-HA antibody. In the two combinations containing Myc-hMOB1 of OA-treated cells, Myc-hMOB1 strongly associated with HA-NDR, regardless of whether the HA-NDR was expressed in OA-treated or unstimulated cells. Myc-hMOB1 from unstimulated cells showed only a weak interaction with HA-NDR from both unstimulated and OA-stimulated cells (Fig. 2C). Thus, OA-induced phosphorylation of NDR is not required for interaction but hMOB1 modification is necessary. Furthermore, GST-hMOB1 was phosphorylated by immunoprecipitated HA-NDR. The phosphorylation of GST-hMOB1 increased 34-fold when HA-NDR was immunoprecipitated from OA-stimulated COS-1 cells. However, the phosphorylation of GST-hMOB1 was also observed when kinase-dead HA-NDR was immunoprecipitated (Fig. 2D). We conclude that a kinase that co-immunoprecipitates with NDR is able to phosphorylate hMOB1.
The Highly Conserved N-terminal Domain of NDR Is Required for Kinase ActivationThe N-terminal regulatory domain of NDR kinase is highly conserved in the closest relatives of NDR throughout the eukaryotic world (Fig. 3A). Several residues are completely invariant throughout evolution from single cell organisms to humans. This prompted us to test the functional significance of these residues with respect to NDR kinase activity. Mutations of the highly conserved residues induced strong inhibition of OA-stimulated kinase activity (Fig. 3B). The first part of the N-terminal domain covering amino acids 133 and containing a predicted
-sheet in hNDR proved to be important for kinase activation. The deletion of the first 30 amino acids completely abolished kinase activation (data not shown). The point mutations in this region strongly reduced kinase activity. The mutation of Thr-16, Glu-18, and Glu-28 reduced activity to
40%, whereas the mutation of Lys-24 and Tyr-31 reduced activity to
20%. Mutation to alanine of Arg-41, Arg-44, or Leu-48, all of which lie in a predicted first
-helix covering the amino acids 4055 and are situated close together on the same side of the predicted
-helix, reduced kinase activity to below 20% of wild-type activity. Mutation of the residues in a predicted second
-helix situated in the previously described S100B binding region of NDR and covering amino acids 6080 also led to the inhibition of kinase activity. Mutation of Lys-72, Glu-73, Thr-74, Arg-78, and Leu-79 to alanine reduced kinase activity to 20% or lower. Taken together, the results imply that the high conservation of the N-terminal domain in the following termed SMA (S100B and MOB Association) domain is due to an absolute requirement of the conserved residues for proper kinase function, either by ensuring the correct structural conformation of the protein or being directly involved in binding to interacting proteins.
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-helix and whose mutation affects NDR-hMOB1 interaction as well as kinase activation in COS-1 cells, led to a reduction in kinase activity in vitro but did not completely abolish the activation by hMOB1. NDR with mutated Tyr-32 showed an intact basal kinase activity but was not activated by hMOB1 in vitro at all, pointing to an important role for this residue in the direct interaction with hMOB1. The activation of the T75A and the R79A mutants by hMOB1 was not different to wild-type NDR, suggesting that Thr-75 and Arg-79 are not directly involved in binding to hMOB1 and do not affect the kinase activity of NDR per se. Furthermore, the pull-down assays showed that NDR2 with mutated Tyr-32 does not bind to hMOB1, whereas the binding of NDR2 with mutated Arg-42 and Arg-45 is not abolished (Fig. 5B).
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1.5-fold) stimulated by hMOB1. Furthermore, we examined the effect of the combined mutation of Tyr-32 and the AIS. The mutation of Tyr-32, which abolishes the binding of hMOB1 to NDR, did not affect the activity of the AIS mutant NDR2, and the AIS Y32A mutant was not activated by hMOB1 (Fig. 6C). Altogether, these results indicate that hMOB1 binding induces the release of the autoinhibition caused by the AIS.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Several residues within the N-terminal SMA domain of NDR are important for NDR-hMOB1 interaction and for the kinase activation in vivo. On the other hand, only one of these residues, Tyr-32, proved to be important for interaction with and activation by hMOB1 in vitro. In contrast, it has been shown by NMR studies that Xenopus laevis MOB1 interacts with a synthetic peptide covering the S100B binding region of NDR (35). This region also contains residues Thr-74 and Arg-78, which are important for NDR activation and interaction with hMOB1 in vivo. Furthermore, the previously resolved crystal (31) and NMR (35) structures of hMOB1
and X. laevis MOB1, respectively, revealed that MOB1 has a negatively charged and exposed potential interaction surface. Thus, it is likely that positively charged residues of the NDR SMA domain such as Arg-78 are involved in the interaction with hMOB1 but that its mutation is not sufficient to disrupt the interaction with NDR under in vitro conditions. The residues Arg-41 and Arg-44, which lie on the same side of a predicted
-helix, may also participate in the interaction, but their mutation is not sufficient to disrupt the interaction in vitro. However, the mutation of Tyr-32 might disrupt the overall structure of the SMA domain, thereby disabling the interaction with hMOB1, or Tyr-32 of NDR might interact directly with hMOB1.
Although the sequence of the insert in the kinase catalytic domain between subdomains VII and VIII is not well conserved between NDR and the yeast kinases Cbk1 and Dbf2, they all have a sequence with a high basic amino acid content. Because this sequence is located just in front of the activation segment phosphorylation site, the question of whether it has a regulatory role arises. Mutation of the basic residues in this insert led to kinase activation both in cells and in vitro, showing that the sequence acts autoinhibitory. When NDR with mutated AIS was mutated on Tyr-32, a residue essential for NDR-hMOB1 interaction, unstimulated kinase activity was not affected. This points to a new mechanism of kinase activation in which the binding of MOB may induce a conformational change that leads to the release of the autoinhibition caused by the AIS. Crystallographic studies of MOB-bound and MOB-unbound NDR would be required to test this model. It is noteworthy that the phosphorylation of the hydrophobic motif site Thr-444 of the NDR AIS mutant in COS-1 cells also increased. Thus, the release of autoinhibition also facilitated phosphorylation by the hydrophobic motif upstream kinase. In accordance with this finding, it was suggested previously that the binding of yeast Mob1 to Dbf2 enables the Ste20-like kinase, Cdc15, to phosphorylate Dbf2 (27).
It has been shown that the autoinhibitory sequence acts as a nuclear localization signal in COS-1 cells in the case of NDR1 (17). In yeast, Mob2 is important for the localization of the NDR relative, Cbk1 (28, 29). It is possible that the conformational change induced by hMOB1 also influences NDR localization, and this will be addressed in future studies. It will also be interesting to examine whether other members of the MOB family (hMOB1
and
, hMOB2, and hMOB3
,
, and
) act as kinase activators in vivo. During the preparation of this article, it was reported that hMOB2 interacts with NDR1 and NDR2 from Jurkat cells and that hMOB2 stimulates NDR kinase activity (36).
S100B, a previously described activator of NDR, is constitutively bound to NDR in cells independent of OA stimulation (21). S100B may constitutively maintain the correct conformation of the SMA domain. It has been shown recently that the NDR-derived S100B-binding peptide adopts its helical conformation after binding to S100B (37). Thus, a high concentration of S100B in certain cell types (for example, melanoma cells (18)) may lead to constitutively elevated NDR activity. In contrast, MOB proteins may transmit a signal by fluctuation of the MOB protein level during the cell cycle as is reported for S. cerevisiae Mob1 (38) and/or by post-translational modification of MOB that promotes the interaction with NDR as we have suggested for the mechanism of OA-induced NDR kinase activation.
| FOOTNOTES |
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The Friedrich Miescher Institute is part of the Novartis Research Foundation. ![]()
Supported by the Swiss Cancer League Grant KFS 01342-02-2003. ![]()
Supported by the Krebsliga beider Basel. ![]()
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland. Tel.: 41-61-697-4872; Fax: 41-61-697-39-76; E-mail: Brian.Hemmings{at}fmi.ch.
1 The abbreviations used are: NDR, nuclear Dbf2-related (for abbreviations of other kinases see Ref. 1); BAPTA-AM, 1,2-bis(o-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid tetra(acetoxymethyl)ester; h, human; GST, glutathione S-transferase; HA, hemagglutinin; OA, okadaic acid; SMA, S100B and MOB association; AIS, autoinhibitory sequence. ![]()
2 P. Forrer, C. Chang, D. Ott, A. Wlodawer, and A. Plückthun, submitted for publication. ![]()
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