|
Advertisement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 22, 16117-16125, June 1, 2007
A Conserved Sequence Immediately N-terminal to the Bateman Domains in AMP-activated Protein Kinase
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
,
, and
, with
being the catalytic subunit and
and
having regulatory roles. Although several studies have defined different domains in
and
involved in the interaction with the other subunits of the complex, little is known about the regions of the
subunits involved in these interactions. To study this, we have made sequential deletions from the N termini of the
subunit isoforms and studied the interactions with
and
subunits, both by two-hybrid analysis and by co-immunoprecipitation. Our results suggest that a conserved region of 2025 amino acids in
1,
2, and
3, immediately N-terminal to the Bateman domains, is required for the formation of a functional, active 

complex. This region is required for the interaction with the
subunits. The interaction between the
and
subunits does not require this region and occurs instead within the Bateman domains of the
subunit, although the
-
interaction does appear to stabilize the
-
interaction. In addition, sequential deletions from the C termini of the
subunits indicate that deletion of any of the CBS (cystathionine
-synthase) motifs prevents the formation of a functional complex with the
and
subunits. | INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
,
, and
. The
subunit is the catalytic subunit; it contains a highly conserved kinase domain at the N terminus and a less well conserved C-terminal regulatory domain. Two isoforms have been described, i.e.
1 and
2; both are localized in the cytoplasm, although
2 is also present in the nucleus (6). The
subunits contain four tandem repeats of a structural module called a CBS motif (7), named after the enzyme cystathionine
-synthase, in which a pair of CBS motifs form a domain that binds the allosteric activator S-adenosyl methionine (8). In the AMPK
subunits the four CBS motifs are now known to act in two pairs, forming two domains (referred to as Bateman domains) that bind the regulatory nucleotides, AMP and ATP, in a mutually exclusive manner (8). Three isoforms of the
subunit, i.e.
1,
2, and
3, are encoded by distinct genes; they have poorly conserved N-terminal regions that in
2 and
3 are subject to alternate splicing, whereas the C-terminal regions, containing the two tandem Bateman domains, are conserved in all three isoforms. Two isoforms of the
subunit (
1 and
2) have been described; they differ at their N termini, but both appear to interact with the
and
subunits with similar efficiency (9, 10). The
subunits have two conserved regions, a central glycogen-binding domain (1113) and a C-terminal domain that is the only region required for the formation of the complex with
and
(11).
All three subunits are required to form a functional AMPK complex (14, 15). Recent studies have begun to delineate the regions of the
and
subunits required for the formation of heterotrimeric complexes, although there have been some conflicting findings. Detailed mapping of the C-terminal domain of
1 suggested that the last 25 residues are sufficient to form a complex with
1,
2, and
3, with the C-terminal residue (Ile270) being essential for the formation of a
-
complex in the absence of
(16). By contrast, it was recently reported that
2 and
1 do not form a complex in the absence of
2 (17). The C-terminal domain of the
subunit has been reported to be involved in the interaction with
(16) and
subunits (10), although another study has suggested that
1 interacts with
2 via both the N-terminal catalytic domain and the C-terminal domain of the latter (17).
As yet, little is known about which portions of the
subunits are involved in the interaction with the
and
subunits. To study this, we have made deletions of the regions of the
subunits N-terminal to the Bateman domains. Our results show that a conserved sequence of 2025 residues, immediately N-terminal to the first Bateman domain (the "pre-CBS1 sequence"), is required for the binding of
1,
2, and
3 to the
subunits and for the formation of an active 

complex. In addition, we have made C-terminal deletions of the
subunits and observed that deletion of any of the CBS motifs prevents the formation of functional complexes with the
and
subunits.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
was used as the host strain for plasmid constructions. It was grown in LB (1% peptone, 0.5% yeast extract, 1% NaCl, pH 7.5) medium supplemented with 50 mg/liter ampicillin.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae CTY10-5d (MATa ade2 his3 leu2 trp1 gal4 gal80 URA3::lexAop-lacZ) was used in the two-hybrid experiments. When indicated, the yeast strains FY250 and FY250 snf1
, containing the pSH18-18 reporter plasmid (18), were also used in two-hybrid experiments. Yeast transformation was carried out using the lithium acetate protocol (19). Yeast cultures were grown in synthetic complete (SC) medium lacking the corresponding supplements to maintain selection for plasmids (20).
OligonucleotidesOligonucleotides used in this work are described in Table 1.
|
3 (expressing LexA-AMPK
3 fusion protein) was obtained by subcloning an EcoRI/XhoI fragment from plasmid pcDNA3-AMPK
3 (containing the human cDNA of AMPK
3) into plasmid pEG202 (21) digested with EcoRI/XhoI. Progressive deletions of the AMPK
3 open reading frame were obtained by PCR using the forward oligonucleotides Gamma3-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, and -F and the reverse oligonucleotide Gamma3-SalI (Table 1). The amplified fragments were sequenced to check the absence of undesired modifications and then digested with EcoRI/SalI and subcloned into pEG202 to obtain plasmids pEG-AMPK
3A, -B, -C, -D, -E, and -F, respectively.
To construct plasmids pEG-AMPK
1 (LexA-AMPK
1) and pACT2-AMPK
1, a 1.9-kb ApaI/NotI fragment from plasmid pcDNA3-AMPK
1 (containing the human cDNA of AMPK
1), was blunted with Klenow enzyme and ligated into the SmaI site of pEG202 and pACT2 (22), respectively. Plasmid pEG-AMPK
1-Nt
was obtained by amplifying the corresponding fragment by PCR using oligonucleotides Gamma1-CBS1 and Gamma1-2 (Table 1). The fragment was then digested with SmaI/XhoI and subcloned into pEG202, previously digested with SmaI/XhoI. To obtain plasmid pACT2-AMPK
1-CBS1, a BglII fragment from pACT2-AMPK
1 (containing the N-terminal domain and the first CBS motif) was subcloned into pACT2 digested with BglII and treated with alkaline phosphatase. Plasmid pACT2-AMPK
1-CBS12 was obtained by eliminating an EcoRI fragment from pACT2-AMPK
1 and re-ligating. Plasmid pACT2-AMPK
1-CBS123 was obtained by amplifying the corresponding fragment by PCR using oligonucleotides Gamma1-1 and Gamma1-CBS123 (Table 1). The fragment was then digested with NotI, filled with Klenow enzyme, digested with XhoI, and then subcloned into pACT2 digested with SmaI and XhoI.
To construct plasmid pEG-AMPK
2 (LexA-AMPK
2), an EcoRI/XhoI fragment from plasmid pcDNA3-AMPK
2 (containing the human cDNA of AMPK
2) was subcloned into plasmid pEG202 (21) digested with EcoRI/XhoI. Plasmid pEG-AMPK
2 short (LexA-AMPK
2 short) was constructed in a similar way from plasmid pcDNA3-AMPK
2 short (expressing
2 from residue 242 up to 569). Plasmid pEG-AMPK
2-Nt
was obtained by amplifying the corresponding fragment by PCR using oligonucleotides Gamma2-CBS1 and Gamma2-2 (Table 1). The fragment was then digested with SmaI/XhoI and subcloned into pEG202, previously digested with SmaI/XhoI. To obtain yeast plasmids expressing different mutated forms of AMPK
2, EcoRI/XhoI fragments from plasmids pcDNA3-AMPK
2 R302Q, L-ins, H383R, and T400N (containing the human cDNA of the corresponding mutated forms) were subcloned into pEG202.
To express the "short" and "long" truncations of
subunits for co-precipitation studies in mammalian cells, DNAs encoding residues 22331 (
1L) or 47331 (
1S) of human
1 (P54619
[GenBank]
), 253569 (
2L) or 279569 (
2S) of human
2 (Q9UGJ0), or 177489 (
3L) or 202489 (
3S) of human
3 (Q9UGI9) were cloned by reverse transcription-PCR from human brain mRNA (
1 and
2) or by PCR from Image clone 40005880 (
3), and subcloned using EcoRI and KpnI sites into pFLAG-CMV5a (Sigma). The expressed proteins have a single methionine before the residues listed and a FLAG tag at the C terminus.
Other plasmids used in this study were pACT2 (22), pACT2-AMPK
2 (GAD-AMPK
2), pACT2-AMPK
2 (GAD-AMPK
2), pBTM-AMPK
2 (LexA-AMPK
2), and pBTM-AMPK
2 (LexA-AMPK
2) (10).
AntibodiesThe antibodies used in this study were as follows: sheep polyclonal anti-pan
(23), sheep polyclonal anti-
1 and anti-
2 (14), mouse monoclonal anti-Myc (Sigma), mouse monoclonal anti-FLAG (Sigma).
-Galactosidase Assays
-Galactosidase activity was measured in yeast-permeabilized cells and expressed in Miller units as described by Ludin and collaborators (24).
Preparation of Yeast Cell Extracts and Immunoblot AnalysisYeast cells corresponding to 1 unit of A600 were collected by rapid centrifugation (14,000 rpm, 1 min), resuspended in 100 µl of Laemmli sample buffer, and boiled for 3 min. Glass beads (0.3 g, 450-µm diameter) were added to the suspension, and then the cells were vortexed at full speed for 30 s. The suspension was boiled again for 3 min and centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 1 min. 20 µl of the supernatants was subjected to SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting using anti-LexA polyclonal antibodies (Invitrogen) or anti-HA polyclonal antibodies (Clontech).
Cell Culture and TransfectionHeLa and HEK293 cells were grown at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 incubator. Cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. All transfections were carried out using SuperFect transfection reagent (Qiagen) following the manufacturer's instructions.
Co-immunoprecipitation StudiesCells were transiently transfected with combinations of plasmids encoding the
(N-terminal Myc-tagged),
(untagged), and
(C-terminal FLAG-tagged) subunits of AMPK. Cell lysates were prepared 24 h post-transfection and incubated with anti-FLAG M2-agarose (Sigma) for 2 h on a rotating wheel at 4 °C. Beads were washed three times in lysis buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.3, 50 mM NaF, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM sodium pyrophosphate, 0.1% (v/v) Triton X-100, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 0.1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 0.1 mM benzamidine, 1 µg/ml soybean trypsin inhibitor). Samples were resolved by SDS-PAGE on a 412% gradient NuPAGE gel, using MOPS running buffer (Invitrogen). Western blots were carried out, and protein was detected by antibody labeling and enhanced chemiluminescence using standard techniques.
Kinase AssaysActivity of AMPK in immunoprecipitates was measured as described previously (25).
Production and Growth of Mouse Embryo FibroblastsAMPK
subunit knockout MEFs (
1/ and
2/) and wild-type controls were constructed and grown as described previously (26). They were transfected using Lipofectamine (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's instructions.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Subunits Interact with
and
via Their N-terminal Regions by Two-hybrid AnalysisWe commenced our study by analyzing two-hybrid interactions of mammalian AMPK subunits expressed in yeast. Because the
2
2
3 complex appears to play an important role in skeletal muscle (27), we initially studied the interaction between
2 and
3, which has an N-terminal extension of 201 amino acids prior to the first Bateman domain. An LexA-
3 fusion protein interacted strongly with a GAD-
2 fusion (Fig. 1), so we made sequential deletions from the N terminus of
3 and checked their interaction with GAD-
2. As shown in Fig. 1B, deletion of the first 33 amino acids of
3(
3A) decreased the interaction slightly, whereas further successive deletions of 45 (
3B) and 40 (
3C) amino acids did not further modify the interaction. However, the deletion of the following 35 amino acids (
3D) reduced the interaction, and the deletion of the next 47 amino acids (
3E, truncated at the start of the first Bateman domain) completely abolished it. Additional deletion of the first CBS motif (
3F) gave the same negative results as
3E. Control experiments using the various LexA-
3 constructs and the empty vector pACT2 gave negligible (<1 unit)
-galactosidase activity in all the cases (not shown). Western blot analysis indicated that all deleted forms were expressed at similar levels (Fig. 1C). These results suggested that the interaction between
3 and
2 requires the 47 amino acids immediately prior to the first Bateman domain, although residues N-terminal to that may improve the interaction. We also attempted to study the interaction between
3 and
2 using the same approach, but there was a very low level of interaction evident even with the full-length construct (<1 unit of
-galactosidase).
|
|
1, the most abundant
subunit in skeletal muscle (27). As shown in Fig. 2A, a fusion between LexA and full-length
1 was able to interact strongly with both
2 and
2. However, the deletion of the first 41 amino acids from the N terminus (a truncation at the start of the first Bateman domain) completely abolished the interaction with both
2 and
2. Control experiments using both LexA-
1 constructs and the empty vector pACT2 gave negligible (<1 unit)
-galactosidase activity (not shown). Western blot analysis indicated that the truncated LexA-
1 protein was produced at similar levels to the full-length protein (Fig. 2A, right panel).
Similar results were obtained when we studied
2. A fusion between LexA and full-length
2, containing an N-terminal extension of 278 amino acids prior to the first Bateman domain, interacted with
2 and
2 (Fig. 2B). A truncated form containing only the first 37 amino acids prior to the first Bateman domain interacted strongly with
2 and
2 (Fig. 2B), perhaps because the truncated form was better expressed (see Fig. 2B, right panel). However, the deletion of these 37 amino acids from the N terminus (a truncation at the start of the first Bateman domain) completely abolished the interaction with both
2 and
2 (Fig. 2B). Control experiments using the different LexA-
2 constructs and the empty vector pACT2 gave negligible (<1 unit)
-galactosidase activity (not shown). Therefore, our results suggest that 3747 amino acids immediately prior to the first Bateman domain of the three
subunits are necessary for their interaction with
2 and
2.
Because yeast contains orthologues to the three AMPK subunits (AMPK
, Snf1; AMPK
, Gal83/Sip1/Sip2; and AMPK
, Snf4), we studied whether the interaction between AMPK
and the three
subunits was dependent on the presence of the orthologous Snf1/AMPK
subunit. With this aim, we repeated the two-hybrid experiments in yeast cells lacking the SNF1 gene (snf1
mutant). As shown in Fig. 2C, the three
subunits interacted with the
2 subunit in the absence of Snf1/AMPK
. These results indicated that the
and the
subunits interacted directly. The lower levels of interaction observed in snf1
mutants may suggest that the presence of the
subunit stabilizes the
-
interaction.
Mutations in the
2 Bateman Domains Do Not Affect Binding to
2 and
2Mutations in the PRKAG2 gene, encoding the
2 subunit, cause heart diseases of varying degrees of severity that appear to be caused by excessive glycogen storage (28, 29). Several mutations have been described, e.g. R302Q (30), L-insert (an insertion of an extra Leu residue between the conserved Arg350-Glu351) and H383R (31), T400N and N488I (28), R531G (32), and R531Q (33). In all cases, the described mutations affect critical residues in different CBS motifs of the
2 subunit and, with the possible exception of the L-insert mutation, produce proteins with deficient AMP binding capacity (8, 33). We studied four of these mutations (R302Q, L-insert, H383R, and T400N (Fig. 3A)) and checked by two-hybrid analysis whether the mutated forms interacted properly with
2 and
2. Compared with the wild type, all of the mutants interacted normally with
2, and the interaction was increased in the absence of glucose, as reported previously for the wild type (10) (Fig. 3B). None of the mutations affected the two-hybrid interaction of
2 with
2 either (Fig. 3C).
Alignment of
Subunit SequencesWe next aligned the sequences of human
1,
2, and
3 with those of the orthologues from Drosophila melanogaster, Dictyostelium discoideum, S. cerevisiae (Snf4), and Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Fig. 4). According to the UNIPROT data base, the first Bateman domains of
1,
2, and
3 begin at Lys42, Lys279, and Lys202, respectively. In a recent study, we expressed in bacteria constructs of
1,
2, and
3 that commenced near this point and showed that they bound two molecules of AMP or ATP with the expected affinities (8). Thus, upstream residues are not required for binding of the regulatory nucleotides. However, the alignment in Fig. 4 shows that there is a stretch of
25 amino acids (which we shall call the "pre-CBS1 sequence") prior to the first Bateman domain that is well conserved across the three human
isoforms and the four distantly related eukaryotic species. There is a conserved pattern of hydrophobic residues, whereas Phe, Tyr, and Asp residues at positions 12, 19, and 20 and a basic residue at position 16 (His, Lys, or Arg) are completely conserved.
|
1,
2, and
3 that were either truncated at the start of the first Bateman domain (
1S,
2S, and
3S; S represents short) or that contained the 25- to 26-residue pre-CBS1 sequence shown in Fig. 4 (
1L,
2L, and
3L; L represents long). These were co-expressed in HeLa cells with
1 and Myc-tagged
1, and the
subunits were immunoprecipitated with anti-FLAG antibody, making use of the FLAG tag at the C termini of all
variants. Fig. 5A shows the results of Western blotting using anti-Myc and anti-FLAG antibodies to detect the
and
subunits, respectively. A consistent finding was that Myc-
1 (detected using anti-Myc antibody) only co-precipitated with
1,
2, and
3 when the latter contained the pre-CBS1 sequence (compare lane 1 (L variants) with lane 5 (S variants) for each
subunit in the anti-Myc blot). Unfortunately, the
1S variant appeared to be expressed at a much lower level than the
1L variant. Also, for reasons that are unclear, it always migrated as a doublet, with one band migrating faster than
1L as expected, but the other migrating more slowly. Nevertheless, the Myc-tagged
1 subunit (which was expressed equally well in both cases) only co-precipitated significantly with the
1L variant (Fig. 5A, upper panels). Expression of the
2-FLAG fusions was low using either the long or short variant. Despite this, there was evidence that Myc-
1 only co-precipitated with
2L and not with
2S (Fig. 5A, middle panels). The results were most clear-cut with the
3 variants (Fig. 5A, lower panels). The
3-FLAG and Myc-
1 fusions expressed equally well irrespective of the presence or absence of the pre-CBS1 sequence on
3, but Myc-
1 only co-precipitated significantly with
3L and not with
3S.
Very similar results were obtained when the constructs were expressed in HEK293 rather than HeLa cells (not shown). We also expressed Myc-
1,
1, and the
-FLAG variants in both HeLa and HEK293 cells, immunoprecipitated the corresponding AMPK complexes using anti-Myc or anti-FLAG antibodies, and measured AMPK activity. Fig. 5B shows that active complexes were only obtained in anti-Myc immunoprecipitates from HEK293 cells using the long variants (
1L,
2L, and
3L). The rather low level of activity obtained with
2L was consistent with the generally low level of expression obtained using this construct compared with
1L or
3L (Fig. 5A). When the short variants (
1S,
2S, and
3S) were expressed instead, the activities obtained were not significantly different from the background level in untransfected cells. Similar results were obtained by immunoprecipitation using anti-FLAG antibodies (not shown).
To confirm that AMPK complexes containing the pre-CBS1 sequence were regulated normally in intact cells, we also treated HEK293 cells expressing Myc-
1,
1, and
1L-or
1S-FLAG with 10 mM deoxyglucose. Fig. 5C shows that the
1L-FLAG complex was activated by deoxyglucose as expected, whereas only background levels of activity were observed in the untransfected cells or cells expressing
1S-FLAG, with or without deoxyglucose.
|
Interacts with the
SubunitTo test whether the pre-CBS1 sequence interacts with the
or the
subunits, we co-expressed the
1S,
1L,
2S,
2L,
3S, or
3L constructs in HeLa cells together with plasmids encoding either Myc-
1, Myc-
2,
1, or
2 alone, i.e. without DNA encoding the third subunit. Cell lysates were immunoprecipitated with anti-FLAG, and the respective
or
subunit was detected in the immunoprecipitates with the corresponding antibodies. The experiments with
1 or
2 (detected using a pan-
antibody) showed that both isoforms were able to form a complex with
1L or
3L, but not with
1S or
3S (Fig. 6A). We also attempted the experiment with the
2 constructs but, probably because of the low level of expression, any complex formed with
2L was not detectable (not shown). On the other hand, Myc-
1 or Myc-
2 appeared to form complexes with
1 and
3 variants, irrespective of the presence or absence of the pre-CBS1 sequence (Fig. 6B). These results suggest that, although the interaction between the
and
subunits requires the pre-CBS1 sequence,
1 or
2 interact with
subunits independently of this sequence, i.e. via the Bateman domains. Surprisingly, this is different from the results obtained in experiments when a
subunit was also expressed (e.g. Figs. 5A and 6C), where the association of
and
is dependent on the presence of the pre-CBS1 sequence.
Recently, it has been proposed that the
and
subunits of AMPK do not interact directly, but only indirectly via the
subunit (17). The results in Fig. 6A argue against that model, but a caveat was that HeLa cells do express low levels of endogenous
subunits. To rule out the possibility that endogenous
subunits could be providing a bridge between the overexpressed
and
subunits, we co-expressed the
-FLAG variants and
1, with or without Myc-
1, in wild-type or double knock-out (
1/ and
2/) mouse embryo fibroblasts (WT or KO MEFs). Unfortunately, the MEF cell lysates contain an abundant protein that migrates just behind the
subunits on SDS-PAGE. This protein binds the anti-
1/
2 antibody and/or the second antibody used, and therefore almost obscures the
subunits when cell lysates were analyzed by Western blotting. However, this protein was not present in the immunoprecipitates. Endogenous
subunits from WT MEF cells could be seen to co-precipitate with
1L (lane 8 in Fig. 6C), but no signal was obtained in the equivalent samples from KO MEFs (lane 8 in Fig. 6D), confirming the complete absence of
subunits from KO cells. Recombinant Myc-
1 was also observed to co-precipitate with
1L when Myc-
1 was expressed in either WT or KO MEFs (lane 4 in Fig. 6, C and D). Despite the complication of the abundant protein in the MEF cell lysates, the results clearly show that
1 interacts with
1L but not with
1S, even in KO MEFs that completely lack both
subunits (antipan-
blot, lane 8, Fig. 6, C and D). The presence of endogenous
1 in WT MEFs, or overexpressed Myc-
1 in either WT or KO MEFs does, however, appear to markedly increase the amount of
1 that co-immunoprecipitates with
1L but not with
1S. These observations suggest that the
subunit does stabilize
-
interaction, although it is not essential for the interaction to occur.
Both Bateman Domains of the
Subunits Are Also Necessary to Allow the Formation of a Heterotrimeric ComplexWe also made sequential deletions from the C terminus of
1 and found that, upon elimination of the last CBS motif of the second Bateman domain, the two-hybrid interactions with
2 and
2 were completely lost (Fig. 7). Successive deletions of the remaining CBS motifs gave the same negative results. Control experiments using LexA-
2 or LexA-
2 and the empty vector pACT2 gave negligible (<1 unit)
-galactosidase activity (not shown). Western blot analysis indicated that the truncated GAD-
1 proteins were produced at similar levels (Fig. 7, right panel).
We also made various truncations of human
2 that contained only CBS motifs 34 (Bateman domain 2) or 24 (half Bateman domain 1 plus Bateman domain 2), as well as one that commenced at residue 244 (thus containing the pre-CBS1 sequence) but was truncated at the end of the first Bateman domain and did not contain the second domain. None of these constructs formed functional AMPK complexes when co-expressed with
1 and
1 (data not shown). These results indicated that the two Bateman domains may fold into a combined structure necessary to allow the formation of an active heterotrimeric complex. If this structure is altered, e.g. by deleting one of the CBS motifs, then the formation of a functional heterotrimeric complex is prevented.
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
is required to form a functional complex with
and
(11), whereas additional C-terminal truncations have been used to more precisely map the regions of the C-terminal domain of
1 required for binding to
(residues 186270) and
(residues 246270) (16). The same technique was used to show that a C-terminal region of
1 lacking the last 75 residues (313473) was all that was required for binding to
1 (16). Two-hybrid analysis has also been used as an alternative technique to analyze the interactions among the three different subunits (34, 35). Recently, we reported that only the C-terminal domain of
2 (residues 313552) was required for the interaction with
1 (10). The two-hybrid technique has also been used extensively to study the architecture of the yeast orthologue of mammalian AMPK, i.e. the SNF1 complex (36). The results are broadly similar to those obtained in the mammalian system: (i) yeast
subunit (Snf1) interacts via its C-terminal domain with both the
(Snf4) and
(Gal83/Sip1/Sip2) subunits (37); (ii) several deletions or point mutations in Snf1 also defined critical residues in the kinase domain and C-terminal domain involved in the interaction with Snf4 (38); (iii) yeast
subunits contain C-terminal domains referred to as the ASC (association with Snf1 complex) domain reported to be involved in the interaction with Snf4 (
subunit) and a central KIS (kinase interacting sequence) domain, which overlaps with the glycogen-binding domain of mammalian
subunits and is reported to interact with the
subunit (Snf1) (37, 39).
|
|
|
subunit is involved in the interaction with the
and
. In this study we present evidence that a conserved region of 2025 amino acids immediately N-terminal to the first Bateman domain of mammalian
subunits is required for binding to the
subunits. Our results are based on analysis of the interactions using two-hybrid analyses of mammalian subunits expressed in yeast, as well as by co-precipitation and measurement of kinase activity with
,
, and
subunits co-expressed in mammalian cells. The results obtained with the expression of truncated forms of
1,
2, and
3 in mammalian cells show that a region of 2025 amino acids immediately prior to the first Bateman domain is essential for formation of a functional 

complex (Fig. 5). This sequence is particularly well conserved in a central region of 17 amino acids, which is rather hydrophobic and has the consensus sequence SXIYMKFMRSHKCYDLI. The sequence contains three residues that are completely conserved between human
1,
2, and
3 and their orthologues in D. melanogaster, D. discoideum, S. cerevisiae, and S. pombe, i.e. a Phe at position 7 and a Tyr-Asp doublet at position 1415 (in bold in the consensus sequence). There is also a conserved basic residue at position 11, and hydrophobic residues are conserved at positions 4, 8, 16, and 17 (underlined in the consensus sequence) (Fig. 4). Although our results suggest that this sequence is required for the interaction between
and
subunits, at present, we cannot rule out the possibility that the removal of this sequence causes major conformational changes in the overall structure of the
subunits that precludes their interaction with the
subunits.
Additionally, we have also used the two-hybrid method to analyze the interaction with
and
of several point mutations in
2 that caused a hereditary heart disease in humans (Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome with cardiac hypertrophy). Our results indicate that the pathogenic defect associated with these mutations is not due to deficiencies in binding of
2 to
2 and
2. This is consistent with findings that these
2 mutations give rise to complexes that are active, although in some cases defective in AMP activation, when co-expressed with
and
subunits in mammalian cells (8, 33, 40). The findings that these mutant complexes were active suggested that they contained all three subunits, although this had not been directly addressed in the previous studies.
Recently, evidence was presented, using a co-precipitation approach, that mouse
2 and
1 subunits do not interact directly (17). The authors proposed instead that the
subunit bridges the interaction between
and
. Our results do not support this model. First, yeast two-hybrid analysis indicates that the interaction between
and
subunits occurs in the absence of Snf1/AMPK
subunit (Fig. 2C). Second, both
1 and
2 interacted with
1 and
3 when overexpressed together in HeLa cells without an
subunit, and this was dependent on the pre-CBS1 sequence of the
subunits, because it did not occur with the short variants (Fig. 6A). Both
1 and
2 also interacted with
1 and
3 in the absence of a co-expressed
subunit, but this was not dependent on the pre-CBS1 sequence, because the interaction occurred equally well with the short as the long
variants (Fig. 6B). The fact that the
subunits require the pre-CBS1 sequence to interact with the
subunits, whereas the
subunits do not, argues against the idea that
subunits provide a bridge between
and
. One caveat with our experiments in HeLa cells is that these cells do express low level of endogenous
subunit. To rule out the possibility that the endogenous
subunit might bridge the
-
interaction, we repeated the experiment in WT MEFs and double knock-out cells that completely lacked
subunits (KO MEFs). The results clearly showed that a
-
interaction, which was dependent on the pre-CBS1 sequence, was still evident in the KO MEFs. However, the presence of
subunits, either endogenous in the WT MEFs or recombinant Myc-
1 subunit in WT or KO MEFs, did appear to greatly increase the amount of
1 recovered in the
1-FLAG immunoprecipitates (Fig. 6, C and D). Thus, the presence of an
subunit may stabilize the
-
interaction. The lower levels of interaction observed between
and
in snf1
mutants are also consistent with this hypothesis.
Some rather surprising findings were that when
and
subunits were expressed on their own, they interacted even in the absence of the pre-CBS1 sequence (Fig. 6B), but when they were co-expressed with a
subunit, co-precipitation with the
subunits was now dependent on the presence of the pre-CBS1 sequence on
(Figs. 5A and 6C). Our interpretation of these somewhat puzzling findings is that the
and
subunits may form a dimeric complex that interacts differently with the
subunits than when the
subunit is present on its own.
We have also made sequential deletions from the C terminus of
1 and found that, upon elimination of even one of the four CBS motifs, the two-hybrid interactions with
2 and
2 were completely lost. In agreement with this observation, we also found that a C-terminal deletion of
2 (lacking the second Bateman domain) was unable to form an active heterotrimeric complex. One plausible interpretation of these results is that both Bateman domains are required to form a functionally combined structure. If one of the CBS motifs or Bateman domains is deleted, then the structure does not fold properly, leading to an altered conformation of the protein that cannot bind to
and
even though the pre-CBS1 sequence is present.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
and
subunits interact directly and that the pre-CBS1 sequence of the
subunit participates in the binding to the
subunit.
* This work was supported by the EXGENESIS Integrated Project (Grant LSHM-CT-2004-005272) funded by the European Commission, by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Grant SAF2005-00852 to P. S.), and by a Programme Grant from the Wellcome Trust (to D. G. H.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement"in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. ![]()
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 3496-339-1779; Fax: 3496-369-0800; E-mail: sanz{at}ibv.csic.es.
2 The abbreviations used are: AMPK, AMP-activated protein kinase; CBS, cystathionine
-synthase; SC, synthetic complete medium; CMV, cytomegalovirus; HA, hemagglutinin; MOPS, 4-morpholinepropanesulfonic acid; MEF, mouse embryo fibroblast; WT, wild type; KO, knock-out; GAD, Gal4-activating domain. ![]()
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
M. E. Osler and J. R. Zierath Minireview: Adenosine 5'-Monophosphate-Activated Protein Kinase Regulation of Fatty Acid Oxidation in Skeletal Muscle Endocrinology, March 1, 2008; 149(3): 935 - 941. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. J. Iseli, J. S. Oakhill, M. F. Bailey, S. Wee, M. Walter, B. J. van Denderen, L. A. Castelli, F. Katsis, L. A. Witters, D. Stapleton, et al. AMP-activated Protein Kinase Subunit Interactions: {beta}1:{gamma}1 ASSOCIATION REQUIRES {beta}1 Thr-263 AND Tyr-267 J. Biol. Chem., February 22, 2008; 283(8): 4799 - 4807. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| All ASBMB Journals | Molecular and Cellular Proteomics |
| Journal of Lipid Research | ASBMB Today |