N-WASP deficiency reveals distinct pathways for cell surface projections and microbial actin-based motility.

The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) family of molecules integrates upstream signalling events with changes in the actin cytoskeleton. N-WASP has been implicated both in the formation of cell-surface projections (filopodia) required for cell movement and in the actin-based motility of intracellular pathogens. To examine N-WASP function we have used homologous recombination to inactivate the gene encoding murine N-WASP. Whereas N-WASP-deficient embryos survive beyond gastrulation and initiate organogenesis, they have marked developmental delay and die before embryonic day 12. N-WASP is not required for the actin-based movement of the intracellular pathogen Listeria but is absolutely required for the motility of Shigella and vaccinia virus. Despite these distinct defects in bacterial and viral motility, N-WASP-deficient fibroblasts spread by using lamellipodia and can protrude filopodia. These results imply a crucial and non-redundant role for N-WASP in murine embryogenesis and in the actin-based motility of certain pathogens but not in the general formation of actin-containing structures.

The microtubule-binding fragment of microtubule-associated protein-2: location of the protease-accessible site and identification of an assembly-promoting peptide.

Thrombin cleavage of bovine brain microtubule-associated protein (MAP-2) yields two stable limit polypeptide fragments (28,000 and 240,000 Mr). The smaller cleavage product contains the microtubule-binding domain and is derived from the carboxyl terminus of MAP-2 while the 240,000 Mr fragment is derived from the amino terminus. The amino terminal sequence of the smaller cleavage product is homologous with the microtubule-binding fragment of tau in sequence and in a similar location relative to three imperfect octadecapeptide repeats implicated in microtubule binding. Peptides corresponding to the cleavage site and the three repeats of MAP-2 were synthesized. Only the second octadecapeptide repeat (VTSKCGSLKNIRHRPGGG) was capable of stimulating microtubule nucleation and elongation. Microtubules formed in the presence of this peptide displayed normal morphology and retained the inhibition properties of calcium ion, podophyllotoxin, and colchicine. Our result indicates that a region comprising only approximately 1% of the MAP-2 sequence can promote microtubule assembly.

Recognition of two classes of oligoproline sequences in profilin-mediated acceleration of actin-based Shigella motility.

The gram negative rod Shigella flexneri uses it surface protein IcsA to induce host cell actin assembly and to achieve intracellular motility. Yet, the IcsA protein lacks the oligoproline sequences found in ActA, the surface protein required for locomotion of the gram positive rod Listeria monocytogenes. Microinjection of a peptide matching the second ActA oligoproline repeat (FEFPPPPTDE) stops Listeria locomotion (Southwick, F.S., and D.L. Purich. 1994a. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 91:5168-5172), and submicromolar concentrations (intracellular concentration 80-800 nM) similarly arrest Shigella rocket-tail assembly and intracellular motility. Coinjection of a binary solution containing profilin and the ActA analogue increased the observed rates of intracellular motility by a factor of three (mean velocity 0.90 +/- 0.07 mu m/s, SD n=16 before injection vs 0.3 +/- 0.1 mu m/s, n=33 postinjection, intracellular concentration = 80 nM profilin plus 80 nM ActA analogue). Recent evidence suggests the ActA analogue may act by displacing the profilin-binding protein VASP (Pistor, S.C., T. Chakaborty, V. Walter, and J. Wehland. 1995. Curr. Biol. 5:517-525). At considerably higher intracellular concentrations (10 muM), the VASP oligoproline sequence (GPPPPP)3 thought to represent the profilin-binding site (Reinhard, M., K. Giehl, K. Abel, C. Haffner, T. Jarchau, V. Hoppe, B.M. Jockusch, and U. Walter. 1995. EMBO (Eur. Mol. Biol. Organ.) J. 14:1583-1589) also inhibited Shigella movement. A binary mixture of the VASP analogue and profilin (each 10 muM intracellular concentration) led to a doubling of Shigella intracellular migration velocity (0.09 +/- 0.06 mu m/s, n = 25 preinjection vs 0.18 +/- 0.10 mu m/s, n = 61 postinjection). Thus, the two structurally divergent bacteria, Listeria and Shigella, have adopted convergent mechanisms involving profilin recognition of VASP oligoproline sequences and VASP recognition of oligoproline sequences in ActA or an ActA-like host protein to induce host cell actin assembly and to provide the force for intracellular locomotion and cell-cell spread.

Vinculin proteolysis unmasks an ActA homolog for actin-based Shigella motility.

To generate the forces needed for motility, the plasma membranes of nonmuscle cells adopt an activated state that dynamically reorganizes the actin cytoskeleton. By usurping components from focal contacts and the actin cytoskeleton, the intracellular pathogens Shigella flexneri and Listeria monocytogenes use molecular mimicry to create their own actin-based motors. We raised an antibody (designated FS-1) against the FEFPPPPTDE sequence of Listeria ActA, and this antibody: (a) localized at the trailing end of motile intracellular Shigella, (b) inhibited intracellular locomotion upon microinjection of Shigella-infected cells, and (c) cross-reacted with the proteolytically derived 90-kD human vinculin head fragment that contains the Vinc-1 oligoproline sequence, PDFPPPPPDL. Antibody FS-1 reacted only weakly with full-length vinculin, suggesting that the Vinc-1 sequence in full-length vinculin may be masked by its tail region and that this sequence is unmasked by proteolysis. Immunofluoresence staining with a monoclonal antibody against the head region of vinculin (Vin 11-5) localized to the back of motile bacteria (an identical staining pattern observed with the anti-ActA FS-1 antibody), indicating that motile bacteria attract a form of vinculin containing an unmasked Vinc-1 oligoproline sequence. Microinjection of submicromolar concentrations of a synthetic Vinc-1 peptide arrested Shigella intracellular motility, underscoring the functional importance of this sequence. Western blots revealed that Shigella infection induces vinculin proteolysis in PtK2 cells and generates p90 head fragment over the same 1-3 h time frame when intracellular bacteria move within the host cell cytoplasm. We also discovered that microinjected p90, but not full-length vinculin, accelerates rates of pathogen motility by a factor of 3 +/- 0.4 in Shigella-infected PtK2 cells. These experiments suggest that vinculin p90 is a rate-limiting component in actin-based Shigella motility, and that supplementing cells with p90 stimulates rocket tail growth. Earlier findings demonstrated that vinculin p90 binds to IcsA (Suzuki, T.A., S. Saga, and C. Sasakawa. 1996. J. Biol. Chem. 271:21878-21885) and to vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) (Brindle, N.P.J., M. R. Hold, J.E. Davies, C.J. Price, and D.R. Critchley. 1996. Biochem. J. 318:753-757). We now offer a working model in which proteolysis unmasks vinculin's ActA-like oligoproline sequence. Unmasking of this site serves as a molecular switch that initiates assembly of an actin-based motility complex containing VASP and profilin.

Enzyme catalysis: a new definition accounting for noncovalent substrate- and product-like states.

Biological catalysis frequently causes changes in noncovalent bonding. By building on Pauling's assertion that any long-lived, chemically distinct interaction is a chemical bond, this article redefines enzyme catalysis as the facilitated making and/or breaking of chemical bonds, not just of covalent bonds. It is also argued that nearly every ATPase or GTPase is misnamed as a hydrolase and actually belongs to a distinct class of enzymes, termed here 'energases'. By transducing covalent bond energy into mechanical work, energases mediate such fundamental processes as protein folding, self-assembly, G-protein interactions, DNA replication, chromatin remodeling and even active transport.

Autophosphorylation of cardiac 3',5'-cyclic AMP-stimulated protein kinase. Kinetic evidence for the regulatory subunit directly acting at the active site in the R2C2 complex.

The mechanism of the autophosphorylation reaction of bovine heart cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (ATP: protein phosphotranferase, EC 2.7.1.31) has been further examined using a kinetic approach. The reaction is first order in both ATP and protein kinase when both are present at comparable concentrations. Dilution has no effect on the fraction of regulatory subunit phosphorylated over a given interval of time, and this finding is in accord with the autophosphorylation proceeding via an intramolecular (or, more appropriately in this case, by an intracomplex) reaction. The possibility of regulatory subunit phosphorylation by uncomplex catalytic subunit or another R2C2 complex (the protein kinase complex of two catalytic subunits and the regulatory dimer) was clearly eliminated. These results are compatible with a subunit geometry permitting the regulatory subunit to bind at the protein substrate region of the kinase's active site and to undergo subsequent phosphorylation.

Microtubule-associated protein autophosphorylation alters in vitro microtubule dynamic instability.

While phosphorylation of high-molecular-weight microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) alters the assembly properties of microtubules in vitro, virtually nothing is known about the influence of MAP phosphorylation on the time-scale of microtubule polymer length redistribution. The latter has been used as an index of microtubule assembly/disassembly turnover as predicted by the dynamic instability model (Mitchison, T.M. and Kirschner, M.W. (1984) Nature 312, 237-242). We have now determined that under conditions leading to the incorporation of 8-10 mol phosphoryl groups per mol MAP-2 (and about 0.2 mol phosphoryl groups per mol MAP-1 and tau), we can reproducibly observe significant acceleration in the polymer length redistribution process in a manner consistent with greater microtubule dynamic instability. We have also found that MAP phosphorylation resulted in more extensive release of MAPs from microtubules as a function of increasing salt concentration. These results are consistent with a weakening of MAP-microtubule interactions upon phosphorylation.