Growth-regulated proteins and neuronal plasticity. A commentary.

Growth-regulated proteins (GRPs) of the neuron are synthesized during outgrowth and regeneration at an increased rate and enriched in nerve growth cones. Therefore, they can be used to some degree as markers of neurite growth. However, these proteins are not unique to the growing neuron, and their properties are not known sufficiently to assign them a functional and/or causal role in the mechanisms of outgrowth. During synaptogenesis, GRPs decrease in abundance, and growth cone functions of motility and organelle assembly are being replaced by junctional contact and transmitter release. However, there is a stage during which growth cone and synaptic properties overlap to some degree. We propose that it is this overlap and its continuation that allow for synaptic plasticity in developing and adult nervous systems. We also propose a hypothesis involving (a) trophic factor(s) that might explain the regulation of synaptic sizes and collateral sprouting. Some GRPs, especially GAP43/B50/pp46/F1, are more prominent in adult brain regions of high plasticity, and they undergo change, such as phosphorylation, during long-term potentiation (LTP). Without precise functional knowledge of GRPs, it is impossible to use changes in such proteins to explain the plasticity mechanism. However, changes in these "growth markers" are likely to be an indication of sprouting activity, which would explain well the various phenomena associated with plasticity and learning in the adult. Thus, plasticity and memory may be viewed as a continuation of the developmental process into adulthood.

Axonal origin and purity of growth cones isolated from fetal rat brain.

The investigation of the molecular properties of nerve growth cones depends to a significant degree on their isolation from fetal brain in the form of 'growth cone particles' (GCPs). The availability of markers for developing axons and dendrites, as well as glial cells, has made it possible to characterize the GCP fraction in much greater detail than before and to optimize its yield. Marker analyses show that a member of the N-CAM family (5B4-CAM), synaptophysin, and especially GAP-43 and non-phosphorylated tau, are enriched in the GCP fraction. In contrast, MAP2 and, particularly, glial fibrillary acidic protein and vimentin are fractionated away from GCPs. Furthermore, GCP yield can be doubled relative to the original procedure, without compromising purity, by raising the sucrose concentration of the fractionation gradient's uppermost layer. The results indicate that GCPs are highly purified growth cone fragments with very little glial contamination, and that they are primarily of axonal origin.

Fractionation and reconstitution of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pump solubilized and stabilized by CHAPS/lipid micelles.

A procedure for solubilization, fractionation, and reconstitution of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) protein is presented. The SR protein is solubilized with the zwitterionic detergent CHAPS in the presence of added 5-mM phosphatidylcholine and 20% glycerol, which stabilize the reconstitutable Ca2+ transport activity. For reconstitution the solubilized SR protein is incorporated into preformed French-pressed unilamellar vesicles that had been treated with 10-mM sodium cholate. By passing the proteoliposomes through a centrifuged Sephadex G-50 column that had been equilibrated with potassium oxalate, the detergent is removed, and the proteoliposomes become sealed with potassium oxalate trapped inside. This procedure requires less than 2 h and results in Ca2+ uptake active of over 1 mumol/min/mg of protein. The solubilized SR protein was fractionated on a DEAE-Biogel A column. A fraction containing the Ca2+-ATPase but not the Mr 55,000 glycoprotein had reconstitutable Ca2+ uptake activity of 2.2 mumol/min/mg of protein. Inclusion of the Mr 55,000 glycoprotein during the reconstitution procedure did not increase the Ca2+ uptake activity of the reconstituted fraction containing the Ca2+-ATPase. This result demonstrates that the glycoprotein is not required for Ca2+ uptake.

Solubilization of stable adenosine A1 receptors from rat brain.

Despite numerous reports of solubilization of adenosine A1 receptors, little progress has been made in isolating or purifying the receptor, owing to the extreme lability of the preparations. The present solubilization strategies recognized the possible role of endogenous adenosine to produce adenosine-receptor-N-protein complexes, which are intrinsically unstable, and instead attempted to use caffeine to solubilize free adenosine receptors, which might be more stable. Endogenous adenosine was removed from membranes by using adenosine deaminase along with GTP to accelerate the release of receptor-bound adenosine. The receptors were then occupied with caffeine and solubilized with 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)-dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulphonate (CHAPS) in the presence of glycerol. These soluble preparations exhibited the characteristics of free adenosine receptors. They bound the A1-selective antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (CPDPX) with high affinity to a single class of binding sites, which were insensitive to GTP. The binding activity was extremely stable, with a half-life of about 5 days at 4 degrees C; there was little change in either receptor number or affinity during 3 days at 4 degrees C. This methodology should greatly facilitate the characterization, isolation and purification of the adenosine A1 receptor.

Myotonic dystrophy protein kinase domains mediate localization, oligomerization, novel catalytic activity, and autoinhibition.

Human myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK) is a member of a novel class of multidomain protein kinases that regulate cell size and shape in a variety of organisms. However, little is currently known about the general properties of DMPK including domain function, substrate specificity, and potential mechanisms of regulation. Two forms of the kinase are expressed in muscle, DMPK-1 and DMPK-2. We demonstrate that the larger DMPK-1 form (the primary translation product) is proteolytically cleaved near the carboxy terminus to generate the smaller DMPK-2 form. We further demonstrate that the coiled-coil domain is required for DMPK oligomerization; coiled-coil mediated oligomerization also correlated with enhanced catalytic activity. DMPK was found to exhibit a novel catalytic activity similar to, but distinct from, related protein kinases such as protein kinase C and A, and the Rho kinases. We observed that recombinant DMPK-1 exhibits low activity, whereas the activity of carboxy-terminally truncated DMPK is increased approximately 3-fold. The inhibitory activity of the full-length kinase was mapped to what appears to be a pseudosubstrate autoinhibitory domain at the extreme carboxy terminus of DMPK. To date, endogenous activators of DMPK are unknown; however, we observed that DMPK purified from cells exposed to the G protein activator GTP-gamma-S exhibited an approximately 2-fold increase in activity. These results suggest a general model of DMPK regulation with two main regulatory branches: short-term activation of the kinase in response to G protein second messengers and long-term activation as a result of proteolysis.

Phospholemman is a substrate for myotonic dystrophy protein kinase.

The genetic abnormality in myotonic muscular dystrophy, multiple CTG repeats lie upstream of a gene that encodes a novel protein kinase, myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK). Phospholemman (PLM), a major membrane substrate for phosphorylation by protein kinases A and C, induces Cl currents (I(Cl(PLM))) when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. To test the idea that PLM is a substrate for DMPK, we measured in vitro phosphorylation of purified PLM by DMPK. To assess the functional effects of PLM phosphorylation we compared I(Cl(PLM)) in Xenopus oocytes expressing PLM alone to currents in oocytes co-expressing DMPK, and examined the effect of DMPK on oocyte membrane PLM expression. We found that PLM is indeed a good substrate for DMPK in vitro. Co-expression of DMPK with PLM in oocytes resulted in a reduction in I(Cl(PLM)). This was most likely a specific effect of phosphorylation of PLM by DMPK, as the effect was not present in oocytes expressing a phos(-) PLM mutant in which all potential phosphorylation had been disabled by Ser --> Ala substitution. The biophysical characteristics of I(Cl(PLM)) were not changed by DMPK or by the phos(-) mutation. Co-expression of DMPK reduced the expression of PLM in oocyte membranes, suggesting a possible mechanism for the observed reduction in I(Cl(PLM)) amplitude. These data show that PLM is a substrate for phosphorylation by DMPK and provide functional evidence for modulation of PLM function by phosphorylation.