A single amino acid difference distinguishes the human and the rat sequences of stathmin, a ubiquitous intracellular phosphoprotein associated with cell regulations.

Stathmin is a ubiquitous phosphoprotein proposed to play a general role as an intracellular relay integrating diverse regulatory signals of the cell's environment. We used a rat stathmin probe to isolate two classes of cDNAs coding for the human protein and corresponding to the usage of different polyadenylation sites. Compared to the rat sequences, they displayed a very high conservation both at the nucleic acid and the deduced protein sequence levels, with a single conservative amino acid difference. Further analysis of the protein sequence revealed novel putative phosphorylation sites, as well as internal repeated sequences which might reflect structural features involved in the molecular mechanisms by which stathmin fulfills its biological functions. The extreme conservation of the entire stathmin sequence further stresses the essential and general role of stathmin in cell regulations.

Induction of stathmin expression during liver regeneration.

Stathmin is a 19 kDa cytoplasmic phosphoprotein proposed to act as a relay for signals activating diverse intracellular regulatory pathways. After two-thirds partial hepatectomy, the concentration of stathmin reached a peak between 48 and 72 hours, comparable to the levels observed in neonatal liver, at about 10 times the basal adult level. Stathmin then decreased to basal levels within 7 days, more rapidly than during postnatal tissue development (7 weeks), with no detectable change in its phosphorylation state. Interestingly, the mRNA for stathmin reached a peak much earlier than the protein, at 24 hours posthepatectomy, and decreased to a still detectable level until 96 hours after hepatectomy. Altogether, the present results further support the generatility of the implication of stathmin in regulatory pathways of cell proliferation and differentation during normal tissue development and posttraumatic regeneration.

The stathmin family -- molecular and biological characterization of novel mammalian proteins expressed in the nervous system.

Stathmin is a ubiquitous phosphoprotein proposed to be a relay integrating various intracellular signaling pathways. Its high phylogenetic conservation and the identification of the related molecules, SCG10 in rat and XB3 in Xenopus, suggested the existence of a stathmin-related family. A systematic PCR-based approach allowed the identification of several novel mammalian sequences of which two coded for expressed members of the stathmin family; the translated RB3 sequence shares 88% amino-acid identity with that of XB3 and is thus its rat homologue, and RB3' corresponds to an alternatively spliced product of the same gene, encoding a truncated form. Within their stathmin-like domain, the alpha helix, probably responsible for coiled-coil protein-protein interactions, is conserved, as well as are two consensus phosphorylation sites; in their N-terminal extension domain, two cystein residues most likely responsible for membrane attachment through palmitoylation, are present in RB3/RB3' as in SCG10. The novel identification and characterization of the corresponding proteins showed that all three are associated with the particulate, membrane-containing fraction. They furthermore display several spots of decreasing pI on two-dimensional immunoblots, suggesting that they are phosphorylated in vivo. As for SCG10, RB3 mRNA is detectable only in the nervous system by in situ hybridization, but at similar levels in the newborn and the adult brain as revealed by Northern blots, whereas SCG10 expression decreases in the adult. Furthermore, RB3 mRNA is undetectable in PC12 cells, whereas SCG10 mRNA increases after treatment with nerve growth factor, inducing neuronal differentiation. In conclusion, we demonstrate here the existence of a highly conserved stathmin-related family in mammals, of which each member seems to play specific roles, related to the control of cell proliferation and activities for stathmin and to that of neuronal differentiation for SCG10, the novel RB3/RB3' proteins being rather related to the expression of differentiated neuronal functions.

Stathmin interaction with a putative kinase and coiled-coil-forming protein domains.

Stathmin is a ubiquitous, cytosolic 19-kDa protein, which is phosphorylated on up to four sites in response to many regulatory signals within cells. Its molecular characterization indicates a functional organization including an N-terminal regulatory domain that bears the phosphorylation sites, linked to a putative alpha-helical binding domain predicted to participate in coiled-coil, protein-protein interactions. We therefore proposed that stathmin may play the role of a relay integrating diverse intracellular regulatory pathways; its action on various target proteins would be a function of its combined phosphorylation state. To search for such target proteins, we used the two-hybrid screen in yeast, with stathmin as a "bait." We isolated and characterized four cDNAs encoding protein domains that interact with stathmin in vivo. One of the corresponding proteins was identified as BiP, a member of the hsp70 heat-shock protein family. Another is a previously unidentified, putative serine/threonine kinase, KIS, which might be regulated by stathmin or, more likely, be part of the kinases controlling its phosphorylation state. Finally, two clones code for subdomains of two proteins, CC1 and CC2, predicted to form alpha-helices participating in coiled-coil interacting structures. Their isolation by interaction screening further supports our model for the regulatory function of stathmin through coiled-coil interactions with diverse downstream targets via its presumed alpha-helical binding domain. The molecular and biological characterization of KIS, CC1, and CC2 proteins will give further insights into the molecular functions and mechanisms of action of stathmin as a relay of integrated intracellular regulatory pathways.

Stathmin gene family: phylogenetic conservation and developmental regulation in Xenopus.

The ubiquitous cytoplasmic phosphoprotein stathmin was proposed to play a general role as an intracellular relay integrating diverse signals regulating the proliferation, differentiation, and functions of cells (Sobel, A. (1991) Trends Biol. Sci. 16, 301-305). It was originally identified in mammalian cells and tissues, but antibodies directed against the mammalian protein also recognized a stathmin-like 19-kDa protein in all vertebrate classes. The immunoreactive protein in Xenopus laevis displayed, like mammalian stathmin, several nonphosphorylated and phosphorylated heat-soluble forms with distinct migration on two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Screening of Xenopus oocyte and brain cDNA libraries with a rat stathmin cDNA probe allowed us to isolate several stathmin-related cDNA clones, among which clone XO35 encodes the Xenopus homologue of stathmin whose deduced amino acid sequence is 79% identical to and displays most of the characteristic structural features of the mammalian protein. In particular, one of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase and the two "proline-directed" kinase-specific sites known to be phosphorylated in rat stathmin are also present in the Xenopus protein. Furthermore, two other sets of clones coding for related proteins belonging to the stathmin gene family were also isolated; clone SC15 encodes the Xenopus homologue of SCG10, a rat protein specifically related to neuronal differentiation; clone XB3 encodes a protein which, as SCG10 or SC15, possesses a stathmin-like domain and an additional N-terminal extension but is more distant from SCG10 than SC15. Interestingly, the mRNA transcripts of Xenopus stathmin (XO35) appear ubiquitous, like stathmin in mammals, whereas the SC15 and XB3 mRNAs appeared as markers of the nervous tissue in Xenopus. During Xenopus oogenesis, stathmin accumulates and remains stable as a maternal product throughout early development. Concurrently, its phosphorylation is regulated from essentially unphosphorylated forms to highly phosphorylated ones in the mature egg, which are then progressively dephosphorylated again from the midblastula to the tailbud stage. Altogether, our results demonstrate the high evolutionary conservation of stathmin together with the members of its related gene family, not only at the level of their molecular structures, but also of their biochemical and biological regulation. These observations are thus further in favor of a very general and likely essential role of stathmin in the normal control of cells throughout development and in the adult.

KIS is a protein kinase with an RNA recognition motif.

Protein phosphorylation is involved at multiple steps of RNA processing and in the regulation of protein expression. We present here the first identification of a serine/threonine kinase that possesses an RNP-type RNA recognition motif: KIS. We originally isolated KIS in a two-hybrid screen through its interaction with stathmin, a small phosphoprotein proposed to play a general role in the relay and integration of diverse intracellular signaling pathways. Determination of the primary sequence of KIS shows that it is formed by the juxtaposition of a kinase core with little homology to known kinases and a C-terminal domain that contains a characteristic RNA recognition motif with an intriguing homology to the C-terminal motif of the splicing factor U2AF. KIS produced in bacteria has an autophosphorylating activity and phosphorylates stathmin on serine residues. It also phosphorylates in vitro other classical substrates such as myelin basic protein and synapsin but not histones that inhibit its autophosphorylating activity. Immunofluorescence and biochemical analyses indicate that KIS overexpressed in HEK293 fibroblastic cells is partly targetted to the nucleus. Altogether, these results suggest the implication of KIS in the control of trafficking and/or splicing of RNAs probably through phosphorylation of associated factors.

Specific Ser-Pro phosphorylation by the RNA-recognition motif containing kinase KIS.

We present here a first appraisal of the phosphorylation site specificity of KIS (for 'kinase interacting with stathmin'), a novel mammalian kinase that has the unique feature among kinases to possess an RNP type RNA-recognition motif (RRM). In vitro kinase assays using various standard substrates revealed that KIS has a narrow specificity, with myelin basic protein (MBP) and synapsin I being the best in vitro substrates among those tested. Mass spectrometry and peptide sequencing allowed us to identify serine 164 of MBP as the unique site phosphorylated by KIS. Phosphorylation of synthetic peptides indicated the importance of the proline residue at position +1. We also identified a tryptic peptide of synapsin I phosphorylated by KIS and containing a phosphorylatable Ser-Pro motif. Altogether, our results suggest that KIS preferentially phosphorylates proline directed residues but has a specificity different from that of MAP kinases and cdks.

Molecular characterization of human stathmin expressed in Escherichia coli: site-directed mutagenesis of two phosphorylatable serines (Ser-25 and Ser-63).

Stathmin, a probable relay protein possibly integrating multiple intracellular regulatory signals [reviewed in Sobel (1991) Trends Biochem. Sci. 16, 301-305], was expressed in Escherichia coli at levels as high as 20% of total bacterial protein. Characterization of the purified recombinant protein revealed that it had biochemical properties very similar to those of the native protein. It is a good substrate for both cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and p34cdc2, on the same four sites as the native eukaryotic protein. As shown by m.s., the difference in isoelectric points from the native protein is probably due to the absence of acetylation of the protein produced in bacteria. C.d. studies indicate that stathmin probably contains about 45% of its sequence in an alpha-helical conformation, as also predicted for the sequence between residues 47 and 124 by computer analysis. Replacement of Ser-63 by alanine by in vitro mutagenesis resulted in a ten times less efficient phosphorylation of stathmin by PKA which occurred solely on Ser-16, confirming that Ser-63 is the major target of this kinase. Replacement of Ser-25, the major site phosphorylated by mitogen-activated protein kinase in vitro and in vivo, by the charged amino acid glutamic acid reproduced, in conjunction with the phosphorylation of Ser-16 by PKA, the mobility shift on SDS/polyacrylamide gels induced by the phosphorylation of Ser-25. This result strongly suggests that glutamic acid in position 25 is able to mimic the putative interactions of phosphoserine-25 with phosphoserine-16, as well as the resulting conformational changes that are probably also related to the functional regulation of stathmin.

Stathmin and its phosphoprotein family: general properties, biochemical and functional interaction with tubulin.

Stathmin, also referred to as Op18, is a ubiquitous cytosolic phosphoprotein, proposed to be a small regulatory protein and a relay integrating diverse intracellular signaling pathways involved in the control of cell proliferation, differentiation and activities. It interacts with several putative downstream target and/or partner proteins. One major action of stathmin is to interfere with microtubule dynamics, by inhibiting the formation of microtubules and/or favoring their depolymerization. Stathmin (S) interacts directly with soluble tubulin (T), which results in the formation of a T2S complex which sequesters free tubulin and therefore impedes microtubule formation. However, it has been also proposed that stathmin's action on microtubules might result from the direct promotion of catastrophes, which is still controversial. Phosphorylation of stathmin regulates its biological actions: it reduces its affinity for tubulin and hence its action on microtubule dynamics, which allows for example progression of cells through mitosis. Stathmin is also the generic element of a protein family including the neural proteins SCG10, SCLIP and RB3/RB3'/RB3". Interestingly, the stathmin-like domains of these proteins also possess a tubulin binding activity in vitro. In vivo, the transient expression of neural phosphoproteins of the stathmin family leads to their localization at Golgi membranes and, as previously described for stathmin and SCG10, to the depolymerization of interphasic microtubules. Altogether, the same mechanism for microtubule destabilization, that implies tubulin sequestration, is a common feature likely involved in the specific biological roles of each member of the stathmin family.