Src kinase induces calcium release in Xenopus egg extracts via PLCgamma and IP3-dependent mechanism.

Mobilization of intracellular calcium is an indispensable step of fertilization-induced egg activation. Recently, this process has been shown to require the sequential activation of Src family tyrosine kinases, phospholipase Cgamma (PLCgamma), and inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-dependent receptor of endoplasmic reticulum. In the present study, we made an attempt to recapitulate the early events of egg activation by stimulating Src kinase activity in the cell-free extracts of Xenopus eggs. We found that enhanced Src kinase activity can initiate calcium response of low magnitude in cytostatic factor (CSF)-arrested mitotic extracts without releasing them into interphase. The addition of catalytically active recombinant Src kinase, as well as the activation of endogenous Xenopus Src family kinase by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), increased total tyrosine phosphorylation, tyrosine phosphorylation of PLCgamma, and IP3 production in the extracts. The treatment with the Src family kinase-specific inhibitor, PP1, or PLC inhibitor, U73122, or IP3 receptor antagonist, heparin, prevented calcium release in the extracts. We conclude, therefore, that possible mechanism of Src/H2O2 action in the extracts might involve tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of PLCgamma, accompanied by the increase in IP3 content and subsequent calcium release from IP3-regulated calcium stores. These results also suggest that monitoring calcium signals induced in the Xenopus egg extracts by various components of signaling pathways may provide a particularly useful approach to investigating their role in the signal transduction.

[The signalling cascade of fertilization]. / Signal'nyi kaskad pri oplodotvorenii.

The early event of fertilization-induced egg activation is a mobilization of intracellular Ca2+ that originates from the sperm entry point and spreads through the entire egg cytoplasm. Recently, this process has been established to require the sequential activation of Src family kinases, phospholipase C gamma, and inositoltrisphosphate receptor of endoplasmic reticulum. This review summarizes recent findings concerning the signalling pathway of fertilization from sperm-egg interaction to the Ca2+ release with emphasis on the role of tyrosine kinases in the egg activation.

Calcium oscillations in Xenopus egg cycling extracts.

Cell cycle in various types of cells and in early embryos is often accompanied by transient changes in the concentration of free cytosolic calcium. In the present study, using fluorescent indicator fura-2, we demonstrate that Ca(2+) oscillates cyclically with an amplitude of about 100 nM and a period of mitotic cycle in cell-free Xenopus egg cycling extracts. It peaks in early metaphase just preceding mitotic reactivation of Cdc2 kinase and MAPK and reaches a minimum in interphase. The source of Ca(2+) in the extracts is a particulate fraction containing egg intracellular Ca(2+) stores, since the addition of a calcium-mobilizing second messenger, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3), induced a transient increase in Ca(2+). The inclusion of heparin, an IP3 receptor antagonist, or ultrafiltration of the extracts prevented Ca(2+)-releasing activity of IP3. The depletion of Ca(2+) in the extracts by the calcium chelator BAPTA resulted in the blockade of cell cycle at different stages, depending on the time of drug administration. The addition of BAPTA late in interphase blocked cell cycle at mitotic entry in prophase, whereas its application in anaphase or telophase blocked the extracts in early interphase. BAPTA administration in metaphase before transition to anaphase brought about a metaphase-like arrest in the cycling extracts. Inhibition of IP3-induced calcium release by heparin also arrested cell cycle progression in the cycling extracts.

Protein-carbohydrate interactions in human lysozyme probed by combining site-directed mutagenesis and affinity labeling.

The synergism between apolar and polar interactions in the carbohydrate recognition by human lysozyme (HL) was probed by site-directed mutagenesis and affinity labeling. The three-dimensional structures of the Tyr63-->Leu mutant HL labeled with 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of N,N'-diacetylchitobiose (L63-HL/NAG-NAG-EPO complex) and the Asp102-->Glu mutant HL labeled with the 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of N-acetyllactosamine were revealed by X-ray diffraction at 2.23 and 1.96 A resolution, respectively. Compared to the wild-type HL labeled with the 2', 3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of N,N'-diacetylchitobiose, the N-acetylglucosamine residue at subsite B of the L63-HL/NAG-NAG-EPO complex markedly moved away from the 63rd residue, with substantial loss of hydrogen-bonding interactions. Evidently, the stacking interaction with the aromatic side chain of Tyr63 is essential in positioning the N-acetylglucosamine residue in the productive binding mode. On the other hand, the position of the galactose residue in subsite B of HL is almost unchanged by the mutation of Asp102 to Glu. Most hydrogen bonds, including the one between the carboxylate group of Glu102 and the axial 4-OH group of the galactose residue, were maintained by local movement of the backbone from residues 102-104. In both structures, the conformation of the disaccharide was conserved, reflecting an intrinsic conformational rigidity of the disaccharides. The structural analysis suggested that CH-pi interactions played an important role in the recognition of the carbohydrate residue at subsite B of HL.

Deregulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase at low pH due to a structural rearrangement of activation segment.

Autophosphorylation of recombinant mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) on Tyr was found to be several-fold stimulated at weakly acidic pH (5.5-6.0), whereas the phosphorylation of a protein substrate, myelin basic protein, was greatly inhibited at pH below 6. 0. In contrast to phosphorylation at pH 8.0, both MAPK autophosphorylation and MAPK phosphorylation with upstream MAPK kinase at low pH failed to stimulate essentially its kinase activity towards the exogenous protein substrate. Immunoprecipitation and ELISA with an activation segment-specific antibody, kinetic analysis, and reversible phosphorylation assay revealed a difference in the folding of MAPK activation segment at pH 5.5 and 8.0. The data suggest that a rearrangement of the activation segment at low pH promotes a stable low-activity conformation of the enzyme which is favorable for intramolecular autophosphorylation. In this conformation, the phosphorylation of the exogenous protein substrate is inhibited due to persistent blocking of the enzyme catalytic center by the activation segment.

Dual affinity labeling of the active site of human lysozyme with an N-acetyllactosamine derivative: first ligand assisted recognition of the second ligand.

Among the three kinds of the 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of disaccharides (GlcNAc-beta1,4-GlcNAc, Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc, and Man-beta1,4-GlcNAc), the derivative of N-acetyllactosamine (Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo) caused the dual labeling of human lysozyme (HL) most efficiently. The labeled HL was crystallized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction methodology. The X-ray analysis located the two Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo moieties inside the catalytic cleft of HL. The attachment sites were the side-chain carboxylate groups of the catalytic residues Glu35 and Asp53 in HL. The first Gal-beta1, 4-GlcNAc-Epo moiety occupied virtually the same position as observed in the HL labeled with single Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo molecule. The second Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo moiety was recognized via the carbohydrate-carbohydrate interaction with the first Gal-beta1, 4-GlcNAc-Epo moiety in addition to the protein-carbohydrate interaction with the "right-side" catalytic cleft of HL through a number of hydrogen bonds including water-mediated ones as well as many van der Waals contacts. The two N-acetylglucosamine residues stacked with each other, while the two rings of galactose residues approximately shared the same plane. The dual labeling with two Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo molecules was supposed to have occurred sequentially, which was accompanied with the alteration to the pKa of Glu35 derived from the esterification of Asp53 in the first labeling. Both asymmetric carbons in the connection parts between HL and N-acetyllactosamine moieties showed the same stereoconfiguration derived from the reaction with (2'R) stereoisomer concerning the epoxide group in the labeling reagent. The results demonstrated that the HL labeled with single Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-Epo was functional as a novel N-acetyllactosamine-binding protein, and the second labeling was performed by way of the first-ligand assisted recognition of the second ligand.

X-ray structure of human lysozyme labelled with 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of man-beta1,4-GlcNAc. Structural change and recognition specificity at subsite B.

Human lysozyme (HL) labelled with the 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of Man-beta1,4-GlcNAc was crystallized at pH 4.5. The cell dimensions were a = 36.39, b = 116.38, c = 30.91 A and the space group was P212121. The unit cell contained four molecules (Vm = 2.18 A3 Da-1). The crystal structure was determined by molecular replacement and refined to an R value of 0.168 for 7060 reflections [|Fo| > 3sigma(F)] in the resolution range 8.0-2.1 A. A prominent shift of the Calpha-atom positions by up to 3.8 A in the region of residues 45-50 was observed compared with wild-type HL. Owing to the conformational change in this region the intermolecular contacts were altered remarkably compared to wild-type HL, explaining the difference in molecular packing. The Man-beta1,4-GlcNAc moiety occupied subsites B and C in the substrate-binding site of HL. Several differences in the hydrogen-bonded contacts between the ligand part and the protein part were observed for HL labelled with the 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of Man-beta1,4-GlcNAc compared with HL labelled with the corresponding derivatives of GlcNAc-beta1, 4-GlcNAc and Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc. In contrast to the replacement of GlcNAc with Gal, the replacement of GlcNAc with Man did not sacrifice the stacking interactions with the side-chain group of Tyr63 as determined by the parallelism of the apolar face of the carbohydrate residue and the aromatic plane of the Tyr63 side chain. The 2',3'-epoxypropyl beta-glycoside of Man-beta1,4-GlcNAc exhibited almost the same affinity towards HL as Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc, a much lower affinity than that of GlcNAc-beta1,4-GlcNAc. The difference in the protein-ligand interactions was discussed in relation to the carbo-hydrate-residue recognition specificity at subsite B of HL. The results suggested that Gln104 was a determinant for the strong recognition of GlcNAc residue at subsite B in HL.

Phosphorylation-sensitive secondary structure in a synthetic peptide corresponding to the activation loop of MAP kinase.

A 26-amino acid long synthetic peptide corresponding to the activation loop of Xenopus MAP kinase (MAPK), termed IDA (Inter-DFG-APE) MAPK peptide, was found to efficiently inhibit the immunoprecipitation of the enzyme with anti-IDA MAPK serum. The value of half-inhibition concentration (100 nM) indicates that the IDA peptide and native MAPK activation loop are virtually indistinguishable in terms of antibody recognition. On the other hand, the Tyr-phosphorylated form of the peptide exerted its inhibitory action at around one order higher concentration. Shorter nonapeptides covering the epitope sequence of anti-IDA MAPK antibody could also affect the immunoprecipitation but at much higher concentrations (half-inhibition concentration approximately 100 microM) and independently of their phosphorylation state. Circular dichroic study revealed that a secondary structure could be readily induced with the aid of trifluoroethanol in the unphosphorylated and, to a less extent, in the Tyr-phosphorylated IDA MAPK peptide but not in the shorter nonapeptides. These results suggest that the secondary structure similar to that of the unphosphorylated activation loop of MAPK can be formed in the IDA MAPK peptide and may be lost upon its Tyr-phosphorylation.