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Activation of the serine/threonine kinase, protein kinase D (PKD/PKC mu) via a phorbol ester/PKC-dependent pathway involves phosphorylation events. The present study identifies five in vivo phosphorylation sites by mass spectrometry, and the role of four of them was investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. Four sites are autophosphorylation sites, the first of which (Ser(916)) is located in the C terminus; its phosphorylation modifies the conformation of the kinase and influences duration of kinase activation but is not required for phorbol ester-mediated activation of PKD. The second autophosphorylation site (Ser(203)) lies in that region of the regulatory domain, which in PKC mu interacts with 14-3-3tau. The last two autophosphorylation sites (Ser(744) and Ser(748)) are located in the activation loop but are only phosphorylated in the isolated PKD-catalytic domain and not in the full-length PKD; they may affect enzyme catalysis but are not involved in the activation of wild-type PKD by phorbol ester. We also present evidence for proteolytic activation of PKD. The fifth site (Ser(255)) is transphosphorylated downstream of a PKC-dependent pathway after in vivo stimulation with phorbol ester. In vivo phorbol ester stimulation of an S255E mutant no longer requires PKC-mediated events. In conclusion, our results show that PKD is a multisite phosphorylated enzyme and suggest that its phosphorylation may be an intricate process that regulates its biological functions in very distinct ways.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MKKs or MEKs) are dual specificity tyrosine/threonine protein kinases that are activated by phosphorylation at two closely spaced serine residues (serines-218 and -222) by the c-mos and raf proto-oncogenes. This double phosphorylation is both necessary and sufficient for MEKs to activate the MAP kinase enzymes iii vitro. The specificity or regulation of in vivo signaling to the mammalian MEKs (MEK1 and MEK2) was recently reported also to involve the differential phosphorylation of a proline-rich peptide located between the MEK kinase-subdomains IX and X. Here we report the purification and characterization of an auto-activating protein kinase from bovine brain that phosphorylates serine-298 of the MEK1 and MEK2 proline-rich insert peptides. The auto-activation of the MEK-S298 peptide kinase is the result of an intermolecular phosphorylation el ent that can be prevented by the peptide substrate. The inactive kinase migrates on gel filtration as a 90 kDa protein, and after activation as a 43 kDa phosphoprotein. Incorporation of P-32[phosphate] into 40-42 kDa proteins on SDS-PAGE parallels the activation of the enzyme, and dephosphorylation by protein phosphatase 2Ac reverses the activation. SDS-PAGE renaturation assays show that the 40 kDa protein has the capacity to autophosphorylate, and exhibits kinase activity towards myelin basic protein after activation. Phosphorylation of purified bovine brain MEK or recombinant MEK1 by the auto-activated kinase does not activate the enzyme, and does not interfere with the in vitro raf-mediated MEK activation. We conclude that still unknown kinases may control the MAP kinase pathway by targeting MEK. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.

The plasma membrane H+-ATPase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is subject to phosphorylation by a casein kinase I activity in vitro. We show this casein kinase I activity to result from the combined function of YCK1 and YCK2, two highly similar and plasma membrane-associated casein kinase I homologues. First, H+-ATPase phosphorylation is severely impaired in the plasma membrane of YCK-deficient yeast strains. Furthermore, the wild-type level of the phosphoprotein is restored by the addition of purified mammalian casein kinase I to the mutant membranes. We used the H+-ATPase as well as a synthetic peptide substrate that contains a phosphorylation site for casein kinase I to compare kinase activity in membranes prepared from yeast cells grown in the presence or absence of glucose. The addition of glucose results in increased H+-ATPase activity which is associated with a decline in the phosphorylation level of the enzyme. Mutations in both YCK1 and YCK2 affect this regulation, suggesting that H+-ATPase activity is modulated by glucose via a combination of a "down-regulating" casein kinase I activity and another, yet uncharacterized, "up-regulating" kinase activity. Biochemical mapping of phosphorylated H+-ATPase identifies a major phosphopeptide that contains a consensus phosphorylation site (Ser-507) for casein kinase I. Site-directed mutagenesis of this consensus sequence indicates that Glu-504 is important for glucose-induced decrease in the apparent Km for ATP.