Two potent tumor-inducing toxins, okadaic acid (OA) and microcystin-LR (MCLR), specifically inhibit PP2A
The structural feature that PME-1 binds directly to the PP2A active site, overlapping the binding sites for OA and MCLR, also explains why these phosphatase inhibitors blocked the methylesterase activity of PME-1
The catalytic subunit of PP2A is the primary cellular target of OA
PP2A plays a critical role in cellular physiology including cell cycle regulation, cell proliferation and death, development, cytoskeleton dynamics, cell mobility, and regulation of multiple signal transduction pathways
PP2A functions by removing phosphate groups from substrate phosphoproteins
A key function of PP2A is thought to dephosphorylate the hyperphosphorylated Tau protein
The PP2A core enzyme, upon initial incubation with various concentrations of PME-1, exhibited full Ser/Thr phosphatase activity and, only after prolonged incubation time, had substantial loss of the phosphatase activity
Thus, PME-1 appears to exist in an inactive conformation in the absence of PP2A binding.
Structural analysis of the heterotrimeric PME-1-PP2A complex showed that PME-1 is only activated upon binding to PP2A (Figure 4, left panel).
Interestingly, although PME-1 is activated by PP2A binding, the catalytic subunit of PP2A is inactivated in this process, not just through demethylation but also by loss of the catalytic metal ions
A portion of cellular PP2A stably associated with PME-1 and was catalytically inactive [80]; intriguingly, this inactive portion of PP2A could be re-activated by PP2A phosphatase activator (PTPA), but not by LCMT1, ruling out the possibility that inactivation was solely caused by demethylation
Furthermore, formation of a stable complex between PP2A and PME-1 likely blocks LCMT1-catalyzed methylation.
Reversible methylation of PP2A is catalyzed by two highly conserved and PP2A-specific enzymes, leucine carboxyl methyltransferase (LCMT1)[21,33] and PP2A methylesterase (PME-1)[17] (Figure 1).
PME-1 catalyzes removal of the methyl group, thus reversing the activity of LCMT1
Recent evidence suggests a broader role for PME-1 than just being a demethylating enzyme for the catalytic subunit of PP2A
Structural observations clearly indicate that PME-1 inactivates the phosphatase activity of PP2A
Structures of the PP2A core enzyme reveal that the catalytic subunit recognizes one end of the scaffold subunit through interactions with the conserved ridge of HEAT repeats 11–15
Previous studies suggested that carboxy-methylation of the catalytic subunit played an important role in the assembly of heterotrimeric PP2A holoenzymes in cells
This analysis suggests that at least two non-overlapping fragments of Tau, both within the microtubule-binding repeats, have the ability to interact with the acidic top face of the B subunit
To gain full activity towards specific substrates, the PP2A core enzyme interacts with a variable regulatory subunit to form a heterotrimeric holoenzyme. The variable regulatory subunits consist of four families: B (also known as B55 or PR55), B′ (B56 or PR61), B′′ (PR48/PR72/PR130), and B′′′ (PR93/PR110), with at least 16 members in these families
Except the B′′′ subunits, direct interactions between the PP2A core enzyme and the regulatory subunits have been demonstrated
Structure of the heterotrimeric PP2A holoenzyme involving a regulatory B subunit (Figure 2D) reveals how B subunit specifically recognizes the PP2A core enzyme and how it may facilitate substrate dephosphorylation
In fact, the B subunit is now known to contain multiple WD40 repeats [28], whereas B′′/PR72 is thought to contain two calcium-binding EF hands
Unlike the PP2A holoenzyme involving the B′ subunit, B makes few interactions with the catalytic subunit
This analysis further suggests that the B subunit may form a relatively stable complex with the isolated scaffold subunit and does not seem to support the notion that the catalytic subunit is required for interaction between the scaffold and the B subunits
Previous investigations indicate that specific dephosphorylation of Tau appeared to be mediated by the B family of regulatory subunits
The specificity in this in vitro system is quite robust, as evidenced by the observation that the PP2A core enzyme exhibited a lower activity to dephosphorylate the Tau protein than the PP2A holoenzyme involving the B subunit, but a higher activity than the holoenzyme involving the B′ subunit
In fact, competition experiments using recombinant proteins suggested that, compared to the unmethylated form, the methylated PP2A core enzyme exhibited a higher binding affinity for the B subunit
The scaffold subunit of PP2A contains 15 tandem repeats of a conserved 39-amino-acid sequence known as a HEAT (huntingtin-elongation-A subunit-TOR) motif
First, conformational flexibility of the scaffold subunit is required for binding to the catalytic subunit and possibly other interacting proteins such as the regulatory subunits.
Second, conformational flexibility of the scaffold subunit might be important for the phosphatase activity of the catalytic subunit
For example, the PP2A holoenzyme involving the B′ family plays an essential role in cell-cycle progression, through direct interaction with the protein Shugoshin
The B′ regulatory subunit shows remarkable structural mimicry to the scaffold subunit and contains 8 HEAT-like repeats
For example, two regions of the B′ subunit were found to mediate interaction with the scaffold subunit of PP2A
Furthermore, the B′ subunit makes significant interactions with the catalytic subunit of PP2A, which consequently strengthens the inter-subunit packing, making the resulting holoenzyme relatively compact and rigid (Figure 2B).
For example, the small tumor antigen derived from the DNA tumor viruses SV40 and polyoma viruses was shown to only interact with the PP2A core enzyme, but not the holoenzyme
In addition, the methylated carboxy-terminus might help recruit assembly factors that actively promote assembly of the PP2A holoenzymes in cells.
Intriguingly, changes in this peptide motif also affected interaction of the catalytic subunit with the alpha4 protein (α4), presumably through alteration of methylation[ 29], and led to a complex with distinct substrate specificity that is essential for cell survival
By contrast, several recent studies using purified, recombinant proteins showed that the methylation status of the catalytic subunit did not play a decisive role for the in vitro assembly of PP2A holoenzymes involving the B and B′ subunit
It had also been demonstrated that methylation levels of PP2A changed during a cell cycle, suggesting a critical role of methylation in cell cycle regulation
Upon hyperphosphorylation, the protein Tau has a strong tendency to polymerize into neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease
Methylation of the carboxy-terminal Leu309 in a conserved TPDYFL309 motif of the catalytic subunit has been shown to enhance the affinity of the PP2A core enzyme for some, but not all, regulatory subunits
Neither mutation of the carboxy-terminal Leu residue nor removal of the carboxy-terminal 14 amino acids of the catalytic subunit prevented formation of heterotrimeric holoenzymes involving the B or B′ subunits
Deletion of PTPA homologs in yeast, rrd1/rrd2, resulted in elevated levels of stable PP2A-PME-1 complexes, accompanied by decreased methylation
The important interactions mediated by Arg418 and Val533 (corresponding to Val545 in the β isoform) provide a plausible explanation to the biochemical finding that these mutations crippled binding to the catalytic subunit
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If you find BEL Commons useful in your work, please consider citing: Hoyt, C. T., Domingo-Fernández, D., & Hofmann-Apitius, M. (2018). BEL Commons: an environment for exploration and analysis of networks encoded in Biological Expression Language. Database, 2018(3), 1–11.