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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for the Identification of Multiple Phosphorylations of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Published on: December 27, 2016
Sequence determinants on the NR2A and NR2B subunits of NMDA receptor responsible for specificity of phosphorylation
M Mayadevi1, M Praseeda, K S Kumar
1Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Jagathy, Thiruvananthapuam, Kerala-695014, India.
Abstract:
Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II (CaMKII) and NMDA-type glutamate receptor (NMDAR) are neuronal proteins involved in learning and memory. CaMKII binds to the NR2B subunit of NMDAR in more than one mode, a stable association involving a noncatalytic site on CaMKII and an enzyme-substrate mode of interaction by its catalytic site. The latter binding results in phosphorylation of serine-1303 on NR2B. We have investigated this binding by studying the kinetics of phosphorylation of synthetic peptides harboring nested sequences of the phosphorylation site motif. We find that residues 1292-1297 of NR2B enhance the affinity of the catalytic site-mediated binding of CaMKII to the minimal phosphorylation site motif, 1298-1308 of NR2B, as evident from measurements of K(m) values for phosphorylation. However, CaMKII shows decreased affinity towards the closely related NR2A subunit due to an -Ile-Asn- motif present as a natural insertion in the analogous sequence on NR2A.
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