The where's and when's of kinase anchoring

Kinase anchoring has gained acceptance as a means to synchronize spatial and temporal aspects of cell signaling. A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) are a diverse group of functionally related proteins that target protein kinase A and other enzymes to coordinate a range of signaling events. Recent advances in this field have shown that incorporating phosphodiesterases into AKAP signaling complexes exerts local control of cAMP metabolism, that phosphorylation of some AKAPs potentiates downstream signaling events, that anchoring of distinct enzyme combinations functions as a mechanism to expand the repertoire of cellular events controlled by a single AKAP, and that fluorescent biosensors can be used to visualize dynamic aspects of localized cAMP signaling.