Multisite phosphorylation code of CDK

The quantitative model of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) function states that cyclins temporally order cell cycle events at different CDK activity levels, or thresholds. The model lacks a mechanistic explanation, as it is not understood how different thresholds are encoded into substrates. We show that a multisite phosphorylation code governs the phosphorylation of CDK targets and that phosphorylation clusters act as timing tags that trigger specific events at different CDK thresholds. Using phospho-degradable CDK threshold sensors with rationally encoded phosphorylation patterns, we were able to predictably program thresholds over the entire range of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle. We defined three levels of CDK multisite phosphorylation encoding: (i) serine-threonine swapping in phosphorylation sites, (ii) patterning of phosphorylation sites, and (iii) cyclin-specific docking combined with modulation of CDK activity. Thus, CDK can signal via hundreds of differentially encoded targets at precise times to provide a temporally ordered phosphorylation pattern required for cell division.