Date of Award:

5-1-1992

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biology

Department name when degree awarded

Biology/Molecular Biology

Committee Chair(s)

Jon Y. Takemoto

Committee

Jon Y. Takemoto

Committee

Anne J. Anderson

Committee

Thomas A. Grover

Committee

Richard J. Mueller

Committee

Raghubir P. Sharma

Abstract

The syringomycin stimulated protein phosphorylation of red beet plasma membranes was investigated. Rabbit antisera directed against N- and C-termini and the nucleotide binding site of the H+-ATPase detected the 100 kD polypeptide of this enzyme in the plasma membrane. Immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that the 100 kD polypeptide was phosphorylated, and syringomycin stimulated the phosphorylation in a Ca2+-dependent manner. Phosphoamino acids in the immunoprecipitates were phosphoserine and phosphothreonine. These findings are evidence that syringomycin stimulates the phosphorylation of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase. Okadaic acid, a phosphatase inhibitor, did not affect protein phosphorylation of syringomycin-treated and KI-extracted plasma membranes. Therefore, protein kinases, but not protein phosphatases, are involved in the syringomycin effect. The plasma membrane was extracted with acetone and fractionated into three fractions (fractions A, B, and C). Syringomycin did not influence the protein kinase activities of the fractions, but Ca2+ stimulated fraction B activity. Thus, syringomycin does not directly stimulate protein kinases. Two protein kinases (MPKI and MPKII) were resolved by non-denaturing PAGE of fraction B, and were isolated by Cibacron-Blue agarose chromatography. Both kinases were Ca2+-dependent, capable of phosphorylating casein, and were not affected by syringomycin, cAMP, or phospholipids. MPKII was highly sensitive to the calmodulin antagonist, trifluoperazine. MPKI was purified to homogeneity using ATP-agarose chromatography. Its major 58 kD polypeptide subunit has an N-terminal amino acid sequence of K,W/G/S,L/N,E,E,L,N,I/V,Q,G. MPKI is a novel plant plasma membrane protein kinase, which, together with MPKII, is possibly involved in the regulatory phosphorylation of the H+-ATPase.

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