title: The role of a parasite-specific allosteric site in the distinctive activation behavior of Eimeria tenella cGMP-dependent protein kinase.
abstract: A cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) was recently identified as an anticoccidial target for the apicomplexan parasite Eimeria tenella [Gurnett, A., Liberator, P. A., Dulski, P., Salowe, S., Donald, R. G. K., Anderson, J., Wiltsie, J., Diaz, C., Harris, G., Chang, B., Darkin-Rattray, S. J., Nare, B., Crumley, T., Blum, P., Misura, A., Tamas, T., Sardana, M., Yuan, J., Biftu, T., and Schmatz, D. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. (in press)]. Unlike the PKGs of higher organisms that have two cGMP binding sites in their regulatory domain, the PKG from Eimeria tenella (Et-PKG) contains three putative cGMP binding sites and has distinctive activation properties, including a very large stimulation by cGMP ( approximately 1000-fold) with significant cooperativity (Hill coefficient of 1.7). During our investigation of Et-PKG activation, we found that 8-substituted cGMP analogues are weak partial activators. For example, 8-NBD-cGMP provides a maximal stimulation of activity of only 20-fold with little evident cooperativity, although cGMP can synergize with the analogue to provide full activation. The results suggest that partial activation is a consequence of restricted binding of 8-NBD-cGMP to a subset of cGMP sites in the enzyme. Site-directed mutagenesis of conserved arginine and glutamate residues in the parasite-specific third cGMP site confirms that this site is an important functional participant in the allosteric regulation of the kinase and that it exhibits very high selectivity against 8-NBD-cGMP. Since the results are consistent with full activation of Et-PKG requiring cyclic nucleotide binding in all three allosteric sites, one role for the additional cGMP site may be to establish a stricter regulatory mechanism for the kinase activity than is present in the PKGs of higher organisms containing only two allosteric sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of High Throughput Screening and Automation, Merck & Co., Inc., P.O. Box 2000, Rahway, New Jersey 07065, USA. scott_salowe@merck.com
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Salowe
authors.forename: Judyann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiltsie
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Liberator
authors.forename: Robert G K
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Donald
mesh_terms: D000495:Allosteric Site; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002384:Catalysis; D003049:Coccidiostats / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017869:Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D016786:Eimeria tenella / Q000201:enzymology*; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D000939:Epitopes; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011485:Protein Binding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D003049:Coccidiostats; D000939:Epitopes; D017869:Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinases