title: Regulation of the Ras-GTPase activating protein neurofibromin by C-tail phosphorylation: implications for protein kinase C/Ras/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 pathway signaling and neuronal differentiation.
abstract: PKC, Ras, and ERK1/2 signaling is pivotal to differentiation along the neuronal cell lineage. One crucial protein that may play a central role in this signaling pathway is the Ras GTPase-activating protein, neurofibromin, a PKC substrate that may exert a positive role in neuronal differentiation. In this report, we studied the dynamics of PKC/Ras/ERK pathway signaling, during differentiation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells upon treatment with the PKC agonist, phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Surprisingly, we observed that, among other PKC-dependent signaling events, TPA induced a rapid and sustained decrease of neurofibromin immunoreactivity which was not due to proteolysis. Instead, we identified a specific phosphorylation event at the C-tail of neurofibromin. This phosphorylation was acute and correlated perfectly with the signaling dynamics of the Ras/ERK pathway. Moreover, it persisted throughout prolonged treatment and TPA-induced differentiation of SH-SY5Y cells, concurrently with sustained activation of ERK1/2. Most importantly, C-tail phosphorylation of neurofibromin correlated with a shift of neurofibromin localization from the nucleus to the cytosol. We propose that PKC-dependent, sustained C-tail phosphorylation is a requirement for prolonged recruitment of neurofibromin from the nucleus to the cytosol in order for a fine regulation of Ras/ERK pathway activity to be achieved during differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leondaritis
authors.forename: Loizos
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrikkos
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mangoura
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000502:physiology*; D019950:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1 / Q000502:physiology*; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 / Q000502:physiology*; D025542:Neurofibromin 1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011493:Protein Kinase C / Q000502:physiology*; D020703:ras GTPase-Activating Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D025542:Neurofibromin 1; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D020703:ras GTPase-Activating Proteins; D011493:Protein Kinase C; D019950:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3