title: p38α MAP kinase phosphorylates RCAN1 and regulates its interaction with calcineurin.
abstract: RCAN1, also known as DSCR1, is an endogenous regulator of calcineurin, a serine/threonine protein phosphatase that plays a critical role in many physiological processes. In this report, we demonstrate that p38α MAP kinase can phosphorylate RCAN1 at multiple sites in vitro and show that phospho-RCAN1 is a good protein substrate for calcineurin. In addition, we found that unphosphorylated RCAN1 noncompetitively inhibits calcineurin protein phosphatase activity and that the phosphorylation of RCAN1 by p38α MAP kinase decreases the binding affinity of RCAN1 for calcineurin. These findings reveal the molecular mechanism by which p38α MAP kinase regulates the function of RCAN1/calcineurin through phosphorylation.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics and Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Haiping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Haiteng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Jiawei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Zhixin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019703:Calcineurin / Q000378:metabolism*; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D048308:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 14 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011485:Protein Binding; D015398:Signal Transduction; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; C511512:DSCR1 protein, mouse; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D048308:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 14; D019703:Calcineurin