Identification of C-terminal Phosphorylation Sites of N-Formyl Peptide Receptor-1 (FPR1) in Human Blood Neutrophils |
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Authors: | Walid S. Maaty Connie I. Lord Jeannie M. Gripentrog Marcia Riesselman Gal Keren-Aviram Ting Liu Edward A. Dratz Brian Bothner Algirdas J. Jesaitis |
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Affiliation: | From the Departments of §Microbiology and ;‡Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717 |
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Abstract: | Accumulation, activation, and control of neutrophils at inflammation sites is partly driven by N-formyl peptide chemoattractant receptors (FPRs). Occupancy of these G-protein-coupled receptors by formyl peptides has been shown to induce regulatory phosphorylation of cytoplasmic serine/threonine amino acid residues in heterologously expressed recombinant receptors, but the biochemistry of these modifications in primary human neutrophils remains relatively unstudied. FPR1 and FPR2 were partially immunopurified using antibodies that recognize both receptors (NFPRa) or unphosphorylated FPR1 (NFPRb) in dodecylmaltoside extracts of unstimulated and N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLF) + cytochalasin B-stimulated neutrophils or their membrane fractions. After deglycosylation and separation by SDS-PAGE, excised Coomassie Blue-staining bands (∼34,000 Mr) were tryptically digested, and FPR1, phospho-FPR1, and FPR2 content was confirmed by peptide mass spectrometry. C-terminal FPR1 peptides (Leu312–Arg322 and Arg323–Lys350) and extracellular FPR1 peptide (Ile191–Arg201) as well as three similarly placed FPR2 peptides were identified in unstimulated and fMLF + cytochalasin B-stimulated samples. LC/MS/MS identified seven isoforms of Ala323–Lys350only in the fMLF + cytochalasin B-stimulated sample. These were individually phosphorylated at Thr325, Ser328, Thr329, Thr331, Ser332, Thr334, and Thr339. No phospho-FPR2 peptides were detected. Cytochalasin B treatment of neutrophils decreased the sensitivity of fMLF-dependent NFPRb recognition 2-fold, from EC50 = 33 ± 8 to 74 ± 21 nm. Our results suggest that 1) partial immunopurification, deglycosylation, and SDS-PAGE separation of FPRs is sufficient to identify C-terminal FPR1 Ser/Thr phosphorylations by LC/MS/MS; 2) kinases/phosphatases activated in fMLF/cytochalasin B-stimulated neutrophils produce multiple C-terminal tail FPR1 Ser/Thr phosphorylations but have little effect on corresponding FPR2 sites; and 3) the extent of FPR1 phosphorylation can be monitored with C-terminal tail FPR1-phosphospecific antibodies. |
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Keywords: | 7-Helix Receptor Chemokines Epitope Mapping Inflammation Mass Spectrometry (MS) Neutrophil FPR Phosphorylation LC/MS/MS Cytochalasin B f-Met-Leu-Phe |
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