Identification of pseudo 'phosphothreonyl-specific' protein phosphatase T with a fraction of polycation-stimulated protein phosphatase 2A

Protein phosphatase T from rat liver, so termed due to its activity toward [32P-Thr]casein and its marked preference for the phosphopeptide Arg-Arg-Ala-Thr(P)-Val-Ala over its phosphoseryl derivative (Donella Deana, A., Marchiori, F., Meggio, F. and Pinna, L.A. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 8565-8568), is shown here to belong to the family of type 2A protein phosphatase according to Cohen's nomenclature (Ingebritsen, T.S. and Cohen, P. (1983) Eur. J. Biochem. 132, 255-261). In particular, protein phosphatase T is endowed with phosphorylase phosphatase activity that is stimulated by protamine, histone H1 and heparin, it is inhibited by spermine, it does not bind to heparin-Sepharose and it readily dephosphorylates the phosphopeptide Arg-Arg-Leu-Ser(P)-Ile-Ser-Thr-Glu-Ser reproducing the phosphorylation site of the alpha-subunit of phosphorylase kinase. The Mr of protein phosphatase T determined by gel filtration under non-denaturating conditions is about 150 kDa and its activity ratio toward histone H1 phosphorylated by protein kinase C versus histone H1 phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase is unusually high. Some properties of protein phosphatase T, such as its weak binding to DEAE-cellulose and its high stimulation by protamine as compared to a relatively poor stimulation by histone H1, suggest that it may be similar to subtype 2Ao of protein phosphatase 2A.