Tyrosine Hydroxylase Inactivation Following cAMP-Dependent Phosphorylation Activation |
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Authors: | Kent E Vrana Robert Roskoski Jr |
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Institution: | Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | Tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis, is activated following phosphorylation by the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (largely by decreasing the Km of the enzyme for its pterin co-substrate). Following its phosphorylation activation in rat striatal homogenates, we find that tyrosine hydroxylase is inactivated by two distinct processes. Because cAMP is hydrolyzed in crude extracts by a phospho-diesterase, cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity declines following a single addition of cAMP. When tyrosine hydroxylase is activated under these transient phosphorylation conditions, inactivation is accompanied by a reversion of the activated kinetic form (low apparent Km for pterin co-substrate, ≤0.2 mM) to the kinetic form characteristic of the untreated enzyme (high apparent Km, ≥1.0 mM). This inactivation is readily reversed by the subsequent addition of cAMP. When striatal tyrosine hydroxylase is activated under constant phosphorylation conditions (incubated with purified cAMP-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit), however, it is also inactivated. This second inactivation process is irreversible and is characterized kinetically by a decreasing apparent Vmax with no change in the low apparent Km for pterin co-substrate (0.2 mM). The latter inactivation process is greatly attenuated by gel filtration which resolves a low-molecular-weight inactivating factor(s) from the tyrosine hydroxylase. These results are consistent with a regulatory mechanism for tyrosine hydroxylase involving two processes: in the first case, reversible phosphorylaton and dephos-phorylation and, in the second case, an irreversible loss of activity of the phosphorylated form of tyrosine hydroxylase. |
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Keywords: | Tyrosine hydroxylase Phosphorylation activation cAMP-dependent Protein kinase Dephosphorylation |
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