High osmolarity causes amoebae of the cellular slime mould Polysphondylium pallidum to individually encyst, forming microcysts. During microcyst differentiation, actin is tyrosine phosphorylated. Tyrosine phosphorylation of actin is independent of encystment conditions and occurs during the final stages of microcyst formation. During microcyst germination, actin undergoes dephosphorylation prior to amoebal emergence. Renewed phosphorylation of actin in germinating microcysts can be triggered by increasing the osmolarity of the medium which inhibits emergence. Immunofluorescence reveals that actin is dispersed throughout the cytoplasm in dormant microcysts. Following the onset of germination, actin is observed around vesicles where it co-localizes with phosphotyrosine. Prior to emergence, actin localizes to patches near the cell surface. Increasing osmolarity disrupts this localization and causes actin to redistribute throughout the cytoplasm, a situation similar to that observed in dormant microcysts. Together, these results indicate an association between actin tyrosine phosphorylation, organization of the actin cytoskeleton, and microcyst dormancy.

How tumor cells migrate and metastasize from primary sites requires four major steps: invasion, intravasation, extravasation and proliferation from micrometastases to malignant tumor. The initiation of tumor cell invasion requires Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), by which tumor cells lose cell-cell interactions and gain the ability of migration. The gene expression profile during the EMT process has been extensively investigated to study the initiation of EMT. In our studies, we indicated that tyrosine phosphorylation of human p68 RNA helicase positively associated with the malignant status of tumor tissue or cells. Studying of this relationship revealed that p68 RNA helicase played a critical role in EMT progression by repression of E-cadherin as an epithelial marker and upregulation of Vimentin as a mesenchymal marker. Insight into the mechanism of how p68 RNA helicase represses E-cadherin expression indicated that p68 RNA helicase initiated EMT by transcriptional upregulation of Snail. Human p68 RNA helicase has been documented as an RNA-dependent ATPase. The protein is an essential factor in the pre-mRNA splicing procedure. Some examples show that p68 RNA helicase functions as a transcriptional coactivator in ATPase dependent or independent manner. Here we indicated that p68 RNA helicase unwound protein complexes to modulate protein-protein interactions by using protein-dependent ATPase activity. The phosphorylated p68 RNA helicase displaced HDAC1 from the chromatin remodeling MBD3:Mi2/NuRD complex at the Snail promoter. Thus, our data demonstrated an example of protein-dependent ATPase which modulates protein-protein interactions within the chromatin remodeling machine.

Cancer cells take more glucose to provide energy and phosphoryl intermediates for cancer progression. Meanwhile, energy-provider function of mitochondria in cancer cells is disrupted. This phenomenon is so-called Warburg effect, which is discovered over eighty years ago. The detail mechanisms for Warburg effect are not well defined. How glycolytic enzymes contribute to cancer progression is not well known. PKM2 is a glycolytic enzyme dominantly localized in the cytosol, catalyzing the production of ATP from PEP. In this study, we discovered that there were more nuclear PKM2 expressed in highly proliferative cancer cells. The nuclear PKM2 levels are correlated with cell proliferation rates. According to our microarry analyses, MEK5 gene was upregulated in PKM2 overexpression cells. Our studies showed that PKM2 regulated MEK5 gene transcription to promote cell proliferation. Moreover, nuclear PKM2 phosphorylated Stat3 at Y705 site using PEP as a phosphoryl group donor to regulate MEK5 gene transcription. Our study also showed that double phosphorylated p68 RNA helicase at Y593/595 interacted with PKM2 at its FBP binding site. Under the stimulation of growth factors, p68 interacted with PKM2 to promote the conversion from tetrameraic to dimeric form so as to regulate its protein kinase activity. Overexpression PKM2 in less aggressive cancer cells induced the formation of multinuclei by regulating Cdc14A gene transcription. Overall, this study presents a step forward in understanding the Warburg effect.

La fonction de barrière de l'endothélium vasculaire est affectée par des modifications de la cadhérine des cellules endothéliales (VE-cadhérine) telles que la phosphorylation sur tyrosine dans son domaine cytoplasmique et le clivage de son domaine extracellulaire (sVE). Ce travail s'est articulé en deux parties : 1- Etude de ces modifications dans le contexte de la polyarthrite rhumatoïde (PR), et les mécanismes sous-tendus. Ce travail a permis de montrer que la VE-cadhérine est une cible du TNFα, une cytokine essentielle dans la PR, qui induit de la libération de sVE de façon dépendante de l'activité kinase de Src, suggérant l'implication d'un mécanisme de phosphorylation sur tyrosine dans ce processus. De plus, la VE-cadhérine est aussi la cible des protéases de la matrice extracellulaire telles que MMP-2. L'application de ces données fondamentales à la clinique a permis de montrer que sVE était retrouvée dans le sang de patients PR (n=63) et que son taux était corrélé à l'activité de la maladie. Ainsi, le dosage de sVE est d'intérêt dans la prise en charge des patients. 2-Etude de la phosphorylation de la VE-cadhérine dans un contexte d'angiogenèse hormono-régulée au cours du cycle ovarien chez la souris. Les résultats ont montré que le site Y685 de la VE-cadhérine est phosphorylé dans l'ovaire et l'utérus de souris de façon régulée pendant le cycle, ce qui permet de proposer ce modèle physiologique pour étudier la phosphorylation de la VE-cadhérine in vivo. L'analyse de souris knock-in Y685F de la VE-cadhérine (VE-Y685F) a montré que l'absence du site confère une perméabilité accrue dans l'ovaire et l'utérus mais aussi dans les petits capillaires de la peau. De plus, dans deux modèles d'induction d'arthrite, les souris VE-Y685F ont présenté un taux de sVE plus élevé que les contrôles. Au total, sVE et la phosphorylation de la VE-cadhérine ont un vaste champ d'application dans le traitement de la PR ainsi que pour le développement de nouvelles thérapies pouvant s'étendre à d'autres pathologies vasculaires.

Mitochondrial Diseases (MD) are disorders of function in cellular oxidative phosphorylation caused by diverse nuclear DNA and mtDNA mutations and seen in 1/5,000 births. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships across medical indices, biochemical measures, and neurobehavioral functioning in children with MD. Findings from Western Blot, Native Gels, High Resolution Respirometry, and the Nijmegen diagnostic criteria were assessed in relation to children’s processing speed and attention, based on the prediction that impaired functioning of proteins, complexes, and cellular respiration, that are critical in ATP production, will impact neurodevelopment and related neuropsychological processes in children with MD. Twenty-five children (ages 4-13) were administered subtests from the DAS-II and NEPSY-II. Results from multiple regression analyses suggest that processing speed and attention deficits may be markers of abnormal protein expression that interferes with the production of ATP in the oxidative phosphorylation process; implications for future research are presented.

Poly(A) polymerase (PAP) is the enzyme catalyzing the synthesis of the adenine tail to the 3’-end of mRNA. This A-tail is present on the majority of the primary RNA transcripts of protein-coding genes, and is important for mRNA stability, export to the cytoplasm and translation. Therefore, PAP is a key regulator of eukaryotic gene expression. This thesis describes the heterogeneity of PAP and the functional significance of multiple isoforms of PAP. PAP exists in many different isoforms generated by three different mechanisms, gene duplication, alternative mRNA processing and post-translational modification. In HeLa cell extracts three different forms of PAP being 90, 100 and 106 kDa in size have been detected, where the 106 kDa isoform is a phosphorylated version of the 100 kDa species. It is shown that the N-terminal region of PAP contains a region required for catalysis, while the C-terminal end is important for the interaction with the cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF). Interestingly, it was found that also the extreme N-terminal end is important for the interaction with CPSF. This region is post-translationally modified by phosphorylation. Five alternatively spliced forms of PAP mRNAs are encoded by the PAPOLA gene while one unique species is encoded by the PAPOLG gene. The analysis showed that the exact structure of the alternatively spliced C-terminal end of PAP played an important role for catalytic efficiency. Thus, the C-terminal end contains a region important for modulating the catalytic efficiency of PAP. Aminoglycoside antibiotics inhibit PAP activity, most likely by displacement of catalytically important divalent metal ions. Data shows that different aminoglycosides inhibit PAP activity by different mechanisms suggesting that the binding sites for the different aminoglycosides do not completely overlap. It is concluded that aminoglycosides interfere with enzymes important for housekeeping functions in mammalian cell, which may explain some of the toxic side effects caused by aminoglycoside antibiotics in clinical practice.

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial deaminating enzyme that exists as two isoforms, MAO-A and -B. The MAO-mediated reaction generates hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a normal by-product. Dysregulation of MAO has been implicated in a variety of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as in the aging process. Endogenous regulators of MAO-A function include calcium (Ca2+) and the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Although the effect of p38(MAPK) is thought to rely on induction of mao-A gene expression, post-translational modification of the MAO-A protein is also possible. <p>Using standard biochemical approaches in combination with pharmacological interventions and recombinant DNA strategies, specific aspartic acid residues (within putative Ca2+-binding motifs) were demonstrated to contribute to MAO-A activity. Furthermore, MAO-A activity and its sensitivity to Ca2+ was negatively regulated by the p38(MAPK), which is usually activated during cell stress. The effect of p38(MAPK) on MAO-A function relies specifically on Serine209 in MAO-A, which resides in a p38(MAPK) consensus motif. The serine phosphorylation status of MAO-A determines its capacity for generating peroxy radicals and its toxicity in established cell lines (e.g. C6, N2a, HEK293A, HT-22) and in primary cortical neurons. p38(MAPK)-regulated MAO-A activity is also linked to neurotoxicity associated with the Alzheimer disease-related peptide, Ò-amyloid (AÒ). These data suggest a unique neuroprotective role for p38(MAPK) centered on a negative feedback regulation of the Ca2+-sensitive, H2O2-generating enzyme MAO-A.

Alzheimer¡¦s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive deterioration of cognitive functions and the presence of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and extraneuronal senile plaques (SP). The major component of NFT is the hyperphosphorylated microtubules-associated protein tau. SP is consistent of extracellular deposition of £]-amyloid (A£]), mainly A£]1-42 peptide (A£]42). Given the need of tools for early and accurate diagnosis and prediction of disease progression and monitoring the efficacy of therapeutic agents for AD, development of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have become a rapidly growing research field. In our study, patients with AD (n=28), non-AD dementia (n=16), other neurological disorder (OND, n=14) and healthy controls (HC, n=21) were included. Our results revealed that AD patients have significant higher CSF total tau (t-tau) and lower A£]42 levels than HC and OND groups. There is no significant difference of both CSF t-tau and A£]42 levels between AD and non-AD dementia groups. These results suggest that both CSF t-tau and A£]42 are good biomarkers for distinguishing AD from non-dementia control subjects but demonstrate less discriminating power in differentiating AD from non-AD dementia. Moreover, our results show only CSF t-tau level but not A£]42 has an inverse correlation with the score of short-term memory patients with AD (spearman: r = -0.444; p=0.018). These data indicate the higher CSF t-tau level is associated with much NFT pathology and more severe impairment of short-term memory in AD patients. In the study of the moleacular mechanism of tau¡¦s hyperphosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase 3b (GSK3b), we show that the T231 is the primary phosphorylation site for GSK3b and the tau227-237 (AVVRTPPKSPS) derived from tau containing T231P232 motif is identified as the GSK3b binding site with high affinity of a Kd value 0.82 ¡Ó 0.16 mM. Our results suggest that direct binding and phosphorylation of T231P232 motif by GSK3b induces conformational change of tau and consequentially alters the inhibitory activity of its N-terminus that allows the sequential phosphorylation of C-terminus of tau by GSK3b. Furthermore, hyperphosphorylation reduces tau¡¦s ability to promote tubulin assembly and to form bundles in N18 cells. T231A mutant completely abolishes tau phosphorylation by GSK3b and retains the ability to promote tubulin polymerization and bundle formation. Taken together, these results suggest that phosphorylation of T231 by GSK3b may play an important role in tau¡¦s hyperphosphorylation and functional regulation.

Les cellules BHK transformées par l'oncogène v-Src forment des invadopodia qui s'organisent successivement sous forme de paquets, anneaux et enfin ceintures d'invadopodia. L'expansion des anneaux d'invadopodia est due à la néoformation d'invadopodia à la périphérie de l'anneau et au désassemblage simultané des invadopodia situés au centre de l'anneau. L'orthovanadate, inhibiteur de tyrosine phosphatases, génère des expansions très rapides indiquant l'implication de phosphorylations sur tyrosine dans la formation des invadopodia à la périphérie et leur désassemblage au centre. La paxilline, une protéine hautement phosphorylée, responsable du désassemblage des adhérences focales, est également présente dans les invadopodia et induit le désassemblage des invadopodia au centre de l'anneau (processus indispensable à la formation et à l'expansion des anneaux), grace a un processus de phosphorylation de la paxilline sur les tyrosines 31 et 118, qui en retour active la MAP kinase Erk et la calpaine, responsable du clivage protéique des composants des invadopodia.

La sécheresse est un stress majeur pour les plantes qui ont développé de nombreuses stratégies pour y faire face. La réponse la plus rapide à un stress hydrique est la fermeture des pores stomatiques qui limite les pertes d'eau par évapo-transpiration. La phytohormone acide abscissique (ABA) participe à cette réponse en modifiant la turgescence des cellules de garde. La protéine kinase OST1 d'Arabidopsis thaliana contrôle les étapes précoces de la transduction du signal ABA dans ces cellules. Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons cherché à comprendre les mécanismes de régulation de la kinase OST1. Nous avons d'abord montré que la protéine 10xHis-OST1 produite chez E.coli est active et s'autophosphoryle. Ceci nous a permis d'identifier des résidus phosphorylés, cibles potentielles de kinases ou phosphatases régulant l'activité de OST1 dans la plante. L'importance de ces résidus a d'abord été étudiée in vitro par l'analyse de l'activité de protéines recombinantes mutées sur les résidus phosphorylés. Puis nous avons étudié l'impact de ces mutations dans la plante en réalisant des tests de complémentation du mutant ost1 et des tests d'activité kinase après immunoprécipitation des différentes versions de la protéine OST1. La même stratégie appliquée à l'étude de versions tronquées de OST1 nous a permis d'analyser son domaine C-terminal. Nous avons ainsi identifié plusieurs éléments structuraux critiques pour l'activité de OST1 et sa fonction dans la plante. Enfin, notre analyse des différents allèles mutants ost1 suggère que OST1 régule les flux transpiratoires en réponse à un stress hydrique à deux niveaux distincts, dans les cellules de garde et les tissus vasculaires.