Glycogen metabolism Protein phosphorylation

Phosphorylation Glycogen Metabolic Movements of Glycogen Fat Metabolic Movements of Fat Protein Metabolic Movements of Protein Tissue Cooperation Liver Muscle Ketone Bodies... 

The switch in the action of the enzyme between its kinase and phosphatase activities is brought about by phosphorylation mediated by the serine/threonine protein kinase A (PKA), the same cAMP dependent enzyme which plays a role in the control of glycogen metabolism. In its kinase form, PFK-2 is dephosphorylated but phosphorylated in the phosphatase form. 

Diacylglycerol, on the other hand, is lipid soluble and remains in the lipid bilayer of the membrane. There it can activate protein kinase C (PKC), a very important and widely distributed enzyme which serves many systems through phosphorylation, including neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, a,- and P-adrenoceptors, serotonin), peptide hormones (insulin, epidermal growth hormone, somatomedin), and various cellular functions (glycogen metabolism, muscle activity, structural proteins, etc.), and also interacts with guanylate cyclase. In addition to diacylglycerol, another normal membrane lipid, phos-phatidylserine, is needed for activation of PKC. The DG-IP3 limbs of the pathway usually proceed simultaneously. 

Of the protein kinases, protein kinase A is the best investigated and characterized (review Francis and Corbin, 1994). The functions of protein kinase A are diverse. Protein kinase A is involved in the regulation of metabolism of glycogen, lipids and sugars. Substrates of protein kinase A may be other protein kinases, as well as enzymes of intermediary metabolism. Protein kinase A is also involved in cAMP-stimulated transcription of genes that have a cAMP-responsive element in their control region (review Montminy, 1997). An increase in cAMP concentration leads to activation of protein kinase A which phosphorylates the transcription factor CREB at Ser 133. CREB only binds to the transcriptional coactivator CBP in the phosphorylated state and stimulates transcription (see Chapter 1.4.4.2). 

The current state of Ser/Thr phosphorylation of a protein is determined by the relative activity of Ser/Thr-specific protein kinase and protein phosphatase. It is therefore imderstandable that the cell has had to develop special mechanisms to balance the two activities with one another, and, when needed, to allow kinase or phosphatase activity to dominate. One of the best investigated examples of coordinated activity of protein kinases and protein phosphatases is the regulation of glycogen metabolism in skeletal muscle. Glycogen metabolism is an example of how two different signals, namely a cAMP signal and a Ca signal meet in one metabolic pathway and control the activity of one and the same enzyme. 

Fig. 7.18. Regulation of glycogen metabolism in muscle. Phosphorylase kinase stands at the center of regulation of glycogen metabolism. Phosphorylase kinase may exist in an active, phosphorylated form and an inactive, unphosphorylated form. Phosphorylation of phosphorylase kinase is triggered by hormonal signals (e.g. adrenahne) and takes place via an activation of protein kinase A in the cAMP pathway. In the absence of hormonal stimulation, phosphorylase kinase can also be activated by an increase in cytosolic Ca. The active phosphorylase kinase stimulates glycogen degradation and inhibits glycogen synthesis, in that, on the one side, it activates glycogen phosphorylase by phosphorylation, and on the other side, it inactivates glycogen synthase by phosphorylation.

Renewed docking of the catalytic subunit requires the removal of the phosphate residue at the G subunit phosphorylated at the P2 site. This takes place via the protein phosphatases 2A and 2B (calcineurin). Thus, a cascade of protein phosphatases is involved in the regulation of dephosphorylation of key enzymes of glycogen degradation, whereby a phosphatase, namely protein phosphatase I, is indirectly activated by other protein phosphatases. With calcineurin, a Ca -dependent protein phosphatase is involved and thus it is possible to influence glycogen metabolism via Ca -mediated signals. 

The control of glycogen phosphorylase by the phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle was discovered in 1955 by Edmond Fischer and Edwin Krebs50 and was at first regarded as peculiar to glycogen breakdown. However, it is now abundantly clear that similar reactions control most aspects of metabolism.51 Phosphorylation of proteins is involved in control of carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism in control of muscular contraction, regulation of photosynthesis in plants,52 transcription of genes,51 protein syntheses,53 and cell division and in mediating most effects of hormones. 

Two key regulatory enzymes involved in the control of glycogen metabolism were first recognized as targets of cAMP and cAMP-dependent protein kinase in liver and skeletal muscle. These are phosphorylase b kinase and glycogen synthase. The molecular details of the phosphorylation and regulation of these enzymes are better understood in muscle than in liver since the liver enzymes have only recently been purified to homogeneity in the native form. However, it appears that they share many key features in common. 

A. R Saltiel. The paradoxical regulation of protein phosphorylation in insulin action. FASEBJ, 8, (13), 1034-1040, 1994. Also J. A. Printen, M. J. Brady, A. R Saltiel. PTG, a protem phosphatase 1-binding protein with a role in glycogen metabolism. Science, T1S, 1475-1478, 1997. 

Figure 25-14 Mechanism of insulin action. Binding of insulin to the extracellular a-subunit of the insulin receptor induces autophosphorylation of the -subunit of the receptor and phosphorylation of selected intracellular proteins, such as She and the IRS family,These latter phosphoproteins interact with other targets, thereby activating phosphorylation cascades, which result in glucose uptake (in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle), glucose metabolism, synthesis (of glycogen, iipid, and proteins), enhanced gene expression, cell growth, and differentiation, p, protein phosphorylation aPKC, atypical protein kinase C, See text for details.

Phosphoproteins.— Details of the amino-acid sequences at the phosphorylation sites of two proteins involved in glycogen metabolism have been published, and they show unusual features. For example, there is an unusually high proportion of hydroxyl side-chains near the phosphoserine at one of the phosphorylation sites in glycogen synthetase, ... 

The second protein, phosphatase inhibitor-1, regulates protein phosphatases during glycogen metabolism once it has been activated by a cAMP-dependent protein kinase. The phosphorylated site in phosphatase inhibitor-1 is a threonine residue, and this is preceded by the sequence Arg-Arg-Arg-Arg-Pro. Another protein that is activated by phosphorylation by a cAMP-dependent kinase is phenylalanine hydroxylase, although the site of the phosphorylation has not been determined. 

Enzyme activity can be regulated by covalent modification or by noncovalent (allosteric) modification. A few enzymes can undergo both forms of modification (e.g., glycogen phosphorylase and glutamine synthetase). Some covalent chemical modifications are phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, acetylation and deacetylation, adeny-lylation and deadenylylation, uridylylation and deuridyly-lation, and methylation and demethylation. In mammalian systems, phosphorylation and dephosphorylation are most commonly used as means of metabolic control. Phosphorylation is catalyzed by protein kinases and occurs at specific seryl (or threonyl) residues and occasionally at tyrosyl residues these amino acid residues are not usually part of the catalytic site of the enzyme. Dephosphorylation is accomplished by phosphoprotein phosphatases ... 

Whether glycogen synthase is a substrate for phosphorylase kinase in vivo is unclear. [Modified and reproduced with permission from P. Cohen, Protein phosphorylation and the control of glycogen metabolism in skeletal muscle. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Land. (Biol.) 302, 13 (1983).]... 

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