Hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids by receptor stimulation activates two separate signaling pathways, one leading to the activation of protein kinase C (C kinase) via formation of diacylglycerol. The other is the inositol trisphosphate (IP3)/Ca2+ pathway and a major downstream kinase which is activated is Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II). To examine signaling pathwa...

pyruvate kinase is a key enzyme in glycolytic pathway that catalyzes the transphosphorylation between phosphoenolpyruvate and adp to yield atp and pyruvate. geobacillus stearothermophillus has a stable pyruvate kinase with determined crystal structure that composed of four separate domains. given that limited proteolysis experiments can be successfully used to probe conformational features of p...

Synaptic activity triggers a profound reorganization of the molecular composition of excitatory synapses. For example, NMDA receptors are removed from synapses in an activity- and calcium-dependent manner, via casein kinase 2 (CK2) phosphorylation of the PDZ ligand of the GluN2B subunit (S1480). However, how synaptic activity drives this process remains unclear because CK2 is a constitutively a...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae neutral trehalase (encoded by NTH1) is regulated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and by an endogenous modulator protein. A yeast strain with knockouts of CMK1 and CMK2 genes (cmk1cmk2) and its isogenic control (CMK1CMK2) were used to investigate the role of CaM kinase II in the in vitro activation of neutral trehalase during growth on glucose. In the exponential ...

The site in calcineurin, the Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein phosphatase, which is phosphorylated by Ca2+/CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CaM-kinase II) has been identified. Analyses of 32P release from tryptic and cyanogen bromide peptides derived from [32P]calcineurin plus direct sequence determination established the site as -Arg-Val-Phe-Ser(PO4)-Val-Leu-Arg-, which conformed to the...

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) are known to be involved in learning and memory, but the molecular basis of their involvement is not well understood. The availability of new and specific biochemical tools has revealed a crucial role for the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family in learning and memory. Here, we examine the link between mAChRs and MAPK in neurons. Using the M...

Recent studies have implicated the involvement of Ca2+-dependent mechanisms, in particular, calcium/calmodulin-protein kinase II in nicotine-induced antinociception using the tail-flick test. The spinal cord was suggested as a possible site of this involvement. The present study was undertaken to investigate the hypothesis that the beta2 nicotinic receptor subunit plays a central role in nicoti...