Protein phosphorylation, catalyzed by the opposing actions of protein kinases and phosphatases, is a cornerstone of cellular signaling and regulation. Since their discovery, protein phosphatases have emerged as highly regulated enzymes with specificity that rivals their counteracting kinase partners. However, despite years of focused characterization in mammalian and yeast systems, many protein...

Prokaryotes contain at least five distinct families of protein O-phosphatases, including AceK, the chimeric isocitrate dehydrogenase kinase/phosphatase, and four protein phosphatase families first identified and characterized in Eukaryotes. The latter consist of the PPP and PPM families of protein-serine/threonine phosphatases, and the low molecular weight and conventional families of protein-t...

During the past decade, numerous Mn2+-dependent protein serine, threonine and/or tyrosine phosphatases (O-phosphatases) from prokaryotes have been characterized. Based on their amino acid sequences, they belong to PPP, PPM or PHP superfamilies. Both the PPP and PPM families of protein phosphatases are metalloenzymes which active centers contain two metal ions that function as cofactors. Results...

Preamble Phosphatases constitute a wide class of enzymes which remove a phosphate group from the target substrate by hydrolysing phosphoric acid monoesters into a phosphate ion and a molecule with a free hydroxyl group. This action is directly opposite to that of phosphorylases and kinases. While kinases phosphorylate cellular substrates by using energetic molecules like ATP, phosphatases, in t...

Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity is widely considered to be one of the cellular mechanisms that underlie learning and memory. Long-term potentiation (LTP) is the most intensely studied form of synaptic plasticity, in part because it can be induced at glutamatergic synapses in the mammalian brain, including the hippocampus, a structure known for its involvement in memory function. LTP can ...

Enzyme-catalysed reversible protein phosphorylation is an important cellular regulatory mechanism (Nimmo & Cohen, 1977; Krebs & Beavo, 1979). Regulatory protein phosphorylation occurs most frequently on seryl and threonyl residues (Taborsky, 1974), and less frequently, on tyrosyl residues (Hunter, 1982). Protein phosphotyrosine [Tyr(P)] normally accounts for only 0.01-0.050o of the total protei...

Protein-tyrosine phosphatases are key regulators of protein tyrosine phosphorylation. More than merely terminating the pathways initiated by protein-tyrosine kinases, phosphatases are active participants in many signaling pathways. Signals involving tyrosine phosphorylation are frequently generated in response to cell-matrix adhesion. In addition, high levels of protein tyrosine phosphorylation...

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications regulating various signaling processes in all known living organisms. In the cell, protein phosphatases and protein kinases play a dynamic antagonistic role, controlling the phosphorylation state of tyrosine (Tyr), serine (Ser) and threonine (Thr) side chains of proteins. The reversible phosphorylation modulat...