Dephosphorylation of activated protein kinase c contributes to downregulation by bryostatin. Lee, Hyeon-Woo, Lucinda Smith, George R. Pettit, and Jeffrey Bingham Smith. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, and the Cancer Research Institute and Department of Chemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
APStracts 3:0040C, 1996.
Bryostatin 1 (Bryo), like PMA, acutely activated PKC as indicated by autophosphorylation and translocation of PKC-[alpha], the predominant PMA-sensitive isoform expressed by LLC-MK2 renal epithelial cells. Bryo concomitantly increased the 32P labeling of 80 kDa PKC-[alpha] by autophosphorylation and produced a 76 kDa form of PKC-[alpha] that lacked detectable 32P. The 76 kDa form was in the particulate, rather than the cytosolic, fraction, which suggests that it was produced from activated kinase. Alkaline phosphatase treatment of immunoprecipitated PKC-[alpha] converted the 80 kDa form to 76 kDa, but had no effect on the mobility of the 76 kDa form suggesting that it was not phosphorylated. Pulse-chase labeling of PKC-[alpha] with 35S-Met/Cys indicated that there is a precursor-product relationship between the 80 and 76 kDa forms, respectively. Inhibition of protein synthesis had no effect on the production of 76 kDa PKC-[alpha] by Bryo. PMA also produced 76 kDa PKC-[alpha], but was less potent than Bryo. Bryo produced a more rapid loss of 80 kDa PKC-[alpha] protein and total Ca2+- and phospholipid-dependent PKC activity than PMA. Dephosphorylation contributes to rapid PKC-[alpha] downregulation because the 76 kDa form lacked 32P under conditions that autophosphorylated the 80 kDa form. We suggest that dephosphorylation predisposes PKC to proteolysis.

Received 26 September 1995; accepted in final form 17 January
1996.
APS Manuscript Number C588-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 8 February 96