A dynamic mechanism for allosteric activation of Aurora kinase A by activation loop phosphorylation

Autor: Emily F Ruff, Joseph M Muretta, Andrew R Thompson, Eric W Lake, Soreen Cyphers, Steven K Albanese, Sonya M Hanson, Julie M Behr, David D Thomas, John D Chodera, Nicholas M Levinson
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: eLife, Vol 7 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2050-084X
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.32766
Popis: Many eukaryotic protein kinases are activated by phosphorylation on a specific conserved residue in the regulatory activation loop, a post-translational modification thought to stabilize the active DFG-In state of the catalytic domain. Here we use a battery of spectroscopic methods that track different catalytic elements of the kinase domain to show that the ~100 fold activation of the mitotic kinase Aurora A (AurA) by phosphorylation occurs without a population shift from the DFG-Out to the DFG-In state, and that the activation loop of the activated kinase remains highly dynamic. Instead, molecular dynamics simulations and electron paramagnetic resonance experiments show that phosphorylation triggers a switch within the DFG-In subpopulation from an autoinhibited DFG-In substate to an active DFG-In substate, leading to catalytic activation. This mechanism raises new questions about the functional role of the DFG-Out state in protein kinases.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals