scholarly journals KIN28 encodes a C-terminal domain kinase that controls mRNA transcription in Saccharomyces cerevisiae but lacks cyclin-dependent kinase-activating kinase (CAK) activity.

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 2983-2992 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Cismowski ◽  
G M Laff ◽  
M J Solomon ◽  
S I Reed

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene KIN28 is a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family. The Kin28 protein shares extensive sequence identity with the vertebrate CDK-activating kinase MO15 (Cdk7), which phosphorylates CDKs in vitro on a critical threonine residue. Kin28 and MO15 have recently been found to copurify with the transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) holoenzyme of yeast and human cells, respectively. Although TFIIH is capable of phosphorylating the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II, it has been unclear whether Kin28 is the physiologically relevant CTD kinase or what role CTD phosphorylation plays in transcription. In this study, we used a thermosensitive allele of KIN28 and a hemagglutinin epitope-tagged Kin28 protein to investigate Kin28 function in transcription and in the cell cycle. We show that Kin28 acts as a positive regulator of mRNA transcription in vivo and possesses CTD kinase activity in vitro. However, Kin28 neither regulates the phosphorylation state of the yeast cell cycle CDK, Cdc28, nor possesses CDK-activating kinase activity in vitro. We conclude that Kin28 is a strong candidate for the physiological CTD kinase of S. cerevisiae and that Kin28 function is required for mRNA transcription.

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 4843-4854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Ruffner ◽  
Wei Jiang ◽  
A. Grey Craig ◽  
Tony Hunter ◽  
Inder M. Verma

ABSTRACT BRCA1 is a cell cycle-regulated nuclear protein that is phosphorylated mainly on serine and to a lesser extent on threonine residues. Changes in phosphorylation occur in response to cell cycle progression and DNA damage. Specifically, BRCA1 undergoes hyperphosphorylation during late G1 and S phases of the cell cycle. Here we report that BRCA1 is phosphorylated in vivo at serine 1497 (S1497), which is part of a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) consensus site. S1497 can be phosphorylated in vitro by CDK2-cyclin A or E. BRCA1 coimmunoprecipitates with an endogenous serine-threonine protein kinase activity that phosphorylates S1497 in vitro. This cellular kinase activity is sensitive to transfection of a dominant negative form of CDK2 as well as the application of the CDK inhibitors p21 and butyrolactone I but not p16. Furthermore, BRCA1 coimmunoprecipitates with CDK2 and cyclin A. These results suggest that the endogenous kinase activity is composed of CDK2-cyclin complexes, at least in part, concordant with the G1/S-specific increase in BRCA1 phosphorylation.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 4774-4787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kimmelman ◽  
Philipp Kaldis ◽  
Christoph J. Hengartner ◽  
Geoffrey M. Laff ◽  
Sang Seok Koh ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-activating kinases (CAKs) carry out essential activating phosphorylations of CDKs such as Cdc2 and Cdk2. The catalytic subunit of mammalian CAK, MO15/Cdk7, also functions as a subunit of the general transcription factor TFIIH. However, these functions are split in budding yeast, where Kin28p functions as the kinase subunit of TFIIH and Cak1p functions as a CAK. We show that Kin28p, which is itself a CDK, also contains a site of activating phosphorylation on Thr-162. The kinase activity of a T162A mutant of Kin28p is reduced by ∼75 to 80% compared to that of wild-type Kin28p. Moreover, cells containing kin28T162A and a conditional allele of TFB3 (the ortholog of the mammalian MAT1 protein, an assembly factor for MO15 and cyclin H) are severely compromised and display a significant further reduction in Kin28p activity. This finding provides in vivo support for the previous biochemical observation that MO15-cyclin H complexes can be activated either by activating phosphorylation of MO15 or by binding to MAT1. Finally, we show that Kin28p is no longer phosphorylated on Thr-162 following inactivation of Cak1p in vivo, that Cak1p can phosphorylate Kin28p on Thr-162 in vitro, and that this phosphorylation stimulates the CTD kinase activity of Kin28p. Thus, Kin28p joins Cdc28p, the major cell cycle Cdk in budding yeast, as a physiological Cak1p substrate. These findings indicate that although MO15 and Cak1p constitute different forms of CAK, both control the cell cycle and the phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain of the large subunit of RNA polymerase II by TFIIH.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 928-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiwei Liang ◽  
Xin Gao ◽  
Joshua M. Gilmore ◽  
Laurence Florens ◽  
Michael P. Washburn ◽  
...  

Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) and CDK12 have each been demonstrated to phosphorylate the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) at serine 2 of the heptad repeat, both in vitro and in vivo . CDK9, as part of P-TEFb and the super elongation complex (SEC), is by far the best characterized of CDK9, CDK12, and CDK13. We employed both in vitro and in vivo assays to further investigate the molecular properties of CDK12 and its paralog CDK13. We isolated Flag-tagged CDK12 and CDK13 and found that they associate with numerous RNA processing factors. Although knockdown of CDK12, CDK13, or their cyclin partner CCNK did not affect the bulk CTD phosphorylation levels in HCT116 cells, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed that CDK12 and CDK13 losses in HCT116 cells preferentially affect expression of DNA damage response and snoRNA genes, respectively. CDK12 and CDK13 depletion also leads to a loss of expression of RNA processing factors and to defects in RNA processing. These findings suggest that in addition to implementing CTD phosphorylation, CDK12 and CDK13 may affect RNA processing through direct physical interactions with RNA processing factors and by regulating their expression.


2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 3906-3913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Ostapenko ◽  
Mark J. Solomon

ABSTRACT Ctk1 is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae cyclin-dependent protein kinase (CDK) that assembles with Ctk2 and Ctk3 to form an active protein kinase complex, CTDK-I. CTDK-I phosphorylates Ser2 within the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain, an activity that is required for efficient transcriptional elongation and 3′ RNA processing. Ctk1 contains a conserved T loop, which undergoes activating phosphorylation in other CDKs. We show that Ctk1 is phosphorylated on Thr-338 within the T loop. Mutation of this residue abolished Ctk1 kinase activity in vitro and resulted in a cold-sensitive phenotype. As with other yeast CDKs undergoing T-loop phosphorylation, Ctk1 phosphorylation on Thr-338 was dependent on the Cak1 protein kinase. Ctk1 isolated from cak1Δ cells was unphosphorylated and exhibited low protein kinase activity. Moreover, Cak1 directly phosphorylated Ctk1 in vitro. Unlike wild-type cells, cells expressing Ctk1T338A delayed growth at early stationary phase, did not show the increase in Ser2 phosphorylation that normally accompanies the transition from rapid growth to stationary phase, and had compromised transcriptional activation of two stationary-phase genes, CTT1 and SPI1. Therefore, Ctk1 phosphorylation on Thr-338 is carried out by Cak1 and is required for normal gene transcription during the transition into stationary phase.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 3197-3207
Author(s):  
P R Caron ◽  
P Watt ◽  
J C Wang

A set of carboxy-terminal deletion mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA topoisomerase II were constructed for studying the functions of the carboxyl domain in vitro and in vivo. The wild-type yeast enzyme is a homodimer with 1,429 amino acid residues in each of the two polypeptides; truncation of the C terminus to Ile-1220 has little effect on the function of the enzyme in vitro or in vivo, whereas truncations extending beyond Gln-1138 yield completely inactive proteins. Several mutant enzymes with C termini in between these two residues were found to be catalytically active but unable to complement a top2-4 temperature-sensitive mutation. Immunomicroscopy results suggest that the removal of a nuclear localization signal in the C-terminal domain is likely to contribute to the physiological dysfunction of these proteins; the ability of these mutant proteins to relax supercoiled DNA in vivo shows, however, that at least some of the mutant proteins are present in the nuclei in a catalytically active form. In contrast to the ability of the catalytically active mutant proteins to relax supercoiled intracellular DNA, all mutants that do not complement the temperature-dependent lethality and high frequency of chromosomal nondisjunction of top2-4 were found to lack decatenation activity in vivo. The plausible roles of the DNA topoisomerase II C-terminal domain, in addition to providing a signal for nuclear localization, are discussed in the light of these results.


Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Yun Shao ◽  
Yong-Shi Li ◽  
Hung-Wei Hsu ◽  
Hang Lin ◽  
Han-Yu Wang ◽  
...  

Alterations in cell cycle regulators are common in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We tested the efficacy of composite inhibition of CDKs 1, 2, 5, and 9 through dinaciclib on HCC. In vitro, dinaciclib exhibited potent antiproliferative activities in HCC cell lines regardless of Rb or c-myc expression levels. Dinaciclib significantly downregulated the phosphorylation of Rb (target of CDKs 1 and 2), ataxia telangiectasia mutated kinase (target of CDK5), and RNA polymerase II (target of CDK9) in the HCC cells. In xenograft studies, mice receiving dinaciclib tolerated the treatment well without significant body weight changes and exhibited a significantly slower tumor growth rate than the mice receiving vehicles. RNA interference (RNAi) of CDKs 1 and 9 was more effective in inhibiting the cell proliferation of HCC cells than RNAi of CDKs 2 and 5. Overexpression of CDK9 significantly reduced the efficacy of dinaciclib in HCC cells, but overexpression of CDK1 did not. In conclusion, composite inhibition of CDKs 1, 2, 5, and 9 through dinaciclib exhibited potent in vitro and in vivo activity against HCC. CDK9 inhibition might be the crucial mechanism.


1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 3268-3276 ◽  
Author(s):  
A B Sachs ◽  
R W Davis ◽  
R D Kornberg

The poly(A)-binding protein (PAB) gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is essential for cell growth. A 66-amino acid polypeptide containing half of a repeated N-terminal domain can replace the entire protein in vivo. Neither an octapeptide sequence conserved among eucaryotic RNA-binding proteins nor the C-terminal domain of PAB is required for function in vivo. A single N-terminal domain is nearly identical to the entire protein in the number of high-affinity sites for poly(A) binding in vitro (one site with an association constant of approximately 2 X 10(7) M-1) and in the size of the binding site (12 A residues). Multiple N-terminal domains afford a mechanism of PAB transfer between poly(A) strands.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2899-2908 ◽  
Author(s):  
A L Jackson ◽  
P M Pahl ◽  
K Harrison ◽  
J Rosamond ◽  
R A Sclafani

Yeast Cdc7 protein kinase and Dbf4 protein are both required for the initiation of DNA replication at the G1/S phase boundary of the mitotic cell cycle. Cdc7 kinase function is stage-specific in the cell cycle, but total Cdc7 protein levels remained unchanged. Therefore, regulation of Cdc7 function appears to be the result of posttranslational modification. In this study, we have attempted to elucidate the mechanism responsible for achieving this specific execution point of Cdc7. Cdc7 kinase activity was shown to be maximal at the G1/S boundary by using either cultures synchronized with alpha factor or Cdc- mutants or with inhibitors of DNA synthesis or mitosis. Therefore, Cdc7 kinase is regulated by a posttranslational mechanism that ensures maximal Cdc7 activity at the G1/S boundary, which is consistent with Cdc7 function in the cell cycle. This cell cycle-dependent regulation could be the result of association with the Dbf4 protein. In this study, the Dbf4 protein was shown to be required for Cdc7 kinase activity in that Cdc7 kinase activity is thermolabile in vitro when extracts prepared from a temperature-sensitive dbf4 mutant grown under permissive conditions are used. In vitro reconstitution assays, in addition to employment of the two-hybrid system for protein-protein interactions, have demonstrated that the Cdc7 and Dbf4 proteins interact both in vitro and in vivo. A suppressor mutation, bob1-1, which can bypass deletion mutations in both cdc7 and dbf4 was isolated. However, the bob1-1 mutation cannot bypass all events in G1 phase because it fails to suppress temperature-sensitive cdc4 or cdc28 mutations. This indicates that the Cdc7 and Dbf4 proteins act at a common point in the cell cycle. Therefore, because of the common point of function for the two proteins and the fact that the Dbf4 protein is essential for Cdc7 function, we propose that Dbf4 may represent a cyclin-like molecule specific for the activation of Cdc7 kinase.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 7726-7734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiji Nishiwaki ◽  
Saralinda L. Turner ◽  
Susanna Harju ◽  
Shiro Miyazaki ◽  
Masahide Kashiwagi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The eukaryotic cell cycle is regulated by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). CDK4 and CDK6, which are activated by D-type cyclins during the G1 phase of the cell cycle, are thought to be responsible for phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma gene product (pRb). The tumor suppressor p16INK4A inhibits phosphorylation of pRb by CDK4 and CDK6 and can thereby block cell cycle progression at the G1/S boundary. Phosphorylation of the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the large subunit of RNA polymerase II by general transcription factor TFIIH is believed to be an important regulatory event in transcription. TFIIH contains a CDK7 kinase subunit and phosphorylates the CTD. We have previously shown that p16INK4A inhibits phosphorylation of the CTD by TFIIH. Here we report that the ability of p16INK4A to inhibit CDK7-CTD kinase contributes to the capacity to induce cell cycle arrest. These results suggest that p16INK4A may regulate cell cycle progression by inhibiting not only CDK4-pRb kinase activity but also by modulating CDK7-CTD kinase activity. Regulation of CDK7-CTD kinase activity by p16INK4A thus may represent an alternative pathway for controlling cell cycle progression.


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