Timely deactivation of kinase cascades is crucial to the normal control of cell signaling and is partly accomplished by protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). The catalytic (alpha) subunit of the serine-threonine kinase casein kinase 2 (CK2) bound to PP2A in vitro and in mitogen-starved cells; binding required the integrity of a sequence motif common to CK2alpha and SV40 small t antigen. Overexpression of CK2alpha resulted in deactivation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) and suppression of cell growth. Moreover, CK2alpha inhibited the transforming activity of oncogenic Ras, but not that of constitutively activated MEK. Thus, CK2alpha may regulate the deactivation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.

Protein kinase CK2 is a tetramer composed of two α catalytic subunits and two β regulatory subunits. The structure of a C-terminal truncated form of the human β subunit has been determined by X-ray crystallography to 1.7 Å resolution. One dimer is observed in the asymmetric unit of the crystal. The most striking feature of the structure is the presence of a zinc finger mediating the dimerization. The monomer structure consists of two domains, one entirely α-helical and one including the zinc finger. The dimer has a crescent shape holding a highly acidic region at both ends. We propose that this acidic region is involved in the interactions with the polyamines and/or catalytic subunits. Interestingly, conserved amino acid residues among β subunit sequences are clustered along one linear ridge that wraps around the entire dimer. This feature suggests that protein partners may interact with the dimer through a stretch of residues in an extended conformation. Keywords: MAD method/protein kinase CK2/regulatory subunit/X-ray structure/zinc finger