Helicobacter pylori CagA protein is associated with severe gastritis and gastric carcinoma. CagA is injected from the attached Helicobacter pylori into host cells and undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation. Wild-type but not phosphorylation-resistant CagA induced a growth factor-like response in gastric epithelial cells. Furthermore, CagA formed a physical complex with the SRC homology 2 domain (SH2)-containing tyrosine phosphatase SHP-2 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner and stimulated the phosphatase activity. Disruption of the CagA-SHP-2 complex abolished the CagA-dependent cellular response. Conversely, the CagA effect on cells was reproduced by constitutively active SHP-2. Thus, upon translocation, CagA perturbs cellular functions by deregulating SHP-2.

Helicobacter pylori is a causative agent of gastritis and peptic ulcer. cagA ؉ H. pylori strains are more virulent than cagA ؊ strains and are associated with gastric carcinoma. The cagA gene product, CagA, is injected by the bacterium into gastric epithelial cells and subsequently undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation. The phosphorylated CagA specifically binds SHP-2 phosphatase, activates the phosphatase activity, and thereby induces morphological transformation of cells. CagA proteins of most Western H. pylori isolates have a 34-amino acid sequence that variably repeats among different strains. Here, we show that the repeat sequence contains a tyrosine phosphorylation site. CagA proteins having more repeats were found to undergo greater tyrosine phosphorylation, to exhibit increased SHP-2 binding, and to induce greater morphological changes. In contrast, predominant CagA proteins specified by H. pylori strains isolated in East Asia, where gastric carcinoma is prevalent, had a distinct tyrosine phosphorylation sequence at the region corresponding to the repeat sequence of Western CagA. This East Asian-specific sequence conferred stronger SHP-2 binding and morphologically transforming activities to Western CagA. Finally, a critical amino acid residue that determines SHP-2 binding activity among different CagA proteins was identified. Our results indicate that the potential of individual CagA to perturb host-cell functions is determined by the degree of SHP-2 binding activity, which depends in turn on the number and sequences of tyrosine phosphorylation sites. The presence of distinctly structured CagA proteins in Western and East Asian H. pylori isolates may underlie the strikingly different incidences of gastric carcinoma in these two geographic areas.

Protein palmitoylation is the most common posttranslational lipid modification; its reversibility mediates protein shuttling between intracellular compartments. A large family of DHHC (Asp-His-His-Cys) proteins has emerged as protein palmitoyl acyltransferases (PATs). However, mechanisms that regulate these PATs in a physiological context remain unknown. In this study, we efficiently monitored the dynamic palmitate cycling on synaptic scaffold PSD-95. We found that blocking synaptic activity rapidly induces PSD-95 palmitoylation and mediates synaptic clustering of PSD-95 and associated AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid)-type glutamate receptors. A dendritically localized DHHC2 but not the Golgi-resident DHHC3 mediates this activity-sensitive palmitoylation. Upon activity blockade, DHHC2 translocates to the postsynaptic density to transduce this effect. These data demonstrate that individual DHHC members are differentially regulated and that dynamic recruitment of protein palmitoylation machinery enables compartmentalized regulation of protein trafficking in response to extracellular signals.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a causative agent of gastric diseases ranging from gastritis to cancer. The CagA protein is the product of the cagA gene carried among virulent H. pylori strains and is associated with severe disease outcomes, most notably gastric carcinoma. CagA is injected from the attached H. pylori into gastric epithelial cells and undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation. The phosphorylated CagA binds and activates SHP-2 phosphatase and thereby induces a growth factor-like morphological change termed the "hummingbird phenotype." In this work, we demonstrate that CagA is also capable of interacting with C-terminal Src kinase (Csk). As is the case with SHP-2, Csk selectively binds tyrosine-phosphorylated CagA via its SH2 domain. Upon complex formation, CagA stimulates Csk, which in turn inactivates the Src family of protein-tyrosine kinases. Because Src family kinases are responsible for CagA phosphorylation, an essential prerequisite of CagA⅐SHP-2 complex formation and subsequent induction of the hummingbird phenotype, our results indicate that CagA-Csk interaction down-regulates CagA⅐SHP-2 signaling by both competitively inhibiting CagA⅐SHP-2 complex formation and reducing levels of CagA phosphorylation. We further demonstrate that CagA⅐SHP-2 signaling eventually induces apoptosis in AGS cells. Our results thus indicate that CagA-Csk interaction prevents excess cell damage caused by deregulated activation of SHP-2. Attenuation of CagA activity by Csk may enable cagA-positive H. pylori to persistently infect the human stomach for decades while avoiding excess CagA toxicity to the host.

The CagA protein of Helicobacter pylori, which is injected from the bacteria into bacteria-attached gastric epithelial cells, is associated with gastric carcinoma. CagA is tyrosine-phosphorylated by Src family kinases, binds the SH2 domain-containing SHP-2 phosphatase in a tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent manner, and deregulates its enzymatic activity. We established AGS human gastric epithelial cells that inducibly express wildtype or a phosphorylation-resistant CagA, in which tyrosine residues constituting the EPIYA motifs were substituted with alanines. Upon induction, wild-type CagA, but not the mutant CagA, elicited strong elongation of cell shape, termed the "hummingbird" phenotype. Time-lapse video microscopic analysis revealed that the CagA-expressing cells exhibited a marked increase in cell motility with successive rounds of elongation-contraction processes. Inhibition of CagA phosphorylation by an Src kinase inhibitor, PP2, or knockdown of SHP-2 expression by small interference RNA (siRNA) abolished the CagA-mediated hummingbird phenotype. The morphogenetic activity of CagA also required Erk MAPK but was independent of Ras or Grb2. In AGS cells, CagA prolonged duration of Erk activation in response to serum stimulation. Conversely, inhibition of SHP-2 expression by siRNA abolished the sustained Erk activation. Thus, SHP-2 acts as a positive regulator of Erk activity in AGS cells. These results indicate that SHP-2 is involved in the Ras-independent modification of Erk signals that is necessary for the morphogenetic activity of CagA. Our work therefore suggests a key role of SHP-2 in the pathological activity of H. pylori virulence factor CagA.

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The heterotrimeric G protein ␣ subunit (G␣) is targeted to the cytoplasmic face of the plasma membrane through reversible lipid palmitoylation and relays signals from G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to its effectors. By screening 23 DHHC motif (Asp-His-His-Cys) palmitoyl acyl-transferases, we identified DHHC3 and DHHC7 as G␣ palmitoylating enzymes. DHHC3 and DHHC7 robustly palmitoylated G␣ q , G␣ s , and G␣ i2 in HEK293T cells. Knockdown of DHHC3 and DHHC7 decreased G␣ q/11 palmitoylation and relocalized it from the plasma membrane into the cytoplasm. Photoconversion analysis revealed that G␣ q rapidly shuttles between the plasma membrane and the Golgi apparatus, where DHHC3 specifically localizes. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching studies showed that DHHC3 and DHHC7 are necessary for this continuous G␣ q shuttling. Furthermore, DHHC3 and DHHC7 knockdown blocked the ␣ 1A -adrenergic receptor/G␣ q/11 -mediated signaling pathway. Together, our findings revealed that DHHC3 and DHHC7 regulate GPCR-mediated signal transduction by controlling G␣ localization to the plasma membrane.G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) form the largest family of cell surface receptors, consisting of more than 700 members in humans. GPCRs respond to a variety of extracellular signals, including hormones and neurotransmitters, and are involved in various physiologic processes, such as smooth muscle contraction and synaptic transmission (20,25). Heterotrimeric G proteins, composed of ␣, ␤, and ␥ subunits, transduce signals from GPCRs to their effectors and play a central role in the GPCR signaling pathway (13,21,24,32). Although the G␣ subunit seems to localize stably at the cytosolic face of the plasma membrane (PM), a recent report suggested that G␣ o , a G␣ isoform, shuttles rapidly between the PM and intracellular membranes (2). The PM targeting of G␣ requires both interaction with the G␤␥ complex and subsequent lipid palmitoylation of G␣ (22). Thus, palmitoylation of G␣ is a critical determinant of membrane targeting of the heterotrimer G␣␤␥.Protein palmitoylation is a common posttranslational modification with lipid palmitate and regulates protein trafficking and function (7,18). G␣ is a classic and representative palmitoyl substrate (19,38), and recent studies revealed that protein palmitoylation modifies virtually almost all the components of G-protein signaling, including GPCRs, G␣ subunits, several members of the RGS (regulators of G-protein signaling) family of GTPase-activating proteins, GPCR kinase GRK6, and some small GTPases (7, 33). This common lipid modification plays an important role in compartmentalizing G-protein signaling to the specific microdomain, such as membrane caveolae and lipid raft (26). The palmitoyl thioester bond is relatively labile, and palmitates on substrates turn over rapidly, allowing proteins to shuttle between the cytoplasm/intracellular organelles and the PM (2, 3, 27). For example, binding of isoproterenol to the ␤-adrenergic receptor markedly accelerates the depalmitoylation of the a...