The 94-kDa glucose-regulated protein (endoplasmin, grp94) is an abundant member of the 90-kDa molecular chaperone family in the endoplasmic reticulum. We have found earlier that the 50% homologous 90-kDa heat shock protein, hsp90, has ATP-binding site(s) and autophosphorylating activity (Csermely, P., and Kahn, C. R. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 4943-4950). In the present paper we demonstrate that highly purified grp94 is also able to autophosphorylate itself on serine and threonine residues. grp94 can be freed from the co-purifying casein kinase II by concanavalin A affinity chromatography, and its phosphorylation is unaffected by activators and inhibitors of numerous protein kinases known to associate with the homologous hsp90. The autophosphorylation persists in immunoprecipitates and in SDS-polyacrylamide gel-purified and renatured grp94. Autophosphorylation displays a monomolecular kinetics, is activated by micromolar calcium concentrations, has an extreme heat stability, and can utilize both ATP and GTP with relatively high km values of 243 +/- 14 microM and 116 +/- 23 microM, respectively. Sequence analysis of grp94 shows the presence of two ATP-binding sites. The major product of limited proteolysis of grp94 by chymotrypsin or papain is an N-terminal 85-kDa fragment that can bind to ATP-agarose but does not show autophosphorylation. Our data suggest that grp94 has an enzymatic function analogous in many respects to the similar activity of hsp70, hsp90, and grp78 (BiP). Autophosphorylation may participate in/regulate the complex formation of these proteins, so it may be involved in their chaperone function.
The 90-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) is the most abundant molecular chaperone of eukaryotic cells. Its chaperone function in folding nascent proteins seems to be restricted to a subset of proteins including major components of signal transduction pathways (eg, nuclear hormone receptors, transcription factors, and protein kinases). Improper function of these proteins can be induced by selective disruption of their complexes with Hsp90 using the benzoquinonoid ansamycin geldanamycin. In this study, we demonstrate that geldanamycin treatment blocks interleukin (IL)-2 secretion, IL-2 receptor expression, and proliferation of stimulated T-lymphocytes. Moreover, geldanamycin decreases the amount and phosphorylation of Lck and Raf-1 kinases and prevents activation of the extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK)-2 kinase. Geldanamycin also disrupts the T-cell receptor-mediated activation of nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NF-AT). Treatment with geldanamycin, however, does not affect the activation of lysophosphatide acyltransferase, which is a plasma membrane enzyme coupled to the T-cell receptor after T-cell stimulation. Through demonstrating the selective inhibition of kinase-related T-lymphocyte responses by geldanamycin, our results emphasize the substantial role of Hsp90-kinase complexes in T-cell activation.
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