Title

Enhanced casein kinase II activity in COS-1 cells upon overexpression of either its catalytic or noncatalytic subunit

UMMS Affiliation

Program in Molecular Medicine; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Publication Date

1991-08-05

Document Type

Article

Subjects

Amino Acid Sequence; Blotting, Northern; Blotting, Western; Casein Kinases; Catalysis; Cell Line; Cloning, Molecular; Cytomegalovirus; DNA; Gene Amplification; Genes, Viral; Molecular Sequence Data; Promoter Regions (Genetics); Protein Kinases; RNA; Transfection

Disciplines

Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Casein kinase II consists of catalytic (alpha) and regulatory (beta) subunits complexed into a heterotetrameric alpha 2 beta 2 structure. Full-length cDNAs encoding the alpha and beta subunits of human casein kinase II were subcloned into an expression vector containing the cytomegalovirus promotor, yielding the expression constructs pCMV-alpha and pCMV-beta. Northern analyses of total cellular RNA prepared from COS-1 fibroblasts 65 h after transfection with pCMV-alpha or pCMV-beta or with both expression constructs showed marked specific increases in corresponding alpha and beta subunit RNAs. Immunoblot analysis utilizing anti-casein kinase II antiserum of cytosolic extracts prepared from COS-1 cells co-transfected with pCMV-alpha and pCMV-beta showed 2- and 4-fold increases in immunoreactive alpha and beta subunit protein, respectively, relative to vector-transfected cells. These same cytosolic fractions exhibited an average 5-fold increase in casein kinase II catalytic activity. COS-1 cells transfected with pCMV-alpha alone exhibited a 3-fold increase in immunoreactive alpha subunit protein and a nearly 2-fold increase in cytosolic casein kinase II catalytic activity. Transfection with the cDNA coding for the noncatalytic beta subunit alone also caused a near doubling of cytosolic casein kinase II catalytic activity. No increase in immunoreactive alpha subunit protein was observed in pCMV-beta-transfected cells, and no increase in immunoreactive beta subunit protein was observed in pCMV-alpha-transfected cells. These results indicate that a portion of the endogenous cellular casein kinase II protein is not fully active and that raising the concentration of the alpha or beta subunit stimulates this latent activity.

Source

J Biol Chem. 1991 Aug 5;266(22):14435-9.

Journal/Book/Conference Title

The Journal of biological chemistry

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

1713582

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS