phosphothreonine and phosphohistidine

There is growing evidence to suggest that phosphohistidines are present at significant levels in mammalian cells and play a part in regulating cellular activity, in particular signaling pathways related to cancer. Because of the chemical instability of phosphohistidine at neutral or acid pH, it remains unclear how much phosphohistidine is present in cells. Here we describe a protocol for extracting proteins from mammalian cells in a way that avoids loss of covalent phosphates from proteins, and use it to measure phosphohistidine concentrations in human bronchial epithelial cell (16HBE14o-) lysate using 31P NMR spectroscopic analysis. Phosphohistidine is determined on average to be approximately one third as abundant as phosphoserine and phosphothreonine combined (and thus roughly 15 times more abundant than phosphotyrosine). The amount of phosphohistidine, and phosphoserine/phosphothreonine per gram of protein from a cell lysate was determined to be 23 μmol/g and 68 μmol/g respectively. The amount of phosphohistidine, and phosphoserine/phosphothreonine per cell was determined to be 1.8 fmol/cell, and 5.8 fmol/cell respectively. Phosphorylation is largely at the N3 (tele) position. Typical tryptic digest conditions result in loss of most of the phosphohistidine present, which may explain why the amounts reported here are greater than is generally seen using mass spectroscopy assays. The results further strengthen the case for a functional role of phosphohistidine in eukaryotic cells.

Topics: Animals; Cell Line; Histidine; Humans; Mammals; Phosphorylation; Phosphoserine; Phosphothreonine; Proteins

Alkali-stable phosphorylation of proteins, particularly phosphotyrosine and phosphohistidine, is an important phenomenon in cells. In the case of phosphohistidine and some other phosphoamino acids, the phosphorylation is acid-labile and in these cases studies have been severely limited by the absence of a rapid assay suitable for acid-labile phosphorylation. The assay presented here involves a conventional kinase assay reaction followed by mild alkaline hydrolysis and adsorption of the product to washed Nytran paper at high pH. After further washing, at pH 9, the radioactivity on the papers is determined by liquid scintillation counting. Hence, acid-labile phosphorylation is preserved. The assay is selective for alkali-stable phosphorylation but not fully specific, mainly due to the need to balance the severity of the partial alkaline hydrolysis with the stability of the protein-peptide bonds. The assay has been used for the purification and characterization of a protein histidine kinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Topics: Histidine; Histidine Kinase; Histones; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Hydrolysis; Phosphorylation; Phosphothreonine; Protein Kinases; Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Amino acids were derivatized with orthophthalaldehyde and separated by high-performance liquid chromatography on a polymer-based reverse-phase column (Hamilton PRP-1) at pH 7.2 using isocratic elution with 14.3 mM sodium phosphate, 1.1% tetrahydrofuran, 6.6% acetonitrile. Phosphorylated amino acids were eluted with baseline resolution in the following order: 1-phosphohistidine, phosphoserine, 3-phosphohistidine, phosphotyrosine, phosphothreonine, and phosphoarginine. Each of the phosphoamino acids was separated from its parent amino acid but aspartate and glutamate eluted in the same region as the phosphoamino acids. The sensitivity is in the picomole range and the separation time, injection to injection, is 15 min. The linearity for phosphothreonine extends at least from 30 pmol to 30 nmol. Quantitation by radioactivity is good for each of the phosphoamino acids except in the case of [1-32P]phosphohistidine, which coelutes with inorganic phosphate.

Topics: Aldehydes; Amino Acids; Arginine; Buffers; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Histidine; o-Phthalaldehyde; Organophosphorus Compounds; Phosphoserine; Phosphothreonine; Phosphotyrosine; Temperature; Tyrosine

A high-performance liquid chromatographic system has been developed which permits the separation of both acid-stable and acid-labile phosphoamino acids. An anion-exchange resin and two buffers of different ionic strength and near neutral pH are used. A low-ionic-strength buffer is used for the separation of N-omega-phosphoarginine and N-epsilon-phospholysine, while the higher-ionic-strength buffer permits the clear separation of tau-phosphohistidine, omicron-phosphoserine and omicron-phosphothreonine. An in-stream fluorometric detection system using omicron-phthalaldehyde permits the rapid analysis of samples containing as little as 25 pmoles of phosphoamino acid. This method has been applied to the detection of tau-phosphohistidine from alkaline digests of chemically phosphorylated calf thymus histone 4 and bovine myelin basic protein.

Topics: Amino Acids; Arginine; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Histidine; Lysine; Organophosphorus Compounds; Phosphoserine; Phosphothreonine