Nature 382, 370 - 373 (25 July 1996); doi:10.1038/382370a0

Role of kinases and the phosphatase calcineurin in the nuclear shuttling of transcription factor NF-AT4

Futoshi Shibasaki, E. Roydon Price, David Milan & Frank McKeon

Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

A NEW facet of calcium signalling involves the nuclear import of the NF-AT transcription factors from their dormant position in the cytoplasm^1–3. The protein phosphatase calcineurin appears to play an essential role in activating NF-AT nuclear import, as the calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporin A and FK506 block dephosphorylation and nuclear import of NF-AT (refs 4–7). Here we show that calcium signalling induces an association between NF-AT4 and calcineurin, and that these molecules are transported, as a complex, to the nucleus, where calcineurin continues to dephosphorylate NF-AT4. We propose that a nuclear complex of NF-AT4 and calcineurin maintains calcium signalling by counteracting a vigorous nuclear NF-AT kinase.

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