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Threonine 74 of MOB1 is a putative key phosphorylation site by MST2 to form the scaffold to activate nuclear Dbf2-related kinase 1

Oncogene volume 27, pages 4281–4292 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Mammalian nuclear Dbf2-related (NDR) kinases (LATS1 and 2, NDR1 and 2) play a role in cell proliferation, apoptosis and morphological changes. These kinases are regulated by mammalian sterile 20-like kinases (MSTs) and Mps one binder (MOB) 1. Okadaic acid (OA), which activates MST2, facilitates the complex formation of MOB1, MST2 and NDR1 in HEK293FT cells. The in vitro biochemical study demonstrates the phosphorylation of MOB1 by MST2. The phosphorylated MOB1 alone is capable to partially activate NDR1 in vitro, but MST2 is also required for the full activation. The knockdown of MOB1 or MST2 abolishes the OA-induced NDR1 activation in HEK293FT cells. Among MOB1 mutants, in which each serine or threonine residue is replaced with alanine, MOB1 T74A and T181A mutants fail to activate NDR1. Thr74, but not Thr181, is phosphorylated by MST2 in vitro, although MOB1 is also phosphorylated by MST2 at other site(s). The interaction of MOB1 T74A with NDR1 is barely enhanced by OA treatment. These findings indicate that the phosphorylation of MOB1 at Thr74 by MST2 is essential to make a complex of MOB1, MST2 and NDR1, and to fully activate NDR1.

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Abbreviations

Ds:

double stranded

DTT:

dithiothreitol

FH:

FLAG-His6

GST:

glutathione S-transferase

KN:

kinase negative

MOB:

Mps one binder

MOB1 WT:

the wild type of MOB1

MST:

mammalian sterile 20-like

NDR:

nuclear Dbf2-related

OA:

okadaic acid

PBS:

phosphate-buffered saline

Sav:

Salvador

SDS–PAGE:

SDS–polyacryalmide gel electrophoresis

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants-in-aids for Scientific Research (B) and Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. KS, MI and AK are supported by the Tokyo Medical and Dental University 21st century COE program ‘Brain integration and its disorders’. SH started this study and analyzed the interaction of MOB1 and MST2. KS studied the phosphorylation of MOB1 by MST2 and the effect of MOB1 and MST2 on NDR1 activity in vitro. KN analyzed mutants of MOB1 for the phosphorylation by MST2 and the effect on NDR1 activity. KS and KN later exchanged their parts to confirm the reproducibility. We thank Mamiko Hamano for her indispensable technical contribution to this work.

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Author notes

  1. S Hirabayashi, K Nakagawa and K Sumita: These authors equally contributed to this work and are alphabetically arranged.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biochemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    S Hirabayashi, K Nakagawa, K Sumita, S Hidaka, T Kawai, M Ikeda, A Kawata & Y Hata

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    K Sumita & K Ohno

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  1. S Hirabayashi
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  2. K Nakagawa
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  3. K Sumita
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  4. S Hidaka
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  6. M Ikeda
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  7. A Kawata
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  9. Y Hata
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Correspondence to Y Hata.

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Hirabayashi, S., Nakagawa, K., Sumita, K. et al. Threonine 74 of MOB1 is a putative key phosphorylation site by MST2 to form the scaffold to activate nuclear Dbf2-related kinase 1. Oncogene 27, 4281–4292 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2008.66

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