AP2 phosphorylation by copurifying kinases
To identify the kinase and its targets in the AP2 complex required for high affinity binding to sorting motifs, we purified AP2 from pig brain according to published procedures (see Materials and methods). The final purification step during which AP2 is separated from AP1 by hydroxyapatite (HAP) chromatography is shown in
A. The AP2-containing fractions were collected in two pools (3 and 4) and were completely resolved from the AP1-containing pool 2, as revealed by Western blotting ( A, inset).
The HAP-purified AP2 fractions ( B, lane 1) still contained kinase activity, as incubation at 37°C in the presence of [γ32P]ATP led to the phosphorylation of a 50-kD protein and, to a lesser extent, two proteins of ~100 kD ( B, lane 2). The latter two proteins most likely represent the AP2 α and β2 subunits, and the 50-kD band was identified as the μ2 subunit by Western blot analysis ( B, lane 5). This phosphorylation pattern was identical in two different buffer systems ( B, compare lanes 2 and 3); however, in the presence of Mn2+, phosphorylation of the AP2 large subunits was totally abolished, whereas that of μ2 was unaffected (lane 4). We later took advantage of the Mn2+ effect to study the sorting signal binding of AP2 selectively phosphorylated on μ2.
To obtain AP2 free of kinase activity, we immunoisolated AP2 from pool 4 using an α-adaptin–specific antibody. After immunoisolation, the immunocomplexes were extensively washed using high salt and Tween before incubation with [γ32P]ATP. Virtually no phosphorylation of any AP2 subunit was detectable ( C, lane 1), showing that immunoisolated AP2 was free of AP2-phosphorylating kinases. When immunoisolated AP2 was incubated with [γ32P]ATP and an aliquot of the HAP-derived pools ( A), the strong phosphorylation of a 50-kD protein corresponding to the AP2 μ2 subunit was detected ( C, lanes 2–4). The μ2-phosphorylating activity was highest in pools 3 and 4, but was also readily detectable in pool 2. In addition to μ2 phosphorylation, a weak but significant phosphorylation of the AP2 large subunits became apparent. Taken together, these experiments show that kinases that predominantly phosphorylate the μ2 subunit copurify with AP2 but can be separated by immunoadsorption and extensive washing.
AAK1, a μ2-phosphorylating kinase, copurifies with AP2
Two kinases have recently been shown to mediate phosphorylation of the μ2 subunit: GAK/auxilin-2 (
Umeda et al., 2000) and the newly discovered AAK1 (
Conner and Schmid, 2002). Whereas AAK1, which copurifies with adaptor fractions isolated by gel filtration chromatography, colocalizes to endocytic structures, GAK/auxilin-2 was shown to be predominantly cytosolic, with only a small fraction concentrated in perinuclear structures that colocalize with AP1 (
Greener et al., 2000). Recombinant GAK/auxilin-2 can mediate μ2 phosphorylation, however, it is not known whether the kinase copurifies with AP2. We therefore analyzed the distribution of GAK/auxilin-2 and AAK1 during the AP2 purification ()
. Both kinases can be detected in pig brain–derived CCVs (, lane 1); however, the two kinases were resolved by further fractionation. After extraction of CCVs with 0.5 M Tris, pH 7.8, most of GAK/auxilin-2 remained associated with the pelleted membranes (, lane 2), whereas ~50% of AAK1 was recovered in the supernatant together with extracted coat proteins, including AP2. AAK1 was slightly enriched in the adaptor-containing fractions after gel filtration (lane 4), whereas GAK/auxilin-2 was further depleted from the adaptor-containing pool. After fractionation on HAP ( A), the remaining GAK/auxilin-2 was enriched in AP1-containing fractions (pool 2), but almost depleted from AP2-containing fractions (pool 3 and 4), consistent with its localization to the perinuclear region of cells (
Greener et al., 2000). In contrast, AAK1 was detectable in pools 2–4, with a maximum in pool 4. The amount of
32P incorporated into μ2 correlated with the amount of AAK1 in pools 3 and 4, rather than with the amount of AP2 ( B), suggesting that AAK1 is the kinase that phosphorylates μ2 in pools 3 and 4.
AAK1 corresponds to the endogenous μ2 kinase activity associated with AP2
Our results suggest that AAK1 corresponds to the endogenous kinase activity responsible for phosphorylation of μ2. Indeed, when purified recombinant AAK1 was added to immunoisolated AP2 lacking associated kinase activity (
A, lane 1) and devoid of AAK1 (as revealed by Western blotting, unpublished data), μ2 was very efficiently phosphorylated ( A, lane 2). This demonstrates that the μ2 subunit of immobilized AP2 is a substrate for recombinant AAK1. We next compared the endogenous μ2 kinase activity associated with HAP-purified AP2 with the activity of recombinant AAK1 toward immunoisolated AP2 for their sensitivity to various kinase inhibitors. Phosphorylation of μ2 by both the endogenous kinase and purified AAK1 was abolished by N-ethylmaleimide treatment ( A, lane 3, NEM) and was inhibited in the presence of staurosporine, a broad spectrum inhibitor of PKC (lane 4). Additionally, the PKA-specific inhibitor KT5720 partially inhibited both endogenous kinase activity and that of purified recombinant AAK1 ( A, lane 7). None of the other kinase inhibitors with specificity for PKG, CaM kinase, or CKII ( A, lanes 5, 6, and 9, respectively), nor a more specific PKC inhibitor (lane 8) had any effect when present at concentrations known to selectively inhibit their target kinases. Thus, we were unable to distinguish AAK1 activity from that of the endogenous μ2-phosphorylating activity.
It has been reported that μ2 is phosphorylated at a single residue, Thr-156, by an endogenous kinase (
Pauloin and Thurieau, 1993;
Olusanya et al., 2001). However, the identity of the μ2-phosphorylating kinase remained unknown. Although we cannot formally exclude the contamination of purified AP2 (pool 4) by a yet unknown kinase, it is devoid of GAK and contains significant amounts of AAK1. Incubation of purified AP2 from pool 4 with [γ
32P]ATP and subsequent analysis of μ2 by reverse phase HPLC, MALDI/MALDI MS, and radiosequencing of tryptic peptides revealed a single phosphorylation site to Thr-156 (Fig. S1, available online at
http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/jcb.200111068/DC1). Together, these data suggest that AAK1 corresponds to the endogenous kinase responsible for phosphorylation of μ2 at Thr-156.
μ2 phosphorylation by AAK1 mediates high affinity binding of AP2 to sorting signals
As mentioned above, phosphorylation of AP2 increases its affinity for membrane protein sorting signals (
Fingerhut et al., 2001); however neither the kinase(s) involved, nor the AP2 subunit(s) whose phosphorylation was responsible for the increase in affinity had been identified. Given that μ2 is known to bind to tyrosine-based sorting signals (
Aguilar et al., 1997;
Owen and Evans, 1998), we first analyzed whether the selective phosphorylation of μ2 modulates AP2 binding affinity. The kinetics of AP2 binding were determined by surface plasmon resonance using a synthetic peptide representing the tyrosine-based sorting motif of lysosomal acid phosphatase (LAP) immobilized on a biosensor surface. In agreement with previously published data, HAP-purified AP2 (pool 4) effectively bound to the LAP tail (
, sensorgram 1), but its affinity decreased more than fourfold when AP2 was treated with phosphatase before the biosensor experiment (sensorgram 2), suggesting that AP2 in pool 4 was partially phosphorylated. In contrast, AP2 incubation with ATP resulted in an eightfold increase in affinity (, sensorgram 3) as compared with dephosphorylated AP2. This increase in binding affinity was sensitive to the addition of staurosporine (, sensorgram 5). Incubation of AP2 without ATP, but in the presence of staurosporine, did not decrease the binding affinity, as compared with the untreated control (unpublished data), indicating that pool 4 does not contain a μ2-specific phosphatase.
The increase in AP2 affinity towards sorting signals, which was induced by μ2 phosphorylation, could also be, although unlikely, the result of AP2 aggregation induced by μ2 phosphorylation. To test this possibility, we incubated freshly prepared AP2 with phosphatase or ATP before analytical gel filtration on a Superdex-200 column. We found no difference in the elution profile of phosphatase- or ATP-treated AP2 compared with untreated controls (unpublished data), demonstrating that phosphorylation does not induce AP2 aggregation and arguing in favor of an increased affinity of μ2-phosphorylated versus nonphosphorylated AP2 complexes. In further experiments, we tested whether AAK1 phosphorylation of μ2 is sufficient to enhance the affinity of AP2 for sorting motifs. Incubation of AP2 with recombinant AAK1 and ATP (, sensorgram 4) increased the affinity about sixfold to 19 nM as compared with the untreated control (sensorgram 1). Most strikingly, these data indicate that the affinity of dephosphorylated AP2 (sensorgram 2) and AAK1-phosphorylated AP2 differ ~25-fold. Thus, our in vitro experiments demonstrate that AP2 affinity for sorting signals can be significantly regulated by AAK1-mediated phosphorylation of μ2.
It is important to note that all biosensor experiments described here were performed in the presence of divalent Mn2+ ions to establish conditions that only allow μ2 phosphorylation, but selectively abolish the phosphorylation of α and β2 ( B). In parallel to the affinity measurements, we verified the selective phosphorylation of μ2 in identical samples under identical conditions, however in the presence of [γ32P]ATP (unpublished data). When the same biosensor experiments were performed without the addition of Mn2+, resulting in the weak but significant phosphorylation of α and β2, we did not observe any difference with the results presented here (unpublished data). Taken together, our in vitro data clearly show that the AAK1-mediated phosphorylation of the AP2 μ subunit alone is sufficient to modulate the affinity of AP2 towards sorting signals, whereas the phosphorylation status of the adaptor large subunits is of no relevance.
Our data is in line with and provide a convincing explanation for the recent findings that phosphorylation of μ2 on Thr-156 is critical for AP2 function in receptor-mediated endocytosis both in vitro and in vivo (
Olusanya et al., 2001)
. Using a perforated A431 cell assay, the authors demonstrated that μ2 phosphorylation was required for AP2-stimulated transferrin sequestration into coated pits, and also showed that overexpression of μ2 (T156A) mutants inhibited receptor-mediated endocytosis. Our results now demonstrate that the inhibition of endocytosis can be attributed to the loss of efficient AP2 binding to the membrane protein sorting signals due to inactivation of the μ2 phosphorylation site Thr-156.
Interestingly, using the same perforated A431 cell assay, AAK1 was shown to inhibit AP2-dependent transferrin sequestration into constricted coated pits and coated vesicles in a kinase activity–dependent manner (
Conner and Schmid, 2002). Taken together, these data are compatible with the view that continuous endocytosis requires cycles of phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of AP2, allowing the utilization of AP2 for multiple rounds of cargo recruitment. Alternatively, the inhibitory effect of excess AAK1 in this assay could reflect phosphorylation of other as yet unidentified substrates. Further work will be necessary to define the respective roles of AAK1 and GAK and to determine how these kinases are themselves regulated and how they regulate AP2 function and receptor-mediated endocytosis.