The kinase activity of kinase suppressor of Ras1 (KSR1) is independent of bound MEK Journal Article


Authors: Xing, H. R.; Campodonico, L.; Kolesnick, R.
Article Title: The kinase activity of kinase suppressor of Ras1 (KSR1) is independent of bound MEK
Abstract: Kinase Suppressor of Ras1 (KSR1) functions as a positive modulator of Ras-dependent signaling either upstream of or parallel to Raf-1, and pharmacologic inactivation of KSR1 may serve as a treatment for Ras-driven malignancies such as pancreatic cancer (Xing, H. R., Cordon-Cardo, C., Deng, X., Tong, W., Campodonico, L., Fuks, Z., and Kolesnick, R. (2003) Nat. Med. 9, 1266-1268). Although some studies demonstrated a requirement for KSR1 kinase activity for its action, others suggested KSR1 acts primarily as a scaffold facilitating assembly of the c-Raf-1/MEK module. We recently established a two-stage in vitro reconstitution assay to measure KSR1 kinase activity (Xing, H. R., Lozano, J., and Kolesnick, R. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 17276-17280). In this assay, KSR1, immunopurified to apparent homogeneity, never comes in contact with recombinant kinases other than c-Raf-1. In the first assay stage, activated KSR1 is incubated with recombinant c-Raf-1 and ATP. In the second stage, activated c-Raf-1 is separated from KSR1, and incubated with unactivated MEK1, unactivated MAPK, Elk-1, and ATP. Elk-1 phosphorylation serves as a specific readout for MAPK activation. However, because KSR1 constitutively associates with MEK1 and this interaction appears critical for KSR1 scaffolding function, it has been argued that the kinase activity detected is an artifact of KSR1-bound MEK1. To address these concerns, we depleted as much as 90% of KSR1-bound MEK1 by high salt washing without altering KSR1 kinase activity. Further, a complete inactivation of KSR1-bound MEK1 by pretreating with the MEK inhibitor PD 98059 prior to the first assay stage did not alter KSR1 kinase activity. In addition, the omission of exogenous recombinant GST-MEK1 from the reaction mixture during the second assay stage abolished Elk-1 phosphorylation confirming KSR1-bound MEK1 does not support MAPK activation in our in vitro assay. Moreover, a kinase-inactive mutant, FLAG-KiKSR1(D683A/D700A), which efficiently interacts with endogenous MEK1, lacks kinase activity. These results collectively support our contention that the kinase activity of KSR1 is an intrinsic property of this protein independent of KSR1-bound endogenous MEK.
Keywords: phosphorylation; scaffold; tumor-necrosis-factor; growth-factor; c-elegans; activated protein-kinase; signal-transduction; intestinal epithelial-cells; map kinase; gene encodes
Journal Title: Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume: 279
Issue: 25
ISSN: 0021-9258
Publisher: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  
Date Published: 2004-06-18
Start Page: 26210
End Page: 26214
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:000222003000036
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M401323200
PROVIDER: wos
PUBMED: 15084597
Notes: Article -- Source: Wos
Altmetric
Citation Impact
BMJ Impact Analytics
MSK Authors
  1. Hongmei Xing
    12 Xing
  2. Richard N Kolesnick
    299 Kolesnick