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Enzymatic Assays 339<br />

26<br />

Enzymatic Assays to Compare<br />

Calmodulin Isoforms, Mutants, and Chimeras<br />

Michael P. Walsh, Jacquelyn E. Van Lierop,<br />

Cindy Sutherland, Ritsu Kondo, and J. David Johnson<br />

1. Introduction<br />

Calmodulin (CaM), the principal protein mediator of cellular Ca 2+ signals,<br />

interacts with some 80 target proteins, many of which are enzymes that are<br />

activated by CaM in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. Mammalian genomes contain<br />

at least three differentially regulated CaM genes that encode the same protein<br />

(1). On the other hand, multiple genes encode several CaM isoforms in plants.<br />

For example, the soybean genome contains at least five CaM genes that encode<br />

four distinct isoforms (2).<br />

Studies of CaM chimeras, mutants, and isoforms indicate that the interactions<br />

of CaM with different target proteins and the molecular mechanisms of<br />

activation of CaM-dependent enzymes vary depending on the target enzyme.<br />

Thus, for example, the soybean CaM isoform SCaM-1 (90.5% identical in<br />

sequence to human CaM) activates calcineurin (CaN; type 2B protein serine/<br />

threonine phosphatase) but SCaM-4 (77% sequence identity to human CaM)<br />

does not; on the other hand, SCaM-4 activates nitric oxide synthase (NOS) but<br />

SCaM-1 does not (3). The fact that SCaM-4 acts as a competitive inhibitor of<br />

SCaM-1-mediated activation of CaN and SCaM-1 acts as a competitive inhibitor<br />

of SCaM-4-mediated activation of NOS indicates that both plant isoforms<br />

bind to the same site on the target enzyme, but in one case (different for each<br />

target enzyme) binding is not coupled to activation. Several instances have been<br />

described of site-specific mutations in CaM resulting in loss of activation of a<br />

specific target enzyme with little effect on binding. For example, replacement<br />

of M144 by V in mammalian CaM has no effect on activation of Ca 2+ /CaMdependent<br />

cyclic nucleotide 3':5'-phosphodiesterase (PDE) or CaN, but con-<br />

From: Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 173:<br />

<strong>Calcium</strong>-<strong>Binding</strong> <strong>Protein</strong> <strong>Protocols</strong>, Vol. 2: Methods and Techniques<br />

Edited by: H. J. Vogel © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ<br />

339

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