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K Barkalow

Publications and source records attributed to K Barkalow.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Activation of the small GTPases, rac and cdc42, after ligation of the platelet PAR-1 receptor.

Stimulation of platelet PAR-1 receptors results in the rapid (10 to 30 seconds) and extensive (30% to 40% of total) guanosine triphosphate (GTP) charging of endogenous platelet rac, previously identified as a possible key intermediate in the signal pathway between PAR-1 and actin filament barbed-end uncapping, leading to actin assembly. During PAR-1-mediated platelet activation, rac distributes from the cell interior to the cell periphery, and this reorganization is resistant to the inhibition of PI-3-kinase activity. Rac, in resting or activated platelets, is Triton X-100 soluble, suggesting that it does not form tight complexes with actin cytoskeletal proteins, though its retention in octyl-glucoside-treated platelets and ultrastructural observations of activated platelets implies that rac binds to plasma membranes, where it can interact with phosphoinositide kinases implicated in actin assembly reactions. PAR-1 stimulation also rapidly and extensively activates cdc42, though, in contrast to rac, some cdc42 associates with the actin cytoskeleton in resting platelets, and the bound fraction increases during stimulation. The differences in subcellular distribution and previous evidence showing quantitatively divergent effects of rac and cdc42 on actin nucleation in permeabilized platelets indicate different signaling roles for these GTPases.

Allosteric Regulation↗
PubMed1999

The elegant platelet: signals controlling actin assembly.

In summary, the actin-based cytoskeleton of the human platelet has been assembled to serve two primary purposes. The first allows the platelet to circulate throughout the blood vascular system in near proximity to the endothelial cells. To accomplish this feat, a small discoid fragment has been meticulously assembled in the megakaryocyte. This released platelet is maintained in the discoid shape using a cytoplasmic scaffolding composed of rigidly crosslinked actin filament laminated to both a spectrin membrane skeleton and the cell surface by the alpha-chain of the vWFR. The small size and discoid shape of the platelet causes it to be pushed to the endothelial surface of the blood vascular system during blood flow. The second purpose of the cytoskeleton is to allow for a massive cell spreading to plug wounds. To accomplish this task, the cytoskeleton is quickly taken apart and reassembled. The temporal nature of this reaction makes the platelet one of the most useful cells in which to understand both the proteins and the signaling pathways that initiate cell shape changes mediated by the actin filament system of cells.

Actins↗
PubMed1997

Polyphosphoinositide synthesis and platelet shape change.

Polyphosphoinositides both integrate signaling pathways at the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane and serve as the final messenger of signaling pathways. They have a well-defined role in the release of calcium through the degradative pathway. Recent work, however, has highlighted the role of the polyphosphoinositide synthetic pathways in activated cells. This review emphasizes the role of polyphosphoinositides in recruiting signaling proteins that have pleckstrin homology domains and in directly regulating actin assembly in the human blood platelet.

1-Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase↗
PubMed1996

Coordinated regulation of platelet actin filament barbed ends by gelsolin and capping protein.

Exposure of cryptic actin filament fast growing ends (barbed ends) initiates actin polymerization in stimulated human and mouse platelets. Gelsolin amplifies platelet actin assembly by severing F-actin and increasing the number of barbed ends. Actin filaments in stimulated platelets from transgenic gelsolin-null mice elongate their actin without severing. F-actin barbed end capping activity persists in human platelet extracts, depleted of gelsolin, and the heterodimeric capping protein (CP) accounts for this residual activity. 35% of the approximately 5 microM CP is associated with the insoluble actin cytoskeleton of the resting platelet. Since resting platelets have an F-actin barbed end concentration of approximately 0.5 microM, sufficient CP is bound to cap these ends. CP is released from OG-permeabilized platelets by treatment with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate or through activation of the thrombin receptor. However, the fraction of CP bound to the actin cytoskeleton of thrombin-stimulated mouse and human platelets increases rapidly to approximately 60% within 30 s. In resting platelets from transgenic mice lacking gelsolin, which have 33% more F-actin than gelsolin-positive cells, there is a corresponding increase in the amount of CP associated with the resting cytoskeleton but no change with stimulation. These findings demonstrate an interaction between the two major F-actin barbed end capping proteins of the platelet: gelsolin-dependent severing produces barbed ends that are capped by CP. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate release of gelsolin and CP from platelet cytoskeleton provides a mechanism for mediating barbed end exposure. After actin assembly, CP reassociates with the new actin cytoskeleton.

Actin Cytoskeleton↗
PubMed1995

Actin cytoskeleton. Setting the pace of cell movement.

Eukaryotic cells have many proteins that cap the barbed ends of actin filaments. Manipulation of their cellular concentration leads to changes in cell motility rates, actin dynamics and signal transduction reactions.

Actins↗
PubMed1995

Mechanochemical aspects of axonemal dynein activity studied by in vitro microtubule translocation.

We have determined the relationship between microtubule length and translocation velocity from recordings of bovine brain microtubules translocating over a Paramecium 22S dynein substratum in an in vitro assay chamber. For comparison with untreated samples, the 22S dynein has been subjected to detergent and/or to pretreatments that induce phosphorylation of an associated 29 kDa light chain. Control and treated dyneins have been used at the same densities in the translocation assays. In any given condition, translocation velocity (v) shows an initial increase with microtubule length (L) and then reaches a plateau. This situation may be represented by a hyperbola of the general form v = aL/(L+b), which is formally analogous to the Briggs-Haldane relationship, which we have used to interpret our data. The results indicate that the maximum translocation velocity Vo(= a) is increased by pretreatment, whereas the length constant KL(= b), which corresponds to Km, does not change with pretreatment, implying that the mechanochemical properties of the pretreated dyneins differ from those of control dyneins. The conclusion that KL is constant for defined in vitro assays rules out the possibility that the velocity changes seen are caused by changes in geometry in the translocation assays or by the numbers of dyneins or dynein heads needed to produce maximal translocational velocity. From our analysis, we determine that f, the fraction of cycle time during which the dynein is in the force-generating state, is small--roughly 0.01, comparable to the f determined previously for heavy meromyosin. The practical limits of these mechanochemical changes imply that the maximum possible ciliary beat frequency is about 120 Hz, and that in the physiological range of 5-60 Hz, beat frequency could be controlled by varying the numbers of phosphorylated outer arm dyneins along an axonemal microtubule.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Ciliary beat frequency is controlled by a dynein light chain phosphorylation.

cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of a 29-kDa axonemal polypeptide (p29) increases the swimming speed of permeabilized Paramecium and in vitro translocation velocity of bovine brain microtubules over 22S dynein extracted from Paramecium axonemes. A quantitative relationship between microtubule translocation velocity and beat frequency is developed. We conclude that p29 acts as a regulatory light chain of outer arm dynein in the control of ciliary beat frequency.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Structural and geometrical constraints on the outer dynein arm in situ.

This study considers the relationship between two structural forms of the 22S dynein arm of Tetrahymena thermophila: the bouquet and the compact arm. The compact arm differs from the bouquet and from other proposed forms (e.g., the "toadstool") in that the globular domains are situated transversely across the interdoublet gap with one globular subunit, the head, proximal to the adjacent doublet microtubule. The other models place all three globular domains proximal to the neighboring doublet microtubule. When sliding of an isolated axoneme is induced, at least 57% of total attached arms on exposed doublets are in the compact form within dimensions of 24 x 24 x 12 nm, and only about 2% of the arms are bouquets. Toadstools are incompatible with the images seen. Bouquets are not found in regions of the doublet protected by a neighboring doublet. When axonemes with exposed doublets are treated with 0.5 M KCl for 30 min, the compact arms and the dynein heavy (H)-chains disappear, while isolated bouquets and dynein H-chains appear in the medium, suggesting that the compact arms give rise to the bouquets as they are solubilized. The bouquet is the predominant form of isolated 22S dynein molecules, which are found in two apparently enantiomorphic forms, within dimensions 45 x 39 x 13 nm; bouquets attached to doublets have dimensions similar to those of isolated bouquets. Computer modeling indicates that in an intact standard-diameter axoneme, these dimensions are incompatible with the interdoublet volume available for an arm; the bouquet therefore represents an unfolded compact arm. A plausible sequence of changes can be modeled to illustrate the conversion of an attached compact arm to an attached and then free bouquet. The toadstool is probably an artifact that arises after unfolding. Consistent with the conformational difference, H-chains of attached compact arms differ from those of isolated bouquets in their susceptibility to limited proteolysis. These results suggest that the compact arm, rather than the unfolded bouquet or the toadstool, is the functional form of the outer arm in the intact axoneme.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Regulation of 22S dynein by a 29-kD light chain.

Previously, a 29-kD axonemal polypeptide (p29) that copurifies with 22S dynein has been shown to be phosphorylated in a cAMP- and Ca(2+)-sensitive manner, consistent with a role for this molecule in the signal transduction cascade leading to fast forward swimming in Paramecium tetraurelia (Hamasaki, T., K. Barkalow, J. Richmond, and P. Satir. 1991. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 88:7912-7922). This study demonstrates the nature of the relationship between p29 and 22S dynein. Chaotropic agents can be used to separate p29 fractions from 22S dynein. When extracted p29 is exchanged into physiological buffers, it regains the ability to recombine with 22S dynein with an apparent dissociation constant of 25 nM; no recombination is seen with 14S dynein or with unrelated control proteins. p29 from Paramecium will also recombine with Tetrahymena 22 but not 14S dynein. After chymotryptic digestion of 22S dynein, p29 preferentially binds to a single-headed fragment, homologous to the alpha H chain of Tetrahymena 22S dynein. 22S dynein treated in vitro by Paramecium protein kinase A in the presence of cAMP and ATP to phosphorylate p29 translocates bovine brain microtubules significantly (1.53x; p < 0.001) faster than before phosphorylation. Similarly, 22S dynein reconstituted in vitro with thiophosphorylated p29 translocates microtubules significantly (1.31x; p < 0.001) faster than controls reconstituted with nonthiophosphorylated p29. p29 is the only moiety thiophosphorylated in the reconstituted dynein. We conclude that p29 functions as a 22S dynein regulatory light chain in that it alone is sufficient to control the rate of microtubule translocation by changes in its phosphorylation state.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

The control of ciliary beat frequency.

Ciliary movement is powered by axonemal dynein. This article considers how a signal transduction cascade initiated at the cell membrane may activate outer dynein arms to change the velocity of microtubule sliding and the swimming speed of ciliated cells. For Paramecium, a critical event in the cascade is the cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of a 29 kDa polypeptide that is associated with the outer dynein arm.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

cAMP-stimulated phosphorylation of an axonemal polypeptide that copurifies with the 22S dynein arm regulates microtubule translocation velocity and swimming speed in Paramecium.

In Paramecium tetraurelia, cyclic nucleotides are important physiological second messengers that could regulate dynein mechanochemistry by phosphorylation. A 29-kDa polypeptide that is phosphorylated in a cAMP- and Ca(2+)-sensitive manner in permeabilized cells and isolated axonemes is the only significant phosphorylated moiety that consistently copurifies with 22S dynein from paramecium cilia. It is not a component of 14S dynein. This polypeptide can be thiophosphorylated in a cAMP-sensitive manner, and this form of 22S dynein is stable when stored at -70 degrees C. cAMP-mediated thiophosphorylation of the 29-kDa polypeptide significantly increases the velocity with which 22S dynein causes microtubules to glide in vitro. The increase is abolished, together with the thiophosphorylation of the 29-kDa polypeptide, by preincubation with high Ca2+. Pretreatment with high Ca2+ does not alter the thiophosphorylation pattern of, or the velocity of microtubule translocation by, 14S dynein. The same preincubation conditions that permit or abolish the increase in velocity of microtubule translocation by 22S dynein permit or fail to permit swimming speed of permeabilized cells to increase on reactivation even after cAMP is removed. The effect of cAMP on swimming speed can therefore be accounted for by changes in the mechanically coupled 22S dynein activity via phosphorylation or thiophosphorylation of the 29-kDa polypeptide, which could act as a regulatory dynein light chain.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Structural and functional characterization of paramecium dynein: initial studies.

Dynein arms and isolated dynein from Paramecium tetraurelia ciliary axonemes are comparable in structure, direction of force generation, and microtubule translocation ability to other dyneins. In situ arms have dimensions and substructure similar to those of Tetrahymena. Based on spoke arrangement in intact axonemes, arms translocate axonemal microtubules in sliding such that active dynein arms are (-) end directed motors and the doublet to which the body and cape of the arms binds (N) translocates the adjacent doublet (N + 1) tipward. After salt extraction, based on ATPase activity, paramecium dynein is found as a 22S and a 14S species. The 22S dynein is a three-headed molecule that has unfolded from the in situ dimensions; the 14S dynein is single headed. Both dyneins can be photocleaved by UV light (350 nm) in the presence of Mg2+, ATP and vanadate; the photocleavage pattern of 22S dynein differs from that seen with Tetrahymena. Both isolated dyneins translocate taxol-stabilized, bovine brain microtubules in vitro. Under standard conditions, 22S dynein, like comparable dyneins from other organisms, translocates at velocities that are about three times faster than 14S dynein.

Animals↗