Phosphorylation regulates interaction of 210-kDa myosin light chain kinase N-terminal domain with actin cytoskeleton

High molecular weight myosin light chain kinase (MLCK210) is a multifunctional protein involved in myosin II activation and integration of cytoskeletal components in cells. MLCK210 possesses actin-binding regions both in the central part of the molecule and in its N -terminal tail domain. In HeLa cells, mitotic protein kinase Aurora B was suggested to phosphorylate MLCK210 N -terminal tail at serine residues (Dulyaninova, N. G., and Bresnick, A. R. (2004) Exp. Cell Res. , 299 , 303–314), but the functional significance of the phosphorylation was not established. We report here that in vitro , the N -terminal actin-binding domain of MLCK210 is located within residues 27-157 (N27-157, avian MLCK210 sequence) and is phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and Aurora B at serine residues 140/149 leading to a decrease in N27-157 binding to actin. The same residues are phosphorylated in a PKA-dependent manner in transfected HeLa cells. Further, in transfected cells, phosphomimetic mutants of N27-157 showed reduced association with the detergent-stable cytoskeleton, whereas in vitro , the single S149D mutation reduced N27-157 association with F-actin to a similar extent as that achieved by N27-157 phosphorylation. Altogether, our results indicate that phosphorylation of MLCK210 at distinct serine residues, mainly at S149, attenuates the interaction of MLCK210 N -terminus with the actin cytoskeleton and might serve to regulate MLCK210 microfilament cross-linking activity in cells.