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NMR Spectroscopic Investigations of the Activated p38α Mitogen‐Activated Protein Kinase
Author(s) -
Nielsen Gerd,
Schwalbe Harald
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.201100527
Subject(s) - kinase , protein kinase a , phosphorylation , nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , chemistry , protein serine threonine kinases , biochemistry , mitogen activated protein kinase , biophysics , microbiology and biotechnology , stereochemistry , biology
Phosphorylation of protein kinases is a central mechanism involved in numerous cellular regulatory circuits, both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. An understanding of the structural and functional consequences of protein phosphorylation is of considerable importance for the design of selective, small‐molecule kinase inhibitors. NMR spectroscopy is a central method to support structure‐based drug design. Here, we present the NMR assignment of the activated p38α kinase and compare it to the NMR assignment of unphosphorylated p38α. Conformational changes in solution induced by activation can be located to the activation loop, an adjacent loop, and an insert part of the polypeptide chain that is specific for the family of mitogen‐activated kinases. Deuterium‐exchange experiments additionally revealed differences in exchange behavior for two residues in an alanine‐rich helix–loop motif that becomes more flexible upon binding of an ATP analogue and a substrate peptide.