Amino-terminal sequence analysis of rat heart and muscle glycogen synthase: homology to the rabbit enzyme and the implications for hormonal control

Phosphorylation and inactivation of rat heart glycogen synthase by cAMP-dependent and cAMP-independent protein kinases

The regulation of cardiac muscle glycogen metabolism is not well understood. Previous studies have indicated that heart glycogen synthase is heavily phosphorylated in vivo on multiple sites. Using purified enzymes, we have investigated the effect of phosphorylation of different sites on the activity of rat heart glycogen synthase. A convenient procedure was developed for the purification of rat heart glycogen synthase. The enzyme was phosphorylated by selected kinases, and glycogen synthase activity, extent of phosphorylation, and phosphopeptide maps were analyzed. Rat heart glycogen synthase, purified to apparent homogeneity (M(r) 87,000 on SDS-PAGE), had a specific activity of 18 U/mg protein and had an activity ratio of 0.74 (activity in the absence divided by the activity in the presence of glucose 6-P). cAMP-dependent protein kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 3, Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, protein kinase C, and phosphorylase kinase phosphorylated the enzyme with a concomitant decrease in the activity ratio to values ranging from 0.1 to 0.4. Casein kinase II phosphorylated but did not inactivate glycogen synthase. Six tryptic phosphopeptides, obtained from heart glycogen synthase phosphorylated by the various kinases, were separated by reverse-phase chromatography. The phosphopeptide(s) obtained with each kinase eluted at the same position(s) as corresponding phosphopeptides obtained from rat skeletal muscle glycogen synthase. The study shows that the pattern of phosphorylation and effects on activity are very similar for cardiac and skeletal muscle glycogen synthase. It is suggested that the well known differences in heart and glycogen metabolism may be due to the interplay of kinases and phosphatases which could lead to different phosphorylation and activity states of glycogen synthase.

Purification, characterization and partial amino acid sequence of glycogen synthase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Glycogen synthase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was purified to homogeneity. The enzyme showed a subunit molecular mass of 80 kDa. The holoenzyme appears to be a tetramer. Antibodies developed against purified yeast glycogen synthase inactivated the enzyme in yeast extracts and allowed the detection of the protein in Western blots. Amino acid analysis showed that the enzyme is very rich in glutamate and/or glutamine residues. The N-terminal sequence (11 amino acid residues) was determined. In addition, selected tryptic-digest peptides were purified by reverse-phase h.p.l.c. and submitted to gas-phase sequencing. Up to eight sequences (79 amino acid residues) could be aligned with the human muscle enzyme sequence. Levels of identity range between 37 and 100%, indicating that, although human and yeast glycogen synthases probably share some conserved regions, significant differences in their primary structure should be expected.