The substrate of Greatwall kinase, Arpp19, controls mitosis by inhibiting protein phosphatase 2A

The Interaction Mechanism of Intrinsically Disordered PP2A Inhibitor Proteins ARPP-16 and ARPP-19 With PP2A

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity is critical for maintaining normal physiological cellular functions. PP2A is inhibited by endogenous inhibitor proteins in several pathological conditions including cancer. A PP2A inhibitor protein, ARPP-19, has recently been connected to several human cancer types. Accordingly, the knowledge about ARPP-19—PP2A inhibition mechanism is crucial for the understanding the disease development and the therapeutic targeting of ARPP-19—PP2A. Here, we show the first structural characterization of ARPP-19, and its splice variant ARPP-16 using NMR spectroscopy, and SAXS. The results reveal that both ARPP proteins are intrinsically disordered but contain transient secondary structure elements. The interaction mechanism of ARPP-16/19 with PP2A was investigated using microscale thermophoresis and NMR spectroscopy. Our results suggest that ARPP—PP2A A-subunit interaction is mediated by linear motif and has modest affinity whereas, the interaction of ARPPs with B56-subunit is weak and transient. Like many IDPs, ARPPs are promiscuous binders that transiently interact with PP2A A- and B56 subunits using multiple interaction motifs. In summary, our results provide a good starting point for future studies and development of therapeutics that block ARPP-PP2A interactions.

1H, 13C and 15N NMR chemical shift assignments of cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein-19 and -16 (ARPP-19 and ARPP-16)

Protein Phosphatase 2A, PP2A, the principal Serine/threonine phosphatase, has major roles in broad range of signaling pathways that include regulation of cell cycle, cell proliferation and neuronal signaling. The loss of function of PP2A is linked with many human diseases, like cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) functions as tumor suppressor and its tumor suppressor activity is inhibited by the overexpression of PP2A inhibitor proteins in most of the cancers. ARPP-19/ARPP-16 has been identified as one of the potential PP2A inhibitor proteins. Here, we report the resonance assignment of backbone ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N atoms of human ARPP-19 and ARPP-16 proteins. These chemical shift values can provide valuable information for the further study of the dynamics and interaction of ARPP-proteins to PP2A using NMR spectroscopy.