Calcium/calmodulin-stimulated phosphorylation of photoreceptor proteins in Limulus

Arrestin in ciliary invertebrate photoreceptors: molecular identification and functional analysis in vivo

Arrestin was identified in ciliary photoreceptors of Pecten irradians, and its role in terminating the light response was established electrophysiologically. Downstream effectors in these unusual visual cells diverge from both microvillar photoreceptors and rods and cones; the finding that key regulatory mechanisms of the early steps of visual excitation are conserved across such distant lineages of photoreceptors underscores that a common blueprint for phototransduction exists across metazoa. Arrestin was detected by Western blot analysis of retinal lysates, and localized in ciliary photoreceptors by immunostaining of whole-eye cryosections and dissociated cells. Two arrestin isoforms were molecularly identified by PCR; these present the canonical N- and C-arrestin domains, and are identical at the nucleotide level over much of their sequence. A high degree of homology to various β-arrestins (up to 70% amino acid identity) was found. In situ hybridization localized the two transcripts within the retina, but failed to reveal finer spatial segregation, possibly because of insufficient differences between the riboprobes. Intracellular dialysis of anti arrestin antibodies into voltage-clamped ciliary photoreceptors produced a gradual slow-down of the photocurrent falling phase, leaving a tail that decayed over many seconds after light termination. The antibodies also caused spectrally neutral flashes to elicit prolonged aftercurrents in the absence of large metarhodopsin accumulation; such aftercurrents could be quenched by chromatic illumination that photoconverts metarhodopsin back to rhodopsin. These observations indicate that the antibodies depleted functionally available arrestin, and implicate this molecule in the deactivation of the photoresponse at the rhodopsin level.

Central regulation of photosensitive membrane turnover in the lateral eye of Limulus, II: octopamine acts via adenylate cyclase/cAMP-dependent protein kinase to prime the retina for transient rhabdom shedding

Why photoreceptors turn over a portion of their photoreceptive membrane daily is not clear; however, failure to do so properly leads to retinal degeneration in vertebrates and invertebrates. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate shedding and renewal of photoreceptive membrane. Photoreceptive cells in the lateral eye of the horseshoe crab Limulus turn over their photoreceptive membrane (rhabdom) in brief, synchronous burst in response to dawn each morning. Transient rhabdom shedding (TRS), the first phase of rhabdom turnover in Limulus, is triggered by dawn, but requires a minimum of 3-5 h of overnight priming from the central circadian clock (Chamberlain & Barlow, 1984). We determined previously that the clock primes the lateral eye for TRS using the neurotransmitter octopamine (OA) (Khadilkar et al., 2002), and report here that OA primes the eye for TRS through a G(s)-coupled, adenylate cyclase (AC)/cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP)/cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) signaling cascade. Long-term intraretinol injections (6-7 h @ 1.4 microl/min) of the AC activator forskolin, or the cAMP analogs Sp-cAMP[s] and 8-Br-cAmp primed the retina for TRS in eyes disconnected from the circadian clock, and/or in intact eyes during the day when the clock is quiescent. This suggests that OA primes the eye for TRS by stimulating an AC-mediated rise in intracellular cAMP concentration ([cAMP]i). Co-injection of SQ 22,536, an AC inhibitor, or the PKA inhibitors H-89 and PKI (14-22) with OA effectively antagonized octopaminergic priming by reducing the number of photoreceptors primed for TRS and the amount of rhabdom shed by those photoreceptors compared with eyes treated with OA alone. Our data suggest that OA primes the lateral eye for TRS in part through long-term phosphorylation of a PKA substrate.

Sequential phosphorylation of visual arrestin in intactLimulusphotoreceptors: Identification of a highly light-regulated site

The visual arrestins in rhabdomeral photoreceptors are multifunctional phosphoproteins. They are rapidly phosphorylated in response to light, but the functional relevance of this phosphorylation is not yet fully understood. The phosphorylation ofLimulusvisual arrestin is particularly complex in that it becomes phosphorylated on three sites, and one or more of these site are phosphorylated even in the dark. The purpose of this study was to examine in detail the light-stimulated phosphorylation of each of the three sites inLimulusvisual arrestin in intact photoreceptors. We found that light increased the phosphorylation of all three sites (S377, S381, and S396), that S381is a preferred phosphorylation site, and that S377and S381are highly phosphorylated in the dark. The major effect of light was to increase the phosphorylation of S396, the site located closest to the C-terminal and very close to the adaptin binding motif. We speculate that the phosphorylation of this site may be particularly important for regulating the light-driven endocytosis of rhabdomeral membrane.

Immunocytochemical localization of opsin, visual arrestin, myosin III, and calmodulin in Limulus lateral eye retinular cells and ventral photoreceptors

The photoreceptors of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus are classical preparations for studies of the photoresponse and its modulation by circadian clocks. An extensive literature details their physiology and ultrastructure, but relatively little is known about their biochemical organization largely because of a lack of antibodies specific for Limulus photoreceptor proteins. We developed antibodies directed against Limulus opsin, visual arrestin, and myosin III, and we have used them to examine the distributions of these proteins in the Limulus visual system. We also used a commercial antibody to examine the distribution of calmodulin in Limulus photoreceptors. Fixed frozen sections of lateral eye were examined with conventional fluorescence microscopy; ventral photoreceptors were studied with confocal microscopy. Opsin, visual arrestin, myosin III, and calmodulin are all concentrated at the photosensitive rhabdomeral membrane, which is consistent with their participation in the photoresponse. Opsin and visual arrestin, but not myosin III or calmodulin, are also concentrated in extra-rhabdomeral vesicles thought to contain internalized rhabdomeral membrane. In addition, visual arrestin and myosin III were found widely distributed in the cytosol of photoreceptors, suggesting that they have functions in addition to their roles in phototransduction. Our results both clarify and raise new questions about the functions of opsin, visual arrestin, myosin III, and calmodulin in photoreceptors and set the stage for future studies of the impact of light and clock signals on the structure and function of photoreceptors.

Molecular and immunological characterization of a Gq protein from ventral and lateral eye of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus

GTP binding proteins of the Gq family have been implicated in phototransduction in rhabdomeral photoreceptors. In this study we used molecular and immunochemical techniques to characterize a GTP-binding protein alpha subunit of the Gq family in ventral and lateral photoreceptors of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. Both ventral photoreceptors and lateral eye retinular cells became strongly labeled with an antibody directed against the common carboxyl tail of two Gq family proteins, G alpha q and G alpha 11. This antibody also labeled a 42 kDa band on Western blots of proteins from ventral photoreceptor cell bodies, ventral photoreceptor axons, lateral eyes and lateral optic nerves. The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), along with degenerate oligonucleotide primers designed against conserved regions of known G alpha q and G alpha 11 proteins, was used to isolate a cDNA from ventral eye RNA which encodes a protein with high identity to known Gq proteins. Ribonuclease protection assays showed that the corresponding message was expressed in ventral eye, but these assays, as well as Northern blots, failed to detect expression in lateral eye. Therefore, while photoreceptors of both ventral and lateral eyes contain a Gq-like protein, the mRNA encoding the Gq protein in the ventral eye may differ in nucleotide sequence from its lateral eye counterpart.

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II and arrestin phosphorylation in Limulus eyes

In rhabdomeral photoreceptors, light stimulates the phosphorylation of arrestin, a protein critical for quenching the photoresponse, by activating a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaM PK). Here we present biochemical evidence that a CaM PK that phosphorylates arrestin in Limulus eyes is structurally similar to mammalian CaM PK II. In addition, cDNAs encoding proteins homologous to mammalian and Drosophila CaM PK II in the catalytic and regulatory domains were cloned and sequenced from a Limulus lateral eye cDNA library. The Limulus sequences are unique, however, in that they lack most of the association domain. The proteins encoded by these sequences may phosphorylate arrestin.

Characterization of protein phosphatases type 1 and type 2A in Limulus nervous tissue: their light regulation in the lateral eye and evidence of involvement in the photoresponse

The activities of both protein phosphatases and protein kinases are responsible for the transient changes in the levels of phosphorylation and probably the functions of protein intermediates involved in the biochemical and physiological mechanisms underlying the photoresponse in photoreceptor cells from both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. Of the known protein serine/threonine phosphatases, various forms of type 1 (PP 1) and type 2A (PP 2A) protein phosphatases are responsible for dephosphorylating many of the known phosphoproteins including those involved in photoreceptor cell function. In this report, we provide biochemical evidence for both PP 1- and PP 2A-like activities in the visual and nonvisual tissue of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, that membrane and soluble forms of both enzymes are present, and that the activities of both enzymes are greater in light- than in dark-adapted lateral eyes. These activities were characterized using glycogen phosphorylase a, a substrate for both PP 1 and PP 2A, and various protein phosphatase inhibitors, including okadaic acid. We also report that okadaic acid, at concentrations required to inhibit PP 1, inhibited physiological functions of photoreceptor cells from the ventral eye, causing a delayed reduction of the resting membrane, and slowing and reducing light responses.

Distinguishing between roles for calcium in Limulus photoreceptor excitation

The role for Ca2+ in the excitation process by which light opens membrane channels in Limulus photoreceptors is discussed. Light initiates a phospholipase C/IP3 pathway that results in a rapid elevation of intracellular Ca2+, but whether this elevation is causal in triggering the light response or merely synergistic to some other second messenger pathway has been unclear. We have developed a procedure using progressive injection of Ca2+ buffers that distinguishes between mediation and synergy models [Shin J-H. Richard EA. Lisman JE. (1992) Ca2+ is an obligatory intermediate in the excitation cascade of Limulus photoreceptors. Neuron, 11, 845-855]. Our conclusion is that Ca2+ mediates all phases of the light-response. Models of this kind had previously been rejected because intracellular injection of Ca2+ buffer can lead to an increase of the late component (> 200 ms) of the response to bright, sustained light. We have used computer simulations of IP3 mediated Ca2+ release to show that the positive and negative regulation of this process by Ca2+ itself together with other feedback loops can explain counterintuitive effects of Ca2+ buffers.

Characterization of a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase in the Limulus nervous tissue and its light regulation in the lateral eye

Calcium (Ca2+) plays an integral role in the light response of the photoreceptors in both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. In the ventral eye of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, a flash of light delivered to a dark-adapted photoreceptor stimulates a rapid rise in intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i), which in turn mediates light adaptation. It has previously been demonstrated that in Limulus photoreceptors light, via Ca2+, activates a calcium/calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM)-dependent protein kinase which increases the phosphorylation of arrestin. We now have identified biochemically, a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase (Ca2+/CaM PP) in homogenates of the Limulus lateral and ventral eye, brain, and lateral optic nerve using as a substrate, a 32P-labeled peptide fragment of the regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (RII). This protein phosphatase shares biochemical properties with calcineurin, a Ca2+/CaM-dependent protein phosphatase (type-2B). Its activity is enhanced by Ca2+, calmodulin and Mn2+; and is inhibited by mastoparan, a calmodulin antagonist, and a synthetic peptide corresponding to the autoinhibitory domain of mammalian calcineurin. Most importantly, light regulates the Ca2+/CaM PP activity in the lateral eye. While there is no difference in basal activity in long-term dark- or light-adapted preparations, Ca2+ enhances Ca2+/CaM PP activity only in long-term light-adapted eyes.

Phosrestin I undergoes the earliest light-induced phosphorylation by a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase in Drosophila photoreceptors

Activation of PI-PLC initiates two independent branches of protein phosphorylation cascades catalyzed by either PKC or Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK). We find that phosrestin I (PRI), a Drosophila homolog of vertebrate photoreceptor arrestin, undergoes light-induced phosphorylation on a subsecond time scale which is faster than that of any other protein in vivo. We determine that a CaMK activity is responsible for in vitro PRI phosphorylation at Ser366 in the C-terminal tryptic segment, MetLysSer(P)IleGluGlnHisArg, in which Ser(P) represents phosphoserine366. We also demonstrate that Ser366 is the phosphorylation site of PRI in vivo by identifying the molecular species resulting from in-gel tryptic digestion of purified phospho-PRI using HPLC-electrospray ionization tandem quadrupole mass spectroscopy. From these data, we conclude that the CaMK pathway, not the PKC pathway, is responsible for the earliest protein phosphorylation event following activation of PI-PLC in living Drosophila photoreceptors.

Ca2+ is an obligatory intermediate in the excitation cascade of limulus photoreceptors

We have investigated the role of Ca2+ in the excitation of Limulus photoreceptors by intracellular injection of the Ca2+ buffer, 5,5'-dibromo-BAPTA. Buffer with free Ca2+ of 0.5 or 5 microM slowed the rising edge of the light response over 100-fold and greatly reduced both the transient and plateau phases of the light response, as expected if Ca2+ elevation is necessary for all phases of excitation. Injection of buffers with free Ca2+ of 5 or 45 microM, levels normally reached during light, evoked sustained inward current as expected if Ca2+ is sufficient for excitation. The transduction cascade appears due to a single pathway that sequentially involves 1,4,5-trisphosphate inositol, Ca2+, and cyclic GMP.

A 49-kilodalton phosphoprotein in the Drosophila photoreceptor is an arrestin homolog

The gene encoding the 49-kilodalton protein that undergoes light-induced phosphorylation in the Drosophila photoreceptor has been isolated and characterized. The encoded protein has 401 amino acid residues and a molecular mass of 44,972 daltons, and it shares approximately 42 percent amino acid sequence identity with arrestin (S-antigen), which has been proposed to quench the light-induced cascade of guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate hydrolysis in vertebrate photoreceptors. Unlike the 49-kilodalton protein, however, arrestin, which appears to bind to phosphorylated rhodopsin, has not itself been reported to undergo phosphorylation. In vitro, Ca2+ was the only agent found that would stimulate the phosphorylation of the 49-kilodalton protein. The phosphorylation of this arrestin-like protein in vivo may therefore be triggered by a Ca2+ signal that is likely to be regulated by light-activated phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C.

Light-regulated proteins in Limulus ventral photoreceptor cells

The protein intermediates of the photoresponse and the modulation of this response in invertebrate photoreceptors are largely unknown. As a first step toward identifying these proteins, we have examined light-stimulated changes in protein phosphorylation in preparations of Limulus photoreceptors. Here we show that light modulates the level of phosphorylation of three proteins associated with Limulus ventral photoreceptors: the upper band of a 46-kD protein doublet (46A) and a 122-kD protein, which become more heavily phosphorylated in response to light, and the lower component of the 46-kD doublet (46B), which is phosphorylated in dark-adapted cells, but not in cells maintained in the light. In dark-adapted preparations, 46A is phosphorylated within 30 s after a flash of light and dephosphorylates over a period of many minutes. It is also a major substrate for calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (Wiebe et al., 1989); therefore, we speculate that 46A is involved in some aspect of dark adaptation. Interestingly, the level of phosphorylation of 46A is the same when measured from preparations maintained in complete darkness or ambient light for at least 1.5 h. The 122-kD phosphoprotein is the same protein which becomes phosphorylated in response to efferent innervation to Limulus eyes (Edwards et al., 1988) and the efferent neurotransmitter, octopamine (Edwards and Battelle, 1987). It may be involved in the increase in retinal sensitivity and the enhanced response of photoreceptors to light that is initiated by efferent innervation. Its role in light-stimulated processes is not clear. The level of phosphorylation of 46B may be most relevant to the long-term state of adaptation of the photoreceptor cell to light and dark.