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Structural studies of selected signaling protein complexes.
Pšenáková, Katarína ; Obšil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hrabal, Richard (referee) ; Maloy Řezáčová, Pavlína (referee)
The ability of proteins to bind other molecules in response to various stimuli in their microenvironment serves as a platform for extensive regulatory networks coordinating downstream cell actions. The correct function of these signaling pathways depends mostly on noncovalent interactions often affecting the structure of proteins and protein complexes. Understanding the molecular mechanism of a protein function in cell signaling therefore often depends on our knowledge of a three-dimensional structure. In this doctoral thesis, I present the work that led to the understanding of several protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions implicated in cell signaling at the molecular level. I applied nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, small angle X-ray scattering and other biophysical methods to determine the molecular basis of inhibition of four signaling proteins: Calcium/Calmodulin (Ca2+ /CaM)-dependent protein kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2); protease Caspase-2; Forkhead transcription factor FOXO3, and Apoptosis signal-regulating protein kinase 1 (ASK1). In particular, I investigated the distinct roles of 14-3-3 and Ca2+ /CaM in the regulation of CaMKK2 activity. I also studied in detail the mechanism how 14-3-3 interferes with the caspase-2 oligomerization and its nuclear localization as well as...
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Study of regulatory mechanisms of selected protein kinases
Petrvalská, Olívia ; Obšil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Jiráček, Jiří (referee) ; Schneider, Bohdan (referee)
Through binding interactions with more than 300 binding partners, 14-3-3 proteins regulate large amount of biologically relevant processes, such as apoptosis, cell cycle progression, signal transduction or metabolic pathways. The research discussed in this dissertation thesis was focussed on investigating the role of 14-3-3 proteins in the regulation of two selected protein kinases ASK1 and CaMKK2. The main goal was to elucidate the mechanisms by which phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding regulate functions of these protein kinases using various biochemical and biophysical methods, such as site-directed mutagenesis, enzyme activity measurements, analytical ultracentrifugation, small-angle X-ray scattering, chemical crosslinking, nuclear magnetic resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy. A structural model of the complex between the catalytic domain of protein kinase ASK1 with 14-3-3ζ, which was calculated using the small-angle X-ray scattering and chemical crosslinking data, suggested that this complex is conformationally heterogeneous in solution. This structural model together with data from time-resolved fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance suggested that the 14-3-3ζ protein interacts with the catalytic domain of ASK1 in the close vicinity of its active site, thus indicating that the complex...
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Study of interactions between protein kinase CaMKK2 and calmodulin using fluorescence spectroscopy.
Mikulů, Martina ; Obšil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pavlíček, Jiří (referee)
Ca2+ /calmodulin-dependent kinases are members of CaMK family, which is involved in CaMK cascade. One of CaMK family members is Ca2+ /calmodulin-dependent kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2), which is activated by Ca2+ /CaM-binding. There are some structural differences between CaMKK2 and other protein kinases, one of them is a structure near αE-helix and autoinhibitory domain. Due to the overlap of autoinhibitory domain and Ca2+ /CaM-binding domain it can be supposed that Ca2+ /CaM-binding induces structural changes near autoinhibitory do- main and thus can affect the accessibility of this region. CaMKK2 W445F mutant, which contains only one tryptophane residue Trp374 close to the αE-helix, was expressed and purified. Structural changes in this region were monitored using tryptophan fluorescence intensity quenching experiments, which can provide information about the accessibility of region surrounding tryptophan residue. The fluorescence of Trp374 was quenched using acrylamide. Comparison of fluorescence quenching experiments performed in the presence and absence of calmodulin suggests that the complex formation induces structural change in the region surrounding Trp374 . 1
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Role of Polo-like kinases in the cell cycle and DNA damage response
Kudláčková, Radmila ; Macůrek, Libor (advisor) ; Šolc, Petr (referee)
Within the process of cell division, genetic material must be equally distributed between the two daughter cells. In the next phase, the missing portion of the genome must be synthesized. The entire cycle is regulated by cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) in cooperation with cyclins. If the DNA is damaged during the cell cycle, signaling pathways of checkpoints supress cycle progression and enforce the cell cycle arrest until the damage is repaired. Malfunction of the checkpoints results in tumorigenesis. Polo-like kinases (Plks) are, much like Cdks, important regulators of the cell cycle. Plks play significant role mainly in the mitosis and also in a response to the DNA damage. This thesis is focused on human homologues, nevertheless conservation of homologues among organisms is considerable, thus presented findings are of general relevance. Human cells express five proteins from the family of Polo-like kinases, from which Plk1 corresponds to Polo-like kinases of lower eukaryotes. Knowledge on the remaining four kinases is still on the rise.
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Preparation of thioredoxin and thioredoxin-binding domain of protein kinase ASK1 for structural studies
Jarosilová, Kateřina ; Obšil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kalábová, Dana (referee)
All living organisms are exposed to various forms of stress during their lifetime. This is probably the reason why an evolutionally well conserved the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) system of signaling cascades was formed to regulate cellular stress response. Those signaling pathways consist of three consecutive classes of protein kinases: MAP3K, MAP2K and MAPK. The signal is then transmitted from MAPK to another protein kinases and transcription factors. Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) is a member of MAPK pathway, more specifically is classified as a member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase family (MAP3K). Human ASK1 consists of 1374 amino acids which are folded into several domains and sequence motives. The N-terminal coil-coiled domain (NCC), the serine/threonine kinase domain and the C-terminal coil-coiled domain (CCC) are three main domains. In addition, several regions responsible for the interaction between ASK1 and their binding partners have also been identified. The activity of ASK1 is regulated by various factors including thioredoxin and the 14-3-3 proteins, which function as inhibitors, and TNF receptor associated factors (TRAFs), which function as activators. The aim of this study was the preparation of six different expression constructs of...
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In silico prediction of postranslational modifications
Basíková, Iveta ; Novotný, Marian (advisor) ; Fišer, Karel (referee)
Post-translational modifications are an important form of cellural regulation, including matabolism, growth, differentiation, transcription activation, membrane transport and cell death. Experimental identification of post-translational modifications (PTMs), especially phosporylation, is still time consuming and expensive. Progress in silico PTM prediction tools was influnced an enormous growth of known sequences which are suitable for training set, processing and final result's interpretation. In silico prediction may facilitate the identification of potencional phosporylation sites and it may speed up in future research.
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