Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) plays essential roles in cell proliferation, survival and metabolism by forming at least two functional distinct multi-protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2. External growth signals can be received and interpreted by mTORC2 and further transduced to mTORC1. On the other hand, mTORC1 can sense inner-cellular physiological cues such as amino acids and energy states and can indirectly suppress mTORC2 activity in part through phosphorylation of its upstream adaptors, IRS-1 or Grb10, under insulin or IGF-1 stimulation conditions. To date, upstream signaling pathways governing mTORC1 activation have been studied extensively, while the mechanisms modulating mTORC2 activity remain largely elusive. We recently reported that Sin1, an essential mTORC2 subunit, was phosphorylated by either Akt or S6K in a cellular context-dependent manner. More importantly, phosphorylation of Sin1 at T86 and T398 led to a dissociation of Sin1 from the functional mTORC2 holo-enzyme, resulting in reduced Akt activity and sensitizing cells to various apoptotic challenges. Notably, an ovarian cancer patient-derived Sin1-R81T mutation abolished Sin1-T86 phosphorylation by disrupting the canonical S6K-phoshorylation motif, thereby bypassing Sin1-phosphorylation-mediated suppression of mTORC2 and leading to sustained Akt signaling to promote tumorigenesis. Our work therefore provided physiological and pathological evidence to reveal the biological significance of Sin1 phosphorylation-mediated suppression of the mTOR/Akt oncogenic signaling, and further suggested that misregulation of this process might contribute to Akt hyper-activation that is frequently observed in human cancers.
Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ; metabolism ; Animals ; Humans ; Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 ; Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 2 ; Models, Biological ; Multiprotein Complexes ; metabolism ; Phosphorylation ; Phosphothreonine ; metabolism ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases ; metabolism

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) is a gene that, upon mutation, causes autosomal-dominant familial Parkinson's disease (PD). Yeast two-hybrid screening revealed that Snapin, a SNAP-25 (synaptosomal-associated protein-25) interacting protein, interacts with LRRK2. An in vitro kinase assay exhibited that Snapin is phosphorylated by LRRK2. A glutathione-S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay showed that LRRK2 may interact with Snapin via its Ras-of-complex (ROC) and N-terminal domains, with no significant difference on interaction of Snapin with LRRK2 wild type (WT) or its pathogenic mutants. Further analysis by mutation study revealed that Threonine 117 of Snapin is one of the sites phosphorylated by LRRK2. Furthermore, a Snapin T117D phosphomimetic mutant decreased its interaction with SNAP-25 in the GST pull-down assay. SNAP-25 is a component of the SNARE (Soluble NSF Attachment protein REceptor) complex and is critical for the exocytosis of synaptic vesicles. Incubation of rat brain lysate with recombinant Snapin T117D, but not WT, protein caused decreased interaction of synaptotagmin with the SNARE complex based on a co-immunoprecipitation assay. We further found that LRRK2-dependent phosphorylation of Snapin in the hippocampal neurons resulted in a decrease in the number of readily releasable vesicles and the extent of exocytotic release. Combined, these data suggest that LRRK2 may regulate neurotransmitter release via control of Snapin function by inhibitory phosphorylation.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Exocytosis ; Female ; HEK293 Cells ; Humans ; Mice ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Mutant Proteins/metabolism ; Phosphorylation ; Phosphothreonine/metabolism ; Protein Binding ; Protein Interaction Mapping ; Protein Structure, Tertiary ; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases/*metabolism ; Qa-SNARE Proteins/metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Synaptosomal-Associated Protein 25/*metabolism ; Synaptotagmins/metabolism ; Vesicle-Associated Membrane Protein 2/metabolism ; Vesicular Transport Proteins/chemistry/*metabolism