Proteolytic activation of calmodulin-dependent cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase.

Purified calmodulin-stimulated cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase from brain, a homodimer of 59-kDa subunits, was activated by limited proteolysis with trypsin, alpha-chymotrypsin, Pronase, or papain and could not be further stimulated by addition of Ca2+ and calmodulin. Proteolysis increased Vmax and had little effect on the Km for cGMP. Treatment with alpha-chymotrypsin in the presence of ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) produced, sequentially, 57- and 45-kDa peptides from the bovine and 55-, 53-, and 38-kDa peptides from the ovine enzyme. This protease-treated phosphodiesterase exhibited a Stokes radius of 3.9 nm and an S20,w value of 4.55; comparison with the hydrodynamic properties observed for native enzyme (4.3 nm, 5.95 S) strongly suggests a dimeric protein of Mr approximately 80,000-90,000. The proteolyzed species does not interact significantly with calmodulin immobilized on agarose, nor does it show complex formation with 2-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl-calmodulin even at micromolar concentrations of protein. Proteolysis, in the presence of calmodulin plus Ca2+, fully activated phosphodiesterase, producing the same intermediate peptides; however, final peptides from the bovine and ovine enzymes were 47 and 42 kDa, respectively, indicating a new, specific conformation of the enzyme. When EGTA was added to such incubations, these peptides were cleaved to those of the size seen when proteolysis was carried out entirely in the presence of EGTA. The initial rate of activation was increased by the presence of Ca2+ and calmodulin, suggesting that, in complex, phosphodiesterase exhibits a site with increased susceptibility to proteolysis. Since calmodulin can still interact with a fully activated form of the enzyme, it appears that retention of calmodulin binding can occur concomitantly with damage to that portion of the phosphodiesterase molecule responsible for suppression of its basal catalytic activity.