Characterization of a protein kinase-substrate complex precipitable with Ca2+ from the cytosol fraction of AH-66 hepatoma cells.

A protein kinase-substrate complex was precipitated by adding Ca2+ to the cytosol fraction of AH-66 ascites hepatoma cells. The amount of the precipitated complex was increased with increasing concentrations of Ca2+ and reached a plateau at about 5 mM Ca2+. In the presence of [gamma-32P]ATP, extensive uptake of radioactive phosphate into this complex occurred. The phosphorylation reaction was little affected by addition of cyclic nucleotides, Ca2+-phospholipid, Ca2+-calmodulin. When the complex after phosphorylation was analyzed by SDS-PAGE, a protein with molecular weight of 33,000 was most heavily phosphorylated. These phenomena were also observed for mouse myeloid leukemia cells (M1 cells). By contrast, the addition of Ca2+ to the cytosol fractions of regenerating rat liver, normal rat liver or brain caused little precipitation of the complex.