Multisite phosphorylation of glycogen synthase from rabbit skeletal muscle. Organisation of the seven sites in the polypeptide chain.

Glycogen synthase is a substrate for five distinct protein kinases in skeletal muscle which phosphorylate seven different serine residues on the enzyme. Cyclic-AMP-dependent protein kinase phosphorylates sites 1a, 1b and 2, phosphorylase kinase, site 2, glycogen synthase kinase 3, sites 3a, 3b and 3c, glycogen synthase kinase 4, site 2 and glycogen synthase kinase 5 site 5. Site 2 is seven residues from the N-terminus of glycogen synthase and is located in a cyanogen bromide peptide termed CB1 (apparent Mr = 9000). The other six phosphorylation sites are located in a cyanogen bromide peptide termed CB2 (apparent Mr = 24 000) at the C-terminal end of the molecule. The sequence of the N-terminal 123 residues of peptide CB2, has been completed. Sites 3a, 3b, 3c, 5, 1a and 1b are located at residues 30, 34, 38, 46, 87 and 100 from the N-terminus of CB2 respectively. Site 1a is the next serine residue after site 5. The region surrounding sites 3a, 3b and 3c is very rich in proline residues while that surrounding sites 1a and 1b contains many serine and threonine residues. The 23 residues following site 5 contain 15 aspartic acid and glutamic acid residues, while the region immediately N-terminal to site 1a is very basic. The whole region is remarkably hydrophilic and is the region at which the native enzyme is attacked by proteinases. The sites at which glycogen synthase is cleaved by trypsin, chymotrypsin and thermolysin have been identified. The finding that trypsin cleaves the enzyme C-terminal to site 3c while chymotrypsin cleaves N-terminal to site 3a has formed the basis of a simple procedure for determining the state of phosphorylation of the seven serine residues in vivo [Parker, P.J., Embi, N., Caudwell, F.B., and Cohen, P. (1982) Eur. J. Biochem. 124, 47-55].