). Whereas these five residues were quantitatively modified, Arg 303 was asymmetrically dimethylated in <33% of hnRNP K and Arg 287 was monomethylated in <10% of the protein. All other arginine residues were unmethylated. Protein-arginine methyltransferase 1 was identified as the only enzyme methylating hnRNP K in vitro and in vivo. An hnRNP K variant in which the five quantitatively modified arginine residues had been substituted was not methylated. Methylation of arginine residues by protein-arginine methyltransferase 1 did not influence the RNAbinding activity, the translation inhibitory function, or the cellular localization of hnRNP K but reduced the interaction of hnRNP K with the tyrosine kinase c-Src. This led to an inhibition of c-Src activation and hnRNP K phosphorylation. These findings support the role of arginine methylation in the regulation of protein-protein interactions.Arginine dimethylation is a common post-translational modification in eukaryotes (1-5). The enzymes responsible for this modification are the protein-arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs).3 They are classified in two groups (2). Type I enzymes promote the formation of asymmetricThe known mammalian type I enzymes are PRMT1, PRMT2, PRMT3, PRMT4/coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1, PRMT6, and the recently discovered brain-specific PRMT8 (6 -11). Type II enzymes catalyze the symmetric N G ,NЈ G -dimethylation of arginine residues. PRMT5 and PRMT7 are the mammalian type II enzymes described so far (12)(13)(14). PRMT1, which is predominantly localized to the cytoplasm (15), is thought to account for the generation of ϳ85% of asymmetric dimethylarginine residues (16) Many proteins involved in RNA metabolism like hnRNP A1 (36), hnRNP A2 (37), Sam68 (38), and SAF-A (hnRNP U) (39) contain regions with clustered arginine residues in Arg-Gly-Gly motifs (RGG box) or RG repeats. These arginine residues are typically asymmetrically dimethylated. In addition, asymmetric arginine dimethylation has also been found in clustered RXR motifs (40) and other sequences. Therefore, the prediction of a methylated arginine is difficult. Furthermore, the enzyme responsible for the dimethylation of a particular protein is unknown in many cases, and the substrate specificities of the different methyltransferases remain poorly characterized. The exact knowledge of the methylated arginine residues and their quantitative distribution as well as the identification of the relevant methyltransferases is a prerequisite for the functional analysis of arginine methylation.HnRNP K belongs to the family of heterogeneous nuclear RNPs that participate in the processing of pre-mRNAs and in the export of mRNAs from the nucleus. An N-terminal bipartite nuclear-localization signal and an hnRNP K-specific nuclear shuttling signal confer the capacity for bi-directional transport across the nuclear envelop (41, 42). The cytoplasmic accumulation of hnRNP K is mediated by its Erk-dependent serine phosphorylation (43). In the cytoplasm hnRNP K functions in the post-tr...

The protein tyrosine kinase c-Src is regulated by two intramolecular interactions. The repressed state is achieved through the interaction of the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain with the phosphorylated C-terminal tail and the association of the SH3 domain with a polyproline type II helix formed by the linker region between SH2 and the kinase domain. hnRNP K, the founding member of the KH domain protein family, is involved in chromatin remodeling, regulation of transcription, and translation of specific mRNAs and is a target in different signal transduction pathways. In particular, it functions as a specific activator and a substrate of the tyrosine kinase c-Src. Here we address the question how hnRNP K interacts with and activates c-Src. We define the proline residues in hnRNP K in the proline-rich motifs P2 (amino acids [aa] 285 to 297) and P3 (aa 303 to 318), which are necessary and sufficient for the specific activation of c-Src, and we dissect the amino acid sequence (aa 216 to 226) of hnRNP K that mediates a second interaction with c-Src. Our findings indicate that the interaction with c-Src and the activation of the kinase are separable functions of hnRNP K. hnRNP K acts as a scaffold protein that integrates signaling cascades by facilitating the cross talk between kinases and factors that mediate nucleic acid-directed processes.

Erythroid precursor cells undergo nuclear extrusion and degradation of mitochondria when they mature to erythrocytes. It has been suggested before that the reticulocyte 15-lipoxygenase (r15-LOX) plays an important role in initiating the breakdown of mitochondria in rabbit reticulocytes. The expression of rabbit r15-LOX is regulated by the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNP) K and E1 at the translational level. However, this mechanism has never been confirmed in human erythropoiesis. Based on K562 cells we have set up an inducible human erythroid cell system. We show that, during induction, K562 cells exhibit changes in morphology and protein expression that are characteristic for terminal erythroid maturation: nuclear exclusion, expression of endogenous human r15-LOX regulated by hnRNP K and hnRNP E1, and loss of mitochondria. Importantly, induction of terminal erythroid maturation in primary human CD34؉ cells recapitulated the results obtained in K562 cells. Employing the physiologically relevant K562 cell system we uncovered a new mechanism of interdependent posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. The timely expression of the tyrosine kinase c-Src, which phosphorylates hnRNP K in later stages, is controlled by hnRNP K in early stages of erythroid maturation. hnRNP K binds to the 3-untranslated region of the c-Src mRNA and inhibits its translation by blocking 80 S ribosome formation. In premature erythroid cells, small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of hnRNP K, but not of hnRNP E1, leads to the de-repression of c-Src synthesis.

No abstract