Keratin polypeptide 20 (K20) is an intermediate filament protein with preferential expression in epithelia of the stomach, intestine, uterus, and bladder and in Merkel cells of the skin. K20 expression is used as a marker to distinguish metastatic tumor origin, but nothing is known regarding its regulation and function. We studied K20 phosphorylation as a first step toward understanding its physiologic role. K20 phosphorylation occurs preferentially on serine, with a high stoichiometry as compared with keratin polypeptides 18 and 19. Mass spectrometry analysis predicted that either K20 Ser 13 or Ser 14 was a likely phosphorylation site, and Ser 13 was confirmed as the phospho-moiety using mutation and transfection analysis and generation of an anti-K20-phospho-Ser 13 antibody. K20 Ser 13 phosphorylation increases after protein kinase C activation, and Ser 13 -to-Ala mutation interferes with keratin filament reorganization in transfected cells. In physiological contexts, K20 degradation and associated Ser 13 hyperphosphorylation occur during apoptosis, and chemically induced mouse colitis also promotes Ser 13 phosphorylation. Among mouse small intestinal enterocytes, K20 Ser 13 is preferentially phosphorylated in goblet cells and undergoes dramatic hyperphosphorylation after starvation and mucin secretion. Therefore, K20 Ser 13 is a highly dynamic protein kinase C-related phosphorylation site that is induced during apoptosis and tissue injury. K20 Ser 13 phosphorylation also serves as a unique marker of small intestinal goblet cells.
Keratins are intermediate filament (IF)3 cytoskeletal proteins that are preferentially expressed in epithelial cells. All IF proteins consist of a central ␣-helical "rod" domain that is flanked by non-␣-helical N-terminal "head" and C-terminal "tail" domains. Expression of unique complements of type I (keratin polypeptides 9 -20 (K9 -K20)) and type II (K1-K8) keratins, which associate at a noncovalent 1:1 ratio of type I to type II heteropolymers, distinguishes different epithelial subtypes. For example, keratinocytes preferentially express K5/K14 or K1/K10 depending on their differentiation state in the epidermis; adult hepatocytes express K8/K18 exclusively, whereas intestinal epithelial cells express K8 as the major type II keratin with varying levels of the type I keratins, K18/K19/K20, depending on the differentiation state (e.g. crypt versus villus cells) or cell type (e.g. goblet versus absorptive cell) (1-3). The functions of keratins (and other IF proteins) are becoming increasingly well understood (4 -7) as IF-null or dominant negative mouse models are developed and studied (8) and as mutations in IF proteins are linked to a growing list of human diseases (9). These functions are mechanical and nonmechanical in nature and include providing tissue and cell integrity, protecting cells from apoptosis and nonmechanical forms of injury, tissue-specific functions, cell signaling, and maintenance of subcellular organelle positioning and functions.Keratin and other IF protein funct...