Study of regulatory mechanisms of selected protein kinases

Through binding interactions with more than 300 binding partners, 14-3-3 proteins regulate large amount of biologically relevant processes, such as apoptosis, cell cycle progression, signal transduction or metabolic pathways. The research discussed in this dissertation thesis was focussed on investigating the role of 14-3-3 proteins in the regulation of two selected protein kinases ASK1 and CaMKK2. The main goal was to elucidate the mechanisms by which phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding regulate functions of these protein kinases using various biochemical and biophysical methods, such as site-directed mutagenesis, enzyme activity measurements, analytical ultracentrifugation, small-angle X-ray scattering, chemical crosslinking, nuclear magnetic resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy. A structural model of the complex between the catalytic domain of protein kinase ASK1 with 14-3-3ζ, which was calculated using the small-angle X-ray scattering and chemical crosslinking data, suggested that this complex is conformationally heterogeneous in solution. This structural model together with data from time-resolved fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance suggested that the 14-3-3ζ protein interacts with the catalytic domain of ASK1 in the close vicinity of its active site, thus indicating that the complex..