Phosphorylation of polyoma T antigens

Abstract

The T antigens of polyoma virus have been examined for phosphorylation in vivo and associated protein kinase activities in vitro. The 100K "large" T antigen is the major phosphoprotein among the T antigen species in vivo as determined by labeling virus-infected cells with 32P-orthophosphate. Hr-t mutants show normal phosphorylation of their 100K T antigens. The wild-type 56K plasma membrane-associated "middle" T antigen is also phosphorylated in the cell, but to a lesser extent than the 100K; this low level phosphorylation is also observed in the presumably altered 56K protein induced by hr-t mutant NG59 and in the 50K truncated "middle" T of hr-t mutant SD15. Addition of dibutyryl cyclic AMP to the medium does not affect labeling of either large or middle T antigens in wild-type- or mutant-infected cells. Thus no differences are observed in T antigen phosphorylation in vivo between wild-type virus and hr-t mutants. Hr-t mutants are defective in a protein kinase activity assayed in vitro by adding gamma-32P-ATP to T antigen immunoprecipitates. In the case of wild-type virus, the 56K protein is the major phosphate acceptor in the in vitro kinase reaction, with a somewhat lower level of phosphorylation observed in the 100K band. Hr-t mutants NG59 and SD15 show no labeling of the altered 56K or 50K, respectively, but do show detectable levels of 32P in the 100K bands. A wild-type virus carrying a small deletion affecting the 100K and 56k bands shows a normal level of kinase activity associated with the truncated T antigens. Ts-a mutants appear to be normal with respect to the middle T antigen-associated kinase. Photoaffinity labeling of infected cell extracts with 8-azido cyclic AMP shows that the two major classes of regulatory subunits of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinases are present in the immunoprecipitates. Phosphorylation of histone H1 occurs when this substrate is added to immunoprecipitates of either mock-infected or virus-infected cells, again demonstrating the presence of cellular kinases. Further experiments will be required to determine whether the middle T antigen of polyoma virus is itself a protein kinase or simply a substrate for one or more cellular kinases.