Phosphorylation and supramolecular organization of murine small heat shock protein HSP25 abolish its actin polymerization-inhibiting activity

Abstract

Characteristic features of mammalian small heat shock proteins are their rapid phosphorylation in response to stress and mitogenic signals and their ability to form multimeric particles of 200-700 kDa and large aggregates up to 5000 kDa. Recently, a chaperoning function and an actin polymerization-inhibiting activity were demonstrated for the recombinant murine and turkey small heat shock protein, respectively. In this paper, we demonstrate that the actin polymerization-inhibiting activity of the murine small heat shock protein HSP25 is dependent on the degree of its phosphorylation and structural organization. Non-phosphorylated and phosphorylated HSP25 monomers, as well as non-phosphorylated multimeric HSP25 particles, were isolated from Ehrlich ascites tumor cells by ammonium sulfate precipitation, column chromatography, and ultracentrifugation and tested for their actin polymerization-inhibiting activity. Fluorescence spectroscopy and electron microscopy were used to monitor actin polymerization. Non-phosphorylated HSP25 monomers were active in inhibiting actin polymerization with about 90% inhibition at a 1:1 ratio of actin to HSP25, while phosphorylated HSP25 monomers and non-phosphorylated multimeric HSP25 particles were inactive. Furthermore, we present electron microscopic data on the structure of HSP25 particles.