Cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and
nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) have been shown
to mobilize intracellular Ca2+ stores by totally
independent mechanisms, which are pharmacologically distinct from that
activated by inositol trisphosphate. Although cADPR and NAADP are
structurally and functionally different, they can be synthesized by a
single enzyme having ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity. In this study, three
different assays were used to measure the metabolism of cADPR in sea
urchin egg homogenates including a radioimmunoassay, a Ca2+
release assay, and a thin layer chromatographic assay. Soluble and
membrane-bound ADP-ribosyl cyclases were identified and both cyclized
NAD to produce cADPR. The soluble cyclase was half-maximally stimulated
by 5.3 µM cGMP, but not by cAMP, while the membrane-bound form was independent of cGMP. The two forms of the cyclase were also
different in the pH dependence of utilizing nicotinamide guanine
dinucleotide (NGD), a guanine analog of NAD, as substrate, indicating
they are two separate enzymes. The stimulatory effect of cGMP required
ATP or ATP
S (adenosine 5
-O-(3-thiotriphosphate)) and a
cGMP-dependent kinase activity was shown to be present in the soluble fraction. The degradation of cADPR to ADP-ribose was catalyzed by cADPR hydrolase, which was found to be predominantly associated with membranes. Similar to the membrane-bound cyclase, the
cADPR hydrolase activity was also independent of cGMP. Both the soluble
and membrane fractions also catalyzed the synthesis of NAADP through
exchanging the nicotinamide group of NADP with nicotinic acid (NA). The
base-exchange activity was independent of cGMP and the half-maximal
concentrations of NADP and NA needed were about 0.2 mM and
10 mM, respectively. The exchange reaction showed a
preference for acidic pH, contrasting with the neutral pH optimum of
the cyclase activities. The complex metabolic pathways characterized in
this study indicate that there may be a multitude of regulatory
mechanisms for controlling the endogenous concentrations of cADPR and
NAADP.
 |
INTRODUCTION |
The sea urchin egg is a good model system for investigating
mechanisms of Ca2+ mobilization. Studies utilizing this
system have led to the discoveries of two novel Ca2+
messengers, cyclic ADP-ribose
(cADPR)1 and nicotinic acid
adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) (1-4). The Ca2+
release mechanisms activated by them are distinct and both are independent from that activated by inositol trisphosphate
(IP3) (1, 4, 5). Cells responsive to cADPR have now been
shown to be widespread and include those from protozoa (6), plant (7),
invertebrate (1), and amphibian (8) as well as from a variety of
mammalian species (Ref. 9; reviewed in Refs. 10-12). In the case of
sea urchin eggs, evidence indicates cADPR, in conjunction with
IP3, is responsible for mediating the Ca2+
mobilization associated with fertilization. Thus, inhibition of either
the cADPR or the IP3 receptor alone is not sufficient to inhibit fertilization, but the blockage of both receptors by specific antagonists inhibits the Ca2+ mobilization
(13-15). A unique feature of the cADPR pathway is that it can also be
activated by an exogenous agonist, nitric oxide, a gaseous messenger,
via elevation of cGMP concentration (16-18).
Cyclic ADP-ribose is synthesized from NAD by a ubiquitous enzyme,
ADP-ribosyl cyclase (Refs. 19 and 20; reviewed in Refs. 21 and 22). In
addition to cyclizing NAD, the cyclase can also catalyze the exchange
of the nicotinamide group of NADP with nicotinic acid (NA) to produce
NAADP (23). It is thus an important enzyme in Ca2+
signaling. Two types of cyclase have been characterized. A soluble form
is abundant in Aplysia ovotestis and its crystal structure has recently been solved (24). A membrane-bound homolog of the Aplysia cyclase is CD38 (25, 26), which is also a lymphocyte differentiation antigen (reviewed in Ref. 27). However, neither of the
these two enzymes has been shown to be regulated by cGMP. The egg
cyclase, although having an activity among the lowest of all tissue
extracts measured so far (20), is particularly important because of its
cGMP dependence, a typical characteristic of a signaling enzyme. In
this study, three different assays with sensitivity suitable for
measuring the low cyclase activity in egg extracts were developed and
used. Results show the presence of two types of cyclase and that the
soluble form is sensitive to cGMP. A degradation activity hydrolyzing
cADPR to ADP-ribose is present predominantly in the membranes. In
contrast, both the soluble and membrane fractions can also catalyze the
synthesis of NAADP via a base-exchange reaction. The egg extract is
thus an important source for characterizing and purifying various
components of the complex pathways involved in the metabolism of
the Ca2+ messengers, cADPR and NAADP.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Fractionation of Egg Homogenates--
Homogenates were prepared
from sea urchin egg as described previously and stored at
80 °C
(28). Fractions were prepared from freshly thawed (20 min at 17 °C)
homogenates by centrifugation for 30 min at 430,000 × g. The supernatants were further filtered with a 0.2-µm
filter. The membrane pellets were resuspended in buffer A, described
below, containing the ATP regenerating system.
Fractionation was also performed by Percoll density gradient
centrifugation (29). Homogenates (2 ml) were layered on top of 10 ml of
25% Percoll in buffer A. After 30 min of centrifugation at 27,000 × g (10 °C), the bottom of the centrifuge tube was
punctured and 10 fractions of equal volume were collected.
Preparation of Egg Homogenates for the Ca2+ Release
Assay--
Egg homogenate was thawed at 17 °C and diluted in steps
from 25% to 1.25% in 250 mM potassium gluconate, 250 mM N-methylglucamine, 1 mM
MgCl2, 20 mM Hepes, pH 7.2 (buffer A)
containing 0.5 mM ATP, 8 mM phosphocreatine, 2 units/ml creatine kinase, and 3 µM fluo-3. For the assay
of ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity, the diluted homogenate was
supplemented with 10 mM nicotinamide and 1 mM
caffeine to inhibit conversion of transferred NAD to cADPR (30) during
the Ca2+ release assay and to increase the sensitivity of
the Ca2+ release process (31), respectively.
HPLC--
A standard anion exchange column (15 × 0.7 cm)
packed with AG MP-1 (Bio-Rad) and gradient elution with trifluoroacetic
acid were used to analyze nucleotides in these experiments under
conditions similar to those published previously (32). The gradient of trifluoroacetic acid used started at 0% B (solvent B is 150 mM trifluoroacetic acid in water, solvent A is water) and
was held at 0% for 1 min, increased linearly to 4% from 1 to 6 min,
increased linearly to 8% from 6 to 11 min, increased linearly to 16%
from 11 to 13 min, and held at 100% until 17 min. The column was
calibrated with nicotinamide, NAD, cADPR, ADP-ribose, ADP, ATP, NGD,
cGDPR, and GDP-ribose. cADPR and cGDPR were prepared by incubation of NAD and NGD, respectively, with the ADP-ribosyl cyclase from
Aplysia californica as described previously and purified by
HPLC (32).
Preparation of [32P]NAD and
[32P]cADPR--
[32P]NAD was prepared from
[
-32P]ATP as follows; [
-32P]ATP (1 mCi) was incubated with 10 mM
-nicotinamide
mononucleotide, 10 mM MgCl2, 5 mM
dithiothreitol, 10 mM creatine phosphate, 50 µg/ml creatine kinase, 0.13 units/ml inorganic pyrophosphatase, and 0.1 mg/ml
nucleotide pyrophosphorylase in 20 mM Tris, pH 7, for 2 h at room temperature, and the [32P]NAD produced
was purified by HPLC as described previously (33). The
[32P]NAD was converted to [32P]cADPR by
incubating with 0.1 µg/ml ADP-ribosyl cyclase from A. californica at room temperature for a 1 h in 20 mM Tris, pH 7, and purified by HPLC. After eluting the
[32P]cADPR with a gradient of trifluoroacetic acid, the
[32P]cADPR was neutralized with Tris base and stored at
20 °C until used.
Measurement of ADP-ribosyl Cyclase Activity--
Activation of
the cyclase by cGMP was achieved by pretreating the samples with 100 µM cGMP for 10 min before starting the reaction with
NAD.
Ca2+ Release Assay--
The cyclase activity was
measured by adding 2 µl of NAD (1 mM final concentration)
to 40 µl of soluble or particulate fraction and testing 2-4-µl
aliquots for Ca2+ release activity using the egg
homogenates as described above. The amount of cADPR produced was
determined from a standard curve of Ca2+ release activity
by authentic cADPR.
HPLC Assays--
The cyclase reaction was started by adding 1 mM NAD or NGD to 100 µl of soluble or particulate
fraction. Aliquots of 20 µl were removed at various times and added
to 2 ml of 20 mM Tris, pH 7.5, containing 0.1% SDS. The
combination of dilution and SDS effectively stopped the reactions. The
products were quantified by comparing to standards.
Radioimmunoassay (RIA)--
An antibody to cADPR was prepared as
described (34). Briefly, cADPR was monosuccinylated and coupled to
hemocyanin. The antigen was used to immunize chickens, and a specific
antibody against cADPR was extracted from the eggs.
The cyclase reactions were started by adding 1 mM NAD and,
after 5 min, stopped by adding 0.5 M perchloric acid. The
protein pellet was removed by centrifugation, and the supernatant was neutralized with KHCO3. The potassium perchlorate salt was
removed by centrifugation, and the supernatant was treated with the
following enzymes to hydrolyze the nucleotides present in the samples:
NADase (0.06 unit/ml), alkaline phosphatase (12 units/ml), nucleotide pyrophosphatase (0.4 unit/ml), and apyrase (1.2 units/ml). None of
these enzymes degrades cADPR (34). The samples were incubated with the
enzymes at 37 °C for 4 h. The binding assay contained a
dilution of the sample, [32P]cADPR, and cADPR antibody
(1:10) in 100 mM HEPES, pH 7.5. After 1 h at 23 °C,
the antibody-cADPR complex was precipitated with 13% polyethylene
glycol and filtered on GF/C filters. The filters were washed three
times with 2 ml of buffer containing 20 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, and 15% polyethylene glycol. A standard curve was constructed with
concentrations of cADPR ranging from 0.1 to 100 nM cADPR, with the midpoint usually at about 2 nM cADPR.
Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) Assay--
The cyclase reaction
was started by adding [32P]NAD (1 mM, 250,000 cpm/µl) to egg extracts and incubated for 0-90 min at 17 °C. At
various times, a 10-µl aliquot of the reaction mixture was quenched
with a 10-µl mixture containing a combination of hydrolytic enzymes
as described above for the RIA. After 60 min of treatment with the
enzymes at 37 °C, 2 µl was spotted on polyethyleneimine-cellulose and the plate was developed with a solvent containing 0.2 M
NaCl and 30% ethanol. Authentic [32P]cADPR and
[32P]NAD were also spotted on the same plate for
identifying the elution positions. The spots corresponding to
[32P]cADPR were visualized by a phosphorimager and cut.
The radioactivity of the cut spots was quantified by scintillation
counting. To further ascertain that the spots corresponded to
cADPR, selected duplicate samples were additionally treated with CD38
(300 µg/ml) for 60 min at 37 °C to specifically hydrolyze cADPR to
ADP-ribose. The latter migrated near the origin (RF = 0.06) well separated from cADPR (RF = 0.44) and
NAD (RF = 0.66).
Measurement of the Synthesis of NAADP by the Base-exchange
Reaction HPLC Assay--
Egg extracts were incubated with 50 mM nicotinic acid at pH 5, adjusted with acetic acid. The
reaction was quenched with 100 mM HCl. Samples were
centrifuged in a microcentrifuge for 15 min to remove the precipitated
proteins. The supernatants were neutralized with Tris base and
incubated with 5 units/ml apyrase with 2 mM MgCl2 for 30 min at 20-23 °C to remove ATP and ADP.
Afterward, the samples were diluted 20-fold with 0.05% SDS and
analyzed by HPLC as described above. Known standards were used to
calibrate the area of the NAADP peak (23).
Ca2+ Release Assay--
The base-exchange reaction
was started and quenched as described above for the HPLC assays. The
HCl-quenched samples were stable in acid at 4 °C, and 2-4-µl
aliquots were added directly to the egg homogenates for determining the
Ca2+ releasing activity, which was calibrated with
authentic NAADP.
cGMP-dependent Kinase Assay--
A specific
cGMP-sensitive protein kinase assay was developed by using conditions
that inhibit the cAMP-dependent kinase and the
Ca/calmodulin kinase activities. The reaction mixture contained [
-32P]ATP (100 µM, 0.1 µCi), 100 µg/ml Kemptide, 5 mM MgCl2, 50 µg/ml cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor, 10 mM
NaF, 50 mM
-glycerophosphate, 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol, and 20 mM Tris, pH 7.5. Prior to the kinase assay the supernatant of sea urchin homogenate was concentrated 4-fold with Centricon 100 filters by centrifugation for
15 h at 2500 rpm. The concentrates (0.2-0.3 ml) were desalted by
a 0.7 × 11-cm column filled with ACA 202 (LKB) gel, and 1-min fractions (about 0.15 ml) were collected. The protein peak (usually fraction 20) was completely separated from the salt peak (fraction 35),
which was measured with a refractometer. The pooled protein peak was
diluted to about 1 mg/ml for the kinase assay. Reactions were stopped
by spotting 25 µl of the reaction on a P-81 filter and immersing the
filter in 200 mM phosphoric acid (35). The filters were
washed four times in 200 mM phosphoric acid and counted for
32P.
Other Materials--
The catalytic domain of human CD38 was
expressed and produced in yeast as a secretory protein as described
previously (36). NAD+, NGD+, ATP, ATP
S,
cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor (rabbit sequence),
Kemptide,
-glycerophosphate, bovine serum albumin, Percoll,
nucleotide pyrophosphatase, NADase (from Neurospora crassa), apyrase, alkaline phosphatase, and trypsin were obtained from Sigma.
[
-32P]ATP and [
-32P]ATP were
purchased from NEN Life Science Products. Mammalian cGMP-dependent protein kinase was purchased from
Calbiochem. P-81 filters were from Whatman. Centricon filter units were
from Amicon. Protein content was measured with a Bio-Rad protein assay
reagent, and bovine serum albumin was used as standard.
 |
RESULTS |
Metabolism of cADPR in Egg Extracts
Assays for cADPR--
The existence of an enzyme that can cyclize
NAD was first identified in sea urchin egg extracts, which led to the
discovery of cADPR (1, 2). The ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity of the egg
extracts is, however, among the lowest in tissue extracts (20). The
Ca2+ release assay has been the only one with sufficient
sensitivity and specificity for measuring the cyclase activity in eggs
(37). Recently, a radioimmunoassay for cADPR with 100-fold better
sensitivity has been developed (34, 38). In this study, a new
radioactive TLC assay with improved sensitivity and resolving power was
developed. The cyclase reaction was quenched with a mixture of
hydrolytic enzymes, which degrade the substrate,
[32P]NAD, and other nucleotides present in the crude
extracts to phosphate (RF = 0.06). The latter was
well separated from cADPR (RF = 0.44). The product
of the cyclase reaction, [32P]cADPR, is totally resistant
to the hydrolytic enzymes (34, 38). The lower panel of Fig.
1 shows a phosphorimager record of the
TLC. The time-dependent increases in the production of cADPR and the stimulation of the cyclase activity by cGMP can be seen
readily. Also shown in the panel are the results of treating duplicate
samples of the 90-min time point (90
) with CD38 to specifically hydrolyze cADPR to ADP-ribose (26, 34). The disappearance of the [32P]cADPR spots confirmed its identity.

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Fig. 1.
Assays for ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity.
Three independent assays, an RIA, a Ca2+ release assay, and
a radioactive thin layer chromatography (TLC) assay, were used to
measured the production of cADPR in egg supernatants. Details of the
assays are described under "Materials and Methods." In all cases,
the reactions were started by the addition of 1 mM NAD.
cGMP (100 µM) was added 10 min prior to NAD. Top
panel, three assays show similar stimulation of the soluble
cyclase by cGMP (100 µM). Lower panel, a
phosphorimager record of the TLC assay. Each lane represents one time
point of the reaction, which was initiated by the addition of
[32P]NAD (0 ) with (+cGMP) or
without (control) 100 µM cGMP. The cyclase
reaction was done at 17 °C. Duplicates of the 90-min time point
(90 ) were treated with CD38 (300 µg/ml, 60 min at
37 °C) to specifically hydrolyze cADPR. The amounts of
[32P]cADPR produced were quantified by scintillation
counting of each spot. Error bars represent S.D. of four to
six determinations.
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The top panel of Fig. 1 shows that the cyclase activity was
stimulated by cGMP by about 2-fold and that the measurements using the
three independent assays were similar. The extent of the cGMP stimulation was about 2-8-fold (cf. Fig. 5) depending on
the substrate (NAD) concentration (cf. Fig. 4) and on the
egg extracts. The stimulation was highly specific for cGMP since
equimolar cAMP produced no observable stimulation (data not shown).
Also, a peptide inhibitor of protein kinase A, which was effective in
inhibiting the kinase activity in the egg supernatants (see below), did
not inhibit the cGMP stimulation at a concentration as high as 4 µM.
Two Forms of ADP-ribosyl Cyclase--
The egg homogenates were
separated by centrifugation into soluble and particulate fractions. The
top panel of Fig. 2 shows that the basal cyclase activity (5.6 ± 1.1 pmol/mg/min) in the homogenate was only marginally stimulated by cGMP. In contrast, the
cyclase activity in the soluble fraction was stimulated 4.1-fold from
0.9 ± 0.1 to 3.7 ± 0.3 pmol/mg/min by cGMP. The soluble
cyclase activity accounted for about 5.2% of the total activity in the homogenates. The distribution of protein was generally 70% in the
pellet and 30% in the supernatant. The cyclase activity in the
supernatants varied from 0.9 to about 10 pmol/mg/min, probably reflecting the variation of the endogenous cGMP concentration present
in various extracts. The basal cyclase activity in the pellet was
8.6 ± 0.9 pmol/mg/min and was not stimulated by cGMP.

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Fig. 2.
Distribution of activities of ADP-ribosyl
cyclase in egg extracts. The total homogenates were fractionated
by centrifugation (30 min at 430,000 × g) into
supernatant and membrane pellet fractions. Upper panel, the
Ca2+ release assay was used to measure the cyclase activity
in the fractions. Lower panel, the hydrolase activity was
measured by incubating the fractions with 5 µM cADPR. The
amounts of cADPR remaining after various times of incubation were
determined using the Ca2+ release assay. The cyclase and
hydrolase activities were determined at 17 °C in the absence or
presence of cGMP (100 µM). Error bars represent S.D. of triplicate determinations.
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The fractions were also assayed for cADPR hydrolyzing activity. The
lower panel of Fig. 2 shows that, in contrast to the cyclase activity, cADPR hydrolase was present essentially only in the membrane
fraction and it also did not show any sensitivity to cGMP. The specific
activity in the pellets was 65.1 ± 19 pmol/mg/min, which is about
7-8-fold higher than the cyclase activity. The egg homogenates thus
possess a highly efficient pathway for removal of cADPR, consistent
with it being a Ca2+ messenger.
The homogenates were also fractionated by Percoll gradient
centrifugation. The main band of microsomes was in fraction 6 (Fig. 3) (29). Because the centrifugation force
was relatively low (27,000 × g for 30 min), the
supernatant fraction (fraction 10) contained soluble proteins as well
as light membranes. The most remarkable feature is that the cyclase
activity was found only in the light microsome and supernatant
fractions, fraction 7 or higher (Fig. 3, top panel). The
bottom of the gradient that contained mitochondria and yolk granules
(29) had no detectable cyclase activity even though a high
concentration of proteins was present (Fig. 3, bottom
panel). When the cyclase activities were normalized with respect
to protein concentration in each fraction, the specific cyclase
activity was found to peak at fraction 7, a fraction just above the
main microsomal band. In contrast, the distribution of the cADPR
hydrolase was much more spread out (Fig. 3, middle panel),
with the total hydrolase activity following mainly the protein
distribution. After normalization, the specific hydrolase activity was
centered around the middle of the gradient where the main band of
microsomes was localized.

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Fig. 3.
Fractionation of egg homogenates.
Fractions were collected from a Percoll density gradient and assayed
for the cyclase (top panel) and the hydrolase (middle
panel) activities using the Ca2+ release assay.
Fractions were incubated, respectively, with 1 mM NAD or 5 µM cADPR for 20 min at 23 °C. The total activity
represents enzyme activity in a 40-µl aliquot of each fraction. The
specific activity was obtained by dividing the total activity by
protein present in the aliquots. The protein distribution is shown in the bottom panel.
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In addition to their difference in sensitivity to cGMP, the soluble and
membrane forms of the cyclase also exhibit a dramatic difference in pH
dependence of utilizing NGD, a guanine analog of NAD, as substrate.
Fig. 4 shows that, at neutral pH, only
the soluble cyclase can cyclize NGD to produce cGDPR with a specific activity of 110 ± 21 pmol/mg/min. A completely opposite result was found at acidic pH. Therefore, results on fractionation, cGMP sensitivity, and NGD utilization all suggest that there are two totally
different forms of ADP-ribosyl cyclase in the eggs. The egg cyclases
are very unusual in that their GDP-ribosyl cyclase activities are
10-15-fold higher than their ADP-ribosyl cyclase activities. In
contrast, the Aplysia cyclase has much higher preference for
using NAD than NGD as substrate (32, 39).

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Fig. 4.
pH dependence of the GDP-ribosyl cyclase
activity. Supernatant and membrane pellet fractions were prepared
from egg homogenates and incubated with 1 mM NGD at
23 °C for up to 6 h. The reaction was done at pH 7 and pH 5 (adjusted by addition of acetic acid). The production of cGDPR was
analyzed by HPLC. Error bars represent S.D. of triplicate
determinations.
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Kinetic Parameters of the cGMP-dependent
Cyclase--
The dependence of the soluble cyclase activity on cGMP
concentration is shown in Fig. 5. The
half-maximal effective concentration of 5.3 µM cGMP was
calculated from a double-reciprocal plot of the data
(inset). In a separate experiment, the dependence on NAD
concentration was measured in the presence and absence of cGMP (Fig.
6). Activation by cGMP increased the
Vmax value 3.8-fold from 9.3 to 38.8 pmol/mg/min. The Km value changed from 0.66 mM to 0.50 mM, only a 25% decrease. These
results indicate that the stimulation by cGMP is primarily due to an
increase in Vmax of the enzyme.

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Fig. 5.
Dependence of the soluble cyclase activity on
cGMP concentration. The cyclase activity was assayed by RIA at
17 °C as described under "Materials and Methods." Error
bars represent S.D. of triplicate determinations. The
inset shows a double-reciprocal plot of the activity. The
units of the x and y axes are, respectively, µM 1 and (mg × min)/pmol.
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Fig. 6.
Dependence of the soluble cyclase activity on
NAD concentration. The cyclase activity was assayed by RIA at
17 °C as described under "Materials and Methods." The reaction
was done in the presence (+cGMP) or absence
( cGMP) of 100 µM cGMP. The inset
shows a double-reciprocal plot of the activity. The units of the
x and y axes are, respectively,
mM 1 and (mg × min)/pmol.
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The Stimulatory Effect of cGMP Requires ATP--
The egg
homogenates were normally prepared in a medium containing 0.5 mM ATP. To determine if the cGMP-dependent
stimulation of the egg cyclase requires ATP, apyrase was added to
hydrolyze the ATP present. HPLC analyses confirmed complete removal of
ATP in the samples (data not shown). The treated supernatants showed very low cyclase activity even in the presence of cGMP (Fig.
7). The sensitivity to cGMP can be
restored with ATP, resulting in about 4-fold higher activity. ATP
S
was even more effective, supporting about 10-fold higher cyclase
activity. In contrast, the particulate cyclase activity showed no such
dependence on ATP and was not affected by the apyrase treatment (data
not shown).

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Fig. 7.
Requirement for ATP of the cGMP stimulation
of the soluble cyclase. A supernatant fraction was pretreated with
apyrase (4 units/ml, 1 h at 23 °C) to hydrolyze ATP present in
the fraction. Aliquots of the treated fraction were supplemented either
with 100 µM cGMP, 100 µM cGMP and 10 mM ATP or with 100 µM cGMP and 10 mM ATP S. After a 10-min incubation at 17 °C, the
cyclase reaction was initiated with the addition of 1 mM
NAD and the production of cADPR was assayed by the Ca2+
release assay at various time points.
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The ATP requirement is consistent with the cGMP stimulation being
mediated by protein phosphorylation, perhaps by a
cGMP-dependent protein kinase. In general, proteins
thiophosphorylated by ATP
S are more resistant to deactivation by
protein phosphatases. This is the case for the soluble cyclase
activated by cGMP in the presence of ATP
S. Egg supernatants assayed
immediately after activation showed cyclase activity similar to that
assayed 60 min later (Fig. 8). The rate
of production of cADPR in either case was about 5-fold higher (13 pmol/mg/min) than control supernatants (2.5 pmol/mg/min) that had not
been activated. These results show that, once the cyclase is activated
by cGMP in the presence of ATP
S, it is stable for at least 60 min.
In contrast, without the stablization by ATP
S, the soluble cyclase
can be inactivated by complete removal of ATP from the supernatants
using a desalting column and the activity cannot be restored by
subsequent addition of ATP and cGMP (data not shown).

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Fig. 8.
Stability of the active state of the soluble
cyclase. A supernatant fraction was pretreated with apyrase (4 units/ml, 1 h at 23 °C) to hydrolyze ATP present in the
fraction. Aliquots of the treated fraction were supplemented either
with 100 µM cGMP and 10 mM ATP S or without
ATP S or cGMP. After a 10-min incubation at 17 °C, the cyclase
reaction was initiated with the addition of 1 mM NAD
immediately or 60 min later. The production of cADPR was assayed by the
Ca2+ release assay at various time points.
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Protein kinase G activity was indeed present in the eggs. As shown in
Fig. 9, in the presence of cGMP,
phosphorylation of Kemptide by the egg supernatant was 78% higher than
control, whereas equimolar cAMP produced only about 30% stimulation.
The protein kinase G activity was only a minor component since its
detection required the presence of inhibitors for both protein kinase A (a peptide fragment of protein kinase A inhibitor) and the
Ca2+-dependent protein kinase (EGTA), which
together blocked 98% of the kinase activity in the supernatants. The
egg protein kinase G, however, appeared to be quite unique since
mammalian protein kinase G (Calbiochem) could not substitute for the
egg enzyme for stimulation of soluble cyclase (data not shown).

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Fig. 9.
Presence of cGMP-dependent
protein kinase activity in egg supernatants. Concentrated
supernatants were fractionated, and the kinase activity was measured in
the presence of a peptide inhibitor of protein kinase A as described
under "Materials and Methods." Kemptide was used as a substrate and
its phosphorylation was determined in the absence (control)
or presence of either 100 µM cGMP or 100 µM
cAMP at 17 °C. The inset plots the specific protein
kinase activities under the three conditions indicated. Error
bars represent S.D. of triplicate determinations.
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Metabolism of NAADP in Egg Extracts
Assays for NAADP--
The Aplysia ADP-ribosyl cyclase
has been shown to be a multifunctional enzyme catalyzing not only the
cyclization of NAD but also the exchange of the nicotinamide group of
NADP with nicotinic acid (NA) to produce NAADP (23). Fig.
10 shows a time course of production of
NAADP, which was measured by the Ca2+ release assay. That
the Ca2+ release was due to NAADP and not cADPR was
verified by using 8-amino-cADPR as a specific antagonist of cADPR (33,
40) and by homologous desensitization, whereby prior treatment of egg homogenates with NAADP rendered them insensitive to subsequent challenge with NAADP but not with cADPR (4, 41). In addition to the
Ca2+ release assay, NAADP production could also be directly
measured by HPLC. The inset of Fig. 10 shows a series of
HPLC chromatographs focusing on the elution region of authentic NAADP.
That the chromatographic peaks were due to NAADP was verified by
collecting the corresponding fractions and assaying for
Ca2+ release activity.

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Fig. 10.
Synthesis of NAADP via a base-exchange
reaction. Egg supernatants were incubated with 1 mM
NADP and 50 mM nicotinic acid at 23 °C. The production
of NAADP was determined by the Ca2+ release assay as
described under "Materials and Methods." In a separate experiment,
samples incubated under similar conditions were analyzed by HPLC as
described under "Materials and Methods." The inset shows
the region of the chromatographs where authentic NAADP elutes. The area
under the 120-min sample corresponds to 288 pmol of NAADP.
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Characteristics of the Synthesis of NAADP by the Base-exchange
Reaction--
Egg homogenates were fractionated and Fig.
11 shows that both the soluble and the
particulate fractions could catalyze the synthesis of NAADP. The
reaction catalyzed by the soluble fraction was not stimulated by cGMP,
in contrast to the synthesis of cADPR. Additionally, the specific
rates of synthesis of NAADP by the fractions were between 60 and 380 pmol/mg/min, much higher than the rate of synthesis of cADPR.

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Fig. 11.
Distribution of the base-exchange activities
in egg extracts. Fractions were pretreated with or without 100 µM cGMP for 10 min and incubated with 1 mM
NADP and 50 mM nicotinic acid for 90 min at 23 °C. NAADP
produced was measured by the Ca2+ release assay.
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The dependence of the base-exchange reaction on the substrate
concentration is shown in Fig. 12. The
half-maximal value for NADP was about 0.2 mM and for NA was
about 10 mM. The reaction shows a dramatic preference for
acidic pH as shown in Fig. 13. The
specific exchange rate at pH 5 was more than 9-fold higher than at
neutral pH. Both the particulate (Fig. 13) and the soluble (data not
shown) fractions show this unusual pH dependence, which is similar to
that reported for the Aplysia cyclase (23). In contrast, the
synthesis of cADPR by the particulate (Fig. 13) fraction shows no such
preference for acidic pH; the optimum pH was at neutrality.

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Fig. 12.
Dependence of NAADP synthesis on NADP and
nicotinic acid concentrations. Egg supernatants were incubated
with (A) 50 mM NA and various concentrations of
NADP or (B) 1 mM NADP and various concentrations
of NA, for 30 min at 23 °C. The amount of NAADP produced was
measured by the Ca2+ release assay. Values are
averages ± S.D. of four to six determinations.
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Fig. 13.
Dependence of the base-exchange and the
cyclase reactions on pH. Membrane fractions were incubated with 1 mM NAD (cyclase reaction, open squares) for 20 min at 23 °C or 1 mM NADP and 50 mM
nicotinic acid (base-exchange reaction, filled squares) for 2 h at 23 °C. The pH of the reaction was adjusted with acetic acid. The production of cADPR was measured by the Ca2+
release assay and NAADP by HPLC. Values are averages ± S.D. of four determinations.
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DISCUSSION |
The sea urchin egg has been an ideal cellular model for
investigating the mechanisms of Ca2+ mobilization both at
the single-cell and biochemical levels. It was by using this model that
the existence of Ca2+ release mechanisms other than that
mediated by IP3 was first demonstrated (1, 2, 4, 5). Using
caged analogs and microinjection, it was shown conclusively that both
cADPR and NAADP can mobilize Ca2+ in live eggs (Refs. 42
and 43; reviewed in Ref. 44). That nitric oxide can activate the
cADPR-mediated signaling pathway indicated that the synthesis of cADPR
is regulated and that it can be activated by physiological stimuli
(17). Because of the special role of sea urchin eggs in establishing
cADPR as a Ca2+ messenger, it was of importance and
interest to characterize the metabolism of cADPR and NAADP in this cell
model.
Results in this study show that there are two forms of ADP-ribosyl
cyclase in sea urchin egg, soluble and membrane-bound. This is
established based on several criteria. First, the soluble cyclase
cannot be sedimented by centrifugation by as high a force as
430,000 × g for 30 min. Second, only the soluble
cyclase shows stimulation by cGMP. Third, the
cGMP-dependent stimulation of the soluble cyclase is
critically dependent on ATP but the membrane cyclase is neither
stimulated by cGMP nor dependent on ATP. Finally, the soluble and
membrane-bound cyclases show completely opposite pH dependence when
using NGD as substrate.
The insensitivity of the membrane-bound cyclase to cGMP is not due to
the lack of a suitable G-kinase in the membrane fraction since only
marginal stimulation by cGMP is seen in the total homogenate, which can
be accounted for by the stimulation of the soluble cyclase (cf. Fig. 2). Also, supplementing the membrane fraction with
a supernatant fraction could not restore the cGMP stimulation (data not
shown). The supernatant fraction contained G-kinase activity as
determined by the kinase assay shown in Fig. 9, but its cyclase activity was inactivated by ATP removal using a desalting column as
described under "Results." Supplementing the membrane fraction with
a recombinant form of the mammalian 1
isoform of
cGMP-dependent protein kinase also failed to restore the
cGMP sensitivity of the membrane cyclase (data not shown).
It is not unusual that there are two forms of ADP-ribosyl cyclase. The
Aplysia cyclase is a soluble protein of about 30 kDa, whereas CD38 is a membrane-bound glycoprotein (reviewed in Refs. 21 and
22). Similarly, guanylyl cyclase is found as both soluble and
particulate forms (45). What is unusual in the sea urchin egg is that
the two forms of ADP-ribosyl cyclase are present in the same cell. The
fact that the soluble cyclase is sensitive to cGMP makes it reasonable
to assume that it is the signaling enzyme responsible for mediating the
Ca2+ mobilizing effect of nitric oxide observed in sea
urchin eggs (17). Thus the elevation of cGMP levels in eggs by nitric
oxide (17) stimulates the soluble cyclase, resulting in increased production of cADPR and mobilization of the Ca2+ stores. In
this scenario, cADPR is functioning as a Ca2+ messenger.
Accumulating evidence suggests that cADPR can also function as a
modulator, sensitizing the Ca2+-induced Ca2+
mechanism to Ca2+ (reviewed in Ref. 10). The membrane-bound
cyclase could be responsible for regulating the local concentration of
cADPR around the Ca2+ release channel and, by doing so, set
the Ca2+ sensitivity of the Ca2+-induced
Ca2+ release mechanism. Another finding reported in this
study that is consistent with this proposal is the predominant
association of the of cADPR hydrolase with membranes. The presence of
both synthesis and degradation activities would allow for fine
adjustment of the local concentration of cADPR and thus the sensitivity
of the Ca2+ release mechanism to Ca2+.
It is likely that the cGMP stimulation of the soluble cyclase is
mediated by protein kinase G, which is consistent with previous results
in intact egg and homogenates showing that the cGMP-activation of the
cADPR-dependent pathway can be blocked by protein kinase inhibitors (16, 17). In this study, the cGMP stimulation of the soluble
cyclase is found to require ATP and the presence of protein kinase G
activity in the egg supernatant is demonstrated. The egg protein kinase
G appears to be a minor component since its detection requires that
most (98%) of the protein kinase A and the
Ca2+-dependent protein kinase activities be
blocked. The egg G kinase is nevertheless very unique. Unlike other
forms of G-kinase, the G-kinase in the egg has a specific substrate,
i.e. the soluble cyclase, and is not stimulated by equimolar
cAMP. A recombinant form of the mammalian 1
isoform of
cGMP-dependent protein kinase was also found to be unable
to stimulate the soluble cyclase from eggs (data not shown), further
demonstrating the specificity of the egg G kinase.
The egg extracts can also catalyze the synthesis of NAADP via a
base-exchange reaction. The activity is present in both the soluble and
membrane fractions, but no cGMP stimulation is observed in either
fraction. It is known that the Aplysia cyclase can catalyze both the cyclization and base-exchange reactions (23). Whether the egg
cyclase is also responsible for synthesizing NAADP remains to be shown.
The specific exchange activity in the egg extracts, however, appears to
be much higher than the cyclase activity. Similar to the
Aplysia cyclase, the exchange activity catalyzed by the egg
extracts also shows a remarkable preference for acidic pH as low as pH
5 (23). It is unlikely that, under physiological conditions, the
cytoplasmic pH can be as acidic as pH 5. However, it should be noted
that NAADP is a highly effective Ca2+ release activator and
only nanomolar concentrations are needed to mobilize the
Ca2+ stores (4, 41). The exchange activity does not have to
be at its optimum to produce sufficient amounts of NAADP for
Ca2+ signaling. In any case, it is clear that a synthetic
pathway for NAADP is present in the egg extracts, which should continue to be a rich source for elucidating the complex metabolism of not only
NAADP but also cADPR. In that regard, work is in progress to purify and
characterize the soluble egg cyclase.