CSM News
Electronic Edition
Volume 3, number 18
December 3, 1994

Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been
accepted for publication by sending them to CSM-News@worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu.

Back issues of CSM-News, the CSM Reference database and other useful
information is available by anonymous ftp from worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu
[165.124.233.50], via Gopher at the same address, or by World Wide Web
through www.nwu.edu.


        ******************************************
        International Dictyostelium Meeting, 1995
        ******************************************


The next International Dictyostelium Meeting will take place in
Dourdan from June 25th to June 30th, 1995.

Dourdan is a small city located at 40 km from Paris. It can be reached
by public transportation within one hour from the center of Paris. The
meeting will be held in a resort designed for familly vacation, next
to one of the nicest forests around Paris.

The registration fee will be between 3, 000 FF and 4,000 FF depending
on the number of participants, the type of room and on the selected
options. This will include a get-together party on Sunday June 26th in
the evening, all meals from Monday to Friday noon, including wine and
coffee. It also includes coffee breaks and coupons for free beer. A
visit of the ancient city of Chartres on Wenesday afternoon and a
Conference banquet on Thursday night are planned.

A registration form will be mailed upon receit of the following
questionnaire.  Please circulate the questionnaire around in your lab.

Hope to see you next June

Michel Satre & Michel Veron


                 *********************************
 
                  PRE-REGISTRATION QUESTIONNAIRE

                 *********************************

First Name, Last Name
Full postal address
Phone 
Fax
e.mail 


Please  ANSWER BY E.MAIL ONLY  to :
        mveron@pasteur.fr


===========
 Abstracts
===========

Structural Analysis of Myosin Heavy Chain Kinase A from Dictyostelium:
Evidence for a highly divergent protein kinase domain, an
amino-terminal coiled-coil domain and a domain homologous to the
Beta-Subunit of heterotrimeric G proteins.

Lidia M. Futey*, Quintus G. Medley#, Graham P. C=F4t=E9#, and Thomas
T. Egelhoff*

*Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve School
of Medicine, Cleveland OH 44106 #Department of Biochemistry, Queen's
University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6 Canada

J. Biol. Chem., in press.

ABSTRACT

   We report here the cloning and characterization of the gene
encoding the 130 kDa myosin heavy chain kinase (MHCK A) from the
amoeba Dictyostelium.  Previous studies have shown that purified MHCK
A phosphorylates threonines in the carboxyl-terminal tail portion of
the Dictyostelium myosin II heavy chain and that phosphorylation of
these sites is critical in regulating the assembly and disassembly of
myosin II filaments in vitro and in vivo.  Biochemical analysis of
MHCK A, together with analysis of the primary sequence suggests that
the amino terminal approximately 500 amino acids form an *-helical
coiled-coil domain, and that residues from approximately 860 to the
carboxyl terminus (residue 1146) form a domain with significant
similarity to the *-subunit of heterotrimeric G proteins.  No part of
the MHCK A sequence displays significant similarity to the catalytic
domain of conventional eukaryotic protein kinases.  However, both
native and recombinant MHCK A displayed autophosphorylation activity
following renaturation from SDS gels and MHCK A expressed in E. coli
phosphorylated purified Dictyostelium myosin, confirming that MHCK A
is a bone fide protein kinase.  Cross-linking studies demonstrated
that native MHCK A is a multimer, consistent with the presence of an
amino-terminal coiled-coil domain.  Southern blot analysis indicates
that MHCK A is encoded by a single gene that has no detectable
introns.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[End CSN-News, vol. 3 number 18]