Protein phosphatase 4 (PP4) is an important member in the PPP family of protein Ser/Thr phosphatases. It has been proven to regulate a variety of cellular processes such as centrosome maturation, micro- tubule nucleation, splicesome assembly, and JNK pathway activation. Compared to the crystallized and structurally well defined phosphatase PP1 and PP2B, little is known about the structure of PP4. Besides the conserved motifs characteristic of the PPP family, no information is available on the other domains of PP4. PP4 is reported to localize to the centrosome in many species such as Drosophila, Caenor- habditis elegans and mammalian cells, which suggests a conserved role of PP4 in the regulation of centrosome function. Unlike several other centrosomal proteins, no sequence has been identified for PP4 that can target it to specific centrosomal localization. In this study, we used a combination of PCR mutagenesis and transient expression of GFP-tagged proteins in mammalian cells, and identified two PP4 centrosome-targeting domains of 68―136 and 134―220 aa. These two domains may be associated for appropriate localization to the centrosome. The findings are useful for further elucidating the func- tion of the domains and other structural characteristics of PP4.
HUANG XiuQing NING LiFeng LONG ZhiTao SUN LingLing ZHANG Hui LIAN MuLan SANG JianLi
