Abstact

The multi-subunit Ca2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) holoenzyme plays a critical role in animal learning and memory. The kinase domain of CaMKII is connected by a flexible linker to a C-terminal hub domain that assembles into a 12- or 14-subunit scaffold that displays the kinase domains around it. Studies on CaMKII suggest that the stoichiometry and dynamic assembly/disassembly of hub oligomers may be important for CaMKII regulation. Although CaMKII is a metazoan protein, genes encoding predicted CaMKII-like hub domains, without associated kinase domains, are found in the genomes of some green plants and bacteria. We show that the hub domains encoded by three related green algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Volvox carteri f. nagarensis, and Gonium pectoral, assemble into 16-, 18-, and 20-subunit oligomers, as assayed by native protein mass spectrometry. These are the largest known CaMKII hub domain assemblies. A crystal structure of the hub domain from C. reinhardtii reveals an 18-subunit organization. We identified four intra-subunit hydrogen bonds in the core of the fold that are present in the Chlamydomonas hub domain, but not in metazoan hubs. When six point mutations designed to recapitulate these hydrogen bonds were introduced into the human CaMKII-α hub domain, the mutant protein formed assemblies with 14 and 16 subunits, instead of the normal 12- and 14-subunit assemblies. Our results show that the stoichiometric balance of CaMKII hub assemblies can be shifted readily by small changes in sequence.