Regulation of trehalase activity by multi-site phosphorylation and 14-3-3 interaction

Protein phosphorylation enables a rapid adjustment of cellular activities to diverse intracellular and environmental stimuli. Many phosphoproteins are targeted on more than one site, which allows the integration of multiple signals and the implementation of complex responses. However, the hierarchy and interplay between multiple phospho-sites are often unknown. Here, we study multi-site phosphorylation using the yeast trehalase Nth1 and its activator, the 14-3-3 protein Bmh1, as a model. Nth1 is known to be phosphorylated by the metabolic kinase PKA on four serine residues and by the cell cycle kinase CDK on one residue. However, how these five phospho-sites adjust Nth1 activity remains unclear. Using a novel reporter construct, we investigated the contribution of the individual sites for the regulation of the trehalase and its 14-3-3 interactor. In contrast to the constitutively phosphorylated S20 and S83, the weaker sites S21 and S60 are only phosphorylated by increased PKA activity. For binding Bmh1, S83 functions as the high-affinity "gatekeeper" site, but successful binding of the Bmh1 dimer and thus Nth1 activation requires S60 as a secondary site. Under nutrient-poor conditions with low PKA activity, S60 is not efficiently phosphorylated and the cell cycle dependent phosphorylation of S66 by Cdk1 contributes to Nth1 activity, likely by providing an alternative Bmh1 binding site. Additionally, the PKA sites S20 and S21 modulate the dephosphorylation of Nth1 on downstream Bmh1 sites. In summary, our results expand our molecular understanding of Nth1 regulation and provide a new aspect of the interaction of 14-3-3 proteins with their targets.