In vivo regulation of fluorescent fusion proteins by engineered kinases

Abstract

Reversible protein phosphorylation by kinases in extensively used to control a plethora of processes essential for proper development and homeostasis of multicellular organisms. One main obstacle in studying the role of a defined kinase-substrate interaction is that kinases form complex signaling networks and most often phosphorylate multiple substrates involved in various cellular processes. In recent years, several new approaches have been developed to control the activity of a given kinase. However, most of them fail to regulate a single protein target, likely hiding the effect of a unique kinase-substrate by pleiotropic effects. To overcome this limitation, we have created protein binder-based engineered kinases for direct, robust and tissue-specific phosphorylation of target fluorescent protein fusions in vivo. We show that synthetic Rok kinases, based on the Drosophila ortholog of Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK), are functional enzymes and can activate myosin II through phosphorylation of Sqh::GFP or Sqh::mCherry in different morphogenetic processes in a developing fly embryo. We next use the system to study the impact of actomyosin activation specifically in the developing tracheal branches and showed that ectopic activation of actomyosin with engineered Rok kinase did not prevent cell intercalation nor the formation of autocellular junctions. We assume that this approach can be adapted to other kinases and targets in various eukaryotic genetic systems.