eLife (Nov 2020)

Spatially compartmentalized phase regulation of a Ca2+-cAMP-PKA oscillatory circuit

  • Brian Tenner,
  • Michael Getz,
  • Brian Ross,
  • Donya Ohadi,
  • Christopher H Bohrer,
  • Eric Greenwald,
  • Sohum Mehta,
  • Jie Xiao,
  • Padmini Rangamani,
  • Jin Zhang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55013
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Signaling networks are spatiotemporally organized to sense diverse inputs, process information, and carry out specific cellular tasks. In β cells, Ca2+, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), and Protein Kinase A (PKA) exist in an oscillatory circuit characterized by a high degree of feedback. Here, we describe a mode of regulation within this circuit involving a spatial dependence of the relative phase between cAMP, PKA, and Ca2+. We show that in mouse MIN6 β cells, nanodomain clustering of Ca2+-sensitive adenylyl cyclases (ACs) drives oscillations of local cAMP levels to be precisely in-phase with Ca2+ oscillations, whereas Ca2+-sensitive phosphodiesterases maintain out-of-phase oscillations outside of the nanodomain. Disruption of this precise phase relationship perturbs Ca2+ oscillations, suggesting the relative phase within an oscillatory circuit can encode specific functional information. This work unveils a novel mechanism of cAMP compartmentation utilized for localized tuning of an oscillatory circuit and has broad implications for the spatiotemporal regulation of signaling networks.

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