Activation and nuclear translocation of protein kinase during transsynaptic induction of tyrosine 3-monooxygenase.

The tyrosine-3-monooxygenase activity [L-tyrosine, tetrahydropteridine: oxygen oxidoreductase (3-hydroxylating); EC 1.14.16.2] of rat adrenal medulla is induced 20-24 hr after the injection of reserpine (16 mumol/kg intraperitoneally). This and other inducing stimuli increase the 3': 5'-cyclic AMP (cAMP) content in the medulla for longer than 60 min and activate the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (ATP: protein phosphotransferase; EC 2.7.1.37) for several hours. Corticotropin (ACTH), dopamine, and propranolol do not induce the monooxygenase, but elicit an increase in the cAMP content of the medulla which fails to activate protein kinase and lasts less than 1 hr. A high- and low-molecular-weight protein kinase are separated by gel filtration from the 20,000 X g pellet extract of adrenal medulla homogenate. The activity of the low-molecular-weight enzyme is expressed as its ability to phosphorylate histone. The protein kinase activity of the pellet is increased between 3 and 17 hr after reserpine injection. Our evidence indicates that this increase is due to a translocation from cytosol to subcellular structures of a kinase that utilizes lysine-rich histone as phosphate acceptor. The protein kinase activity that is extracted from a purified nuclear fraction prepared from the adrenal medulla of rats injected 7 hr previously with reserpine is greater than that extracted from medulla of saline-treated rats.