Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase CPK1 Controls Cell Death by In Vivo Phosphorylation of Senescence Master Regulator ORE1

Calcium-regulated protein kinases are key components of intracellular signaling in plants that mediate rapid stress-induced responses to changes in the environment. To identify in vivo phosphorylation substrates of CALCIUM-DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE1 (CPK1), we analyzed the conditional expression of constitutively active CPK1 in conjunction with in vivo phosphoproteomics. We identified Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) ORESARA1 (ORE1), the developmental master regulator of senescence, as a direct CPK1 phosphorylation substrate. CPK1 phosphorylates ORE1 at a hotspot within an intrinsically disordered region. This augments transcriptional activation by ORE1 of its downstream target gene BIFUNCTIONAL NUCLEASE1 (BFN1). Plants that overexpress ORE1, but not an ORE1 variant lacking the CPK1 phosphorylation hotspot, promote early senescence. Furthermore, ORE1 is required for enhanced cell death induced by CPK1 signaling. Our data validate the use of conditional expression of an active enzyme combined with phosphoproteomics to decipher specific kinase target proteins of low abundance, of transient phosphorylation, or in yet-undescribed biological contexts. Here, we have identified that senescence is not just under molecular surveillance manifested by stringent gene regulatory control over ORE1. In addition, the decision to die is superimposed by an additional layer of control toward ORE1 via its posttranslational modification linked to the calcium-regulatory network through CPK1

Getting TRAIL back on track for cancer therapy

Unlike other members of the TNF superfamily, the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL, also known as Apo2L) possesses the unique capacity to induce apoptosis selectively in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. This exciting discovery provided the basis for the development of TRAIL-receptor agonists (TRAs), which have demonstrated robust anticancer activity in a number of preclinical studies. Subsequently initiated clinical trials testing TRAs demonstrated, on the one hand, broad tolerability but revealed, on the other, that therapeutic benefit was rather limited. Several factors that are likely to account for TRAs' sobering clinical performance have since been identified. First, because of initial concerns over potential hepatotoxicity, TRAs with relatively weak agonistic activity were selected to enter clinical trials. Second, although TRAIL can induce apoptosis in several cancer cell lines, it has now emerged that many others, and importantly, most primary cancer cells are resistant to TRAIL monotherapy. Third, so far patients enrolled in TRA-employing clinical trials were not selected for likelihood of benefitting from a TRA-comprising therapy on the basis of a valid(ated) biomarker. This review summarizes and discusses the results achieved so far in TRA-employing clinical trials in the light of these three shortcomings. By integrating recent insight on apoptotic and non-apoptotic TRAIL signaling in cancer cells, we propose approaches to introduce novel, revised TRAIL-based therapeutic concepts into the cancer clinic. These include (i) the use of recently developed highly active TRAs, (ii) the addition of efficient, but cancer-cell-selective TRAIL-sensitizing agents to overcome TRAIL resistance and (iii) employing proteomic profiling to uncover resistance mechanisms. We envisage that this shall enable the design of effective TRA-comprising therapeutic concepts for individual cancer patients in the future.Cell Death and Differentiation advance online publication, 20 June 2014; doi:10.1038/cdd.2014.81