Facilitation of stress-induced phosphorylation of β-amyloid precursor protein family members by X11-like/Mint2 protein

Abstract

β-Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is the precursor of β-amyloid (Aβ), which is implicated in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. APP complements amyloid precursor-like protein 2 (APLP2), and together they play essential physiological roles. Phosphorylation at the Thr668 residue of APP (with respect to the numbering conversion for the APP 695 isoform) and the Thr736 residue of APLP2 (with respect to the numbering conversion for the APLP2 763 isoform) in their cytoplasmic domains acts as a molecular switch for their protein-protein interaction and is implicated in neural function(s) and/or Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. Here we demonstrate that both APP and APLP2 can be phosphorylated by JNK at the Thr668 and Thr736 residues, respectively, in response to cellular stress. X11-like (X11L, also referred to as X11β and Mint2), which is a member of the mammalian LIN-10 protein family and a possible regulator of Aβ production, elevated APP and APLP2 phosphorylation probably by facilitating JNK-mediated phosphorylation, whereas other members of the family, X11 and X11L2, did not. These observations revealed an involvement of X11L in the phosphorylation of APP family proteins in cellular stress and suggest that X11L protein may be important in the physiology of APP family proteins as well as in the regulation of Aβ production.