The elongation step of
protein synthesis involves binding of aminoacyl-
tRNA to the ribosomal A site, formation of a
peptide bond and translocation of the newly formed
peptidyl-tRNA to the P site. The
nucleotide exchange factor
EF-1beta plays a major role in the regulation of this process by regenerating a
GTP-bound
EF-1alpha necessary for each elongation cycle.
EF-1beta has been shown to be phosphorylated and its phosphorylation is critical for optimal activity. We have previously identified a
serine/
threonine protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) from the human
malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In the current work, we performed Far-Western analysis to identify PfPP2C substrates. Several components of the translation and transcription machinery were identified, including translation
elongation factor 1-beta (PfEF-1beta). PfEF-1beta is efficiently phosphorylated by
protein kinase C and this phosphorylation results in a 400% increase in its
nucleotide exchange activity. PKC-phosphorylated PfEF-1beta is readily and selectively dephosphorylated by recombinant and native PfPP2C, which downregulates the
nucleotide exchange activity to its basal level. The identification of a translation elongation component as substrate for PP2C suggests an important regulatory function for this
enzyme and suggests that it may be a good target for
drug design in the fight against
malaria.