The AP-3 Complex Required for Endosomal Synaptic Vesicle Biogenesis is Associated with a Casein Kinase Ια-Like Isoform

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Abstract
The formation of small vesicles is mediated by cytoplasmic coats the assembly of which is regulated by the activity of GTPases, kinases, and phosphatases. A heterotetrameric AP-3 adaptor complex has been implicated in the formation of synaptic vesicles from PC12 endosomes (Faundez et al., 1998). When the small GTPase ARF1 is prevented from hydrolyzing GTP, we can reconstitute AP-3 recruitment to synaptic vesicle membranes in an assembly reaction that requires temperatures above 15°C and the presence of ATP suggesting that an enzymatic step is involved in the coat assembly. We have now found an enzymatic reaction, the phosphorylation of the AP-3 adaptor complex, that is linked with synaptic vesicle coating. Phosphorylation occurs in the β3 subunit of the complex by a kinase similar to casein kinase 1α. The kinase copurifies with neuronal-specific AP-3. In vitro, purified casein kinase I selectively phosphorylates the β3A and β3B subunit at its hinge domain. Inhibiting the kinase hinders the recruitment of AP-3 to synaptic vesicles. The same inhibitors that prevent coat assembly in vitro also inhibit the formation of synaptic vesicles in PC12 cells. The data suggest, therefore, that the mechanism of AP-3-mediated vesiculation from neuroendocrine endosomes requires the phosphorylation of the adaptor complex at a step during or after AP-3 recruitment to membranes.