Cooperative Phosphorylation of the Tumor Suppressor Phosphatase and Tensin Homologue (PTEN) by Casein Kinases and Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β

Abstract The phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) tumor suppressor is a phosphatidylinositol D3-phosphatase that counteracts the effects of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and negatively regulates cell growth and survival. PTEN is itself regulated by phosphorylation on multiple serine and threonine residues in its C terminus. Previous work has implicated casein kinase 2 (CK2) as the kinase responsible for this phosphorylation. Here we showed that CK2 does not phosphorylate all sites in PTEN and that glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) also participates in PTEN phosphorylation. Although CK2 mainly phosphorylated PTEN at Ser-370 and Ser-385, GSK3β phosphorylated Ser-362 and Thr-366. More importantly, prior phosphorylation of PTEN at Ser-370 by CK2 strongly increased its phosphorylation at Thr-366 by GSK3β, suggesting that the two may synergize. Using RNA interference, we showed that GSK3 phosphorylates PTEN in intact cells. Finally, PTEN phosphorylation was affected by insulin-like growth factor in intact cells. We concluded that multiple kinases, including CK2 and GSK3β, participate in PTEN phosphorylation and that GSK3β may provide feedback regulation of PTEN.