Abstract

The serine/threonine phosphatase calcineurin acts as a crucial connection between calcium signaling the phosphorylation states of numerous important substrates. These substrates include, but are not limited to, transcription factors, receptors and channels, proteins associated with mitochondria, and proteins associated with microtubules. Calcineurin is activated by increases in intracellular calcium concentrations, a process that requires the calcium sensing protein calmodulin binding to an intrinsically disordered regulatory domain in the phosphatase. Despite having been studied for around four decades, the activation of calcineurin is not fully understood. This review largely focuses on what is known about the activation process and highlights aspects that are currently not understood.

Document Type

Review

Publication Date

8-28-2020

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Cell Communication and Signaling, v. 18, article no: 137.

© The Author(s). 2020

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12964-020-00636-4

Funding Information

TPC is supported by the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky.

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