The mechanism of protein kinase regulation by protein phosphatases.

Protein kinases are an important class of substrate of the protein phosphatases. We have examined the mechanism of dephosphorylation of the activation segments of the insulin receptor kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 by their respective phosphatases, namely the tyrosine specific phosphatase PTP1B and the dual specificity phosphatase KAP. These studies reveal that PTP1B and KAP utilize contrasting mechanisms in order to dephosphorylate their substrates specifically.