The A-kinase anchoring domain of type IIalpha cAMP-dependent protein kinase is highly helical.

Subcellular localization of the type II cAMP-dependent protein kinase is controlled by interaction of the regulatory subunit with A-Kinase Anchoring Proteins (AKAPs). This contribution examines the solution structure of a 44-residue region that is sufficient for high affinity binding to AKAPs. The N-terminal dimerization domain of the type IIalpha regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase was expressed to high levels on minimal media and uniformly isotopically enriched with 15N and 13C nuclei. Sequence-specific backbone and side chain resonance assignments have been made for greater than 95% of the amino acids in the free dimerization domain using high resolution multidimensional heteronuclear NMR techniques. Contrary to the results from secondary structure prediction algorithms, our analysis indicates that the domain is highly helical with a single 3-5-residue sequence involved in a beta-strand. The assignments and secondary structure analysis provide the basis for analyzing the structure and dynamics of the dimerization domain both free and complexed with specific anchoring proteins.