Commentary Cellscience Reviews Vol 4 No 2 ISSN 1742-8130

Multivalent Integration of Local and Global Signaling through PKA,
Calcineurin, AKAP79/150, and L-Type Calcium Channels

Most cellular events, such as the opening of a channel or gene transcription, are controlled by sophisticated regulatory modules that serve as molecular switches to fine tune these processes. Typically protein kinases and phosphatases are key components of the regulatory machinery and can serve to control not only the local environment where the initial signal is received, but also to mediate more global downstream events. Key to the assembly of such regulatory modules are scaffold proteins that recruit the essential players. While it has been known for some time that L-type calcium channels are regulated by protein kinase A (PKA) and that A Kinase Anchoring Proteins (AKAPs) are important for recruiting PKA to the L-type channels, a recent report from the Dell‘Acqua and Sather laboratories has shed new light on how calcineurin (CaN) is anchored to AKAP 79/150 and how the AKAP is anchored to the channel. While many details remain to be elucidated, their model provides important new insights into our understanding of the spatial and temporal integration of calcium signaling.

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