AKAP79/150 interacts with the neuronal calcium‐binding protein caldendrin

The A kinase-anchoring protein AKAP79/150 is a postsynaptic scaffold molecule and a key regulator of signaling events. At the postsynapse it coordinates phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of receptors via anchoring kinases and phosphatases near their substrates. Interactions between AKAP79 and two Ca(2+) -binding proteins caldendrin and calmodulin have been investigated here. Calmodulin is a known interaction partner of AKAP79/150 that has been shown to regulate activity of the kinase PKC in a Ca(2+) -dependent manner. Pull-down experiments and surface plasmon resonance biosensor analyses have been used here to demonstrate that AKAP79 can also interact with caldendrin, a neuronal calcium-binding protein implicated in regulation of Ca(2+) -influx and release. We demonstrate that calmodulin and caldendrin compete for a partially overlapping binding site on AKAP79 and that their binding is differentially dependent on calcium. Therefore, this competition is regulated by calcium levels. Moreover, both proteins have different binding characteristics suggesting that the two proteins might play complementary roles. The postsynaptic enrichment, the complex binding mechanism, and the competition with calmodulin, makes caldendrin an interesting novel player in the signaling toolkit of the AKAP interactome.