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. 2020 Dec 27;22(1):186. doi: 10.3390/ijms22010186

Figure 2.

Figure 2

The canonical mechanism of activation of AMPK by adenine nucleotides. The action of adenine nucleotides on AMPK activity is threefold: (1) AMPK not phosphorylated on Thr172 (left) is phosphorylated by the LKB1:STRAD:MO25 complex and this reaction, which causes at least 100-fold activation, is promoted by the binding of AMP (and perhaps ADP) to AMPK itself; (2) binding of AMP or ADP to AMPK also causes a conformational change that inhibits dephosphorylation of Thr172 by protein phosphatases; (3) binding of AMP (but not ADP) causes up to 10-fold allosteric activation of AMPK. All three effects of AMP and/or ADP are antagonized by the binding of ATP. The figures in parentheses next to each form of AMPK are an indication of their approximate relative kinase activity.