, and several other proteins. Our previous studies indicated that PI3K and PLC␥ were required for relay of the mitogenic signal of PDGFR, whereas GAP and Syp did not appear to be required for this response. In this study, we further investigated the role of GAP and Syp in mitogenic signaling by PDGFR. Focusing on the PLC␥-dependent branch of PDGFR signaling, we constructed a series of mutant PDGFRs that contained the binding sites for pairs of the receptor-associated proteins: PLC␥ and PI3K, PLC␥ and GAP, or PLC␥ and Syp. Characterization of these mutants showed that while all receptors were catalytically active and bound similar amounts of PLC␥, they differed dramatically in their ability to initiate DNA synthesis. This signaling deficiency related to an inability to efficiently tyrosine phosphorylate and activate PLC␥. Surprisingly, the crippled receptor was the one that recruited PLC␥ and GAP. Thus, GAP functions to suppress signal relay by the PDGFR, and it does so by silencing PLC␥. These findings demonstrate that the biological response to PDGF depends not only on the ability of the PDGFR to recruit signal relay enzymes but also on the blend of these receptor-associated proteins.For the  receptor of the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGFR), ligand binding activates its intrinsic kinase activity and leads to phosphorylation at multiple tyrosine residues. The phosphorylated receptor associates with a set of SH2 domaincontaining proteins that includes phospholipase C-␥1 (PLC␥), the GTPase-activating protein of Ras (GAP), the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), the phosphotyrosine phosphatase Syp (also called SH-PTP2, PTP-1D, SH-PTP3, PTP2C, and PTP-SH2), three members of the Src family (Src, Yes, and Fyn), Nck, Shc, Grb2, and several as yet unidentified proteins (1,30,82). These proteins associate with the phosphorylated receptor by a variety of mechanisms. Some proteins have specific binding sites on the receptor and associate only when the receptor is phosphorylated at these sites. For instance, binding of PLC␥, GAP, Syp, and PI3K requires phosphorylation of the receptor at tyrosines 1021, 771, 1009, and 740/751, respectively (30). Proteins such as Shc do not have a strict phosphorylation site requirement (82), and their binding to the PDGFR is reminiscent of how SH2-domain containing proteins associate with the epidermal growth factor receptor (68). Grb2 appears to associate with the receptor via multiple mechanisms, either by binding to Syp, which then complexes with the phosphorylated receptor (41), or by binding directly to the receptor in response to phosphorylation of tyrosine 716 (1).At least some of the receptor-associated proteins are key players in intracellular signal transduction cascades. For instance, PLC␥ is a phosphatidylinositol-specific phosphodiesterase that is activated by tyrosine phosphorylation in response to engagement of a wide variety of cell surface receptors (reviewed in reference 60). The possibility that PLC␥ plays a direct role in mitogenic ...