CD45, a leukocyte-specific transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase, is required for critical signal transduction pathways in immune responses. To elucidate the molecular interactions of CD45 with other proteins involved in CD45-mediated signal transduction pathways, we have recently cloned a 30-kDa phosphorylated protein, CD45-AP, which specifically associates with CD45. Binding analysis employing several deleted or chimeric forms of CD45-AP and CD45 demonstrated that the potential transmembrane segment of CD45-AP bound to the transmembrane portion of CD45. CD45-AP was found in particulate fractions of lymphocytes along with CD45, indicating that it is likely to be a transmembrane protein. In addition, CD45-AP was resistant to proteolysis by tosylphenylalanyl chloromethyl ketonetreated trypsin applied to intact cells. This is consistent with the most likely membrane orientation of CD45-AP predicted from the amino acid sequence, that is, only a short amino-terminal segment of CD45-AP is extracellular. We propose that CD45-AP interacts with CD45 at the plasma membrane and that the bulk of CD45-AP located in the cytoplasm act as an adapter which directs the interaction between CD45 and other molecules involved in CD45-mediated signal transduction pathways.CD45 plays a critical role in signal transduction pathways essential for immune responses (1). The intracellular domain of CD45 exhibits protein tyrosine phosphatase activity (2) and differential usage of extracellular NH 2 -terminal exons results in several isotypes of CD45 which are variably expressed in a cell lineage-and developmental stage-specific manner (1, 3). It has been proposed that CD45 activates src family protein tyrosine kinases associated with the T cell receptor signaling complex, p56 lck (4, 5) and p59 fyn (6, 7), by dephosphorylating their down-regulatory tyrosyl residues. Thus, CD45 appears to be required at the onset of the T cell receptor-mediated signal transduction pathway. CD45 appears to play a similar role in B lymphocytes in combination with their src protein tyrosine kinases (8). Furthermore, CD45 is required for signal transduction pathways of monocytes (9), natural killer cells (10), and mast cells (11). Physical associations between CD45 and various membrane proteins involved in T cell activation, such as CD2 (12), CD4 (13, 14), CD8 (13, 14), Thy-1 (15), T cell receptor (14), CD26 (16), and LFA-1 (14), as well as components of the B cell antigen receptor complex (17), have been documented under certain circumstances. It is not clear how specifically these proteins interact with CD45 and what their binding sites are. A cytoskeletal protein, fodrin, has been reported to interact with the cytoplasmic portion of CD45 and stimulate its protein tyrosine phosphatase activity (18). In addition, CD45 has been reported to be one of surface glycoproteins to which CD22, the B lineage-specific cell surface glycoprotein and a sialic acidbinding lectin, binds (19).We have recently reported the molecular cloning of a novel 30-kDa phosphorylated ...