The EGF receptor is a classical receptor-tyrosine kinase. In the absence of ligand, the receptor adopts a closed conformation in which the dimerization arm of subdomain II interacts with the tethering arm in subdomain IV. Following the binding of EGF, the receptor opens to form a symmetric, back-toback dimer. Although it is clear that the dimerization arm of subdomain II is central to the formation of receptor dimers, the role of the tethering arm of subdomain IV (residues 561-585) in this configuration is not known. Here we use 125 I-EGF binding studies to assess the functional role of the tethering arm in the EGF receptor dimer. Mutation of the three major residues that contribute to tethering (D563A,H566A,K585A-EGF receptor) did not significantly alter either the ligand binding properties or the signaling properties of the EGF receptor. By contrast, breaking the Cys 558 -Cys 567 disulfide bond through double alanine replacements or deleting the loop entirely led to a decrease in the negative cooperativity in EGF binding and was associated with small changes in downstream signaling. Deletion of the Cys 571 -Cys 593 disulfide bond abrogated cooperativity, resulting in a high affinity receptor and increased sensitivity of downstream signaling pathways to EGF. Releasing the Cys 571 -Cys 593 disulfide bond resulted in extreme negative cooperativity, ligand-independent kinase activity, and impaired downstream signaling. These data demonstrate that the tethering arm plays an important role in supporting cooperativity in ligand binding. Because cooperativity implies subunitsubunit interactions, these results also suggest that the tethering arm contributes to intersubunit interactions within the EGF receptor dimer.The EGF receptor is a receptor-tyrosine kinase composed of an extracellular ligand binding domain, a single ␣-helical transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain (1). In the absence of ligand, the EGF receptor exists as a monomer, although substantial evidence suggests that it is also present as an inactive predimer (2-5). Binding of EGF induces dimerization of the receptor and leads to the stimulation of its intracellular tyrosine kinase activity (6).The primary target of this tyrosine kinase is the receptor itself, with phosphorylation occurring in trans on the C-terminal tail of the receptor (7). These phosphotyrosine residues serve as sites for the binding of Src homology 2 and PTB domain-containing proteins that promote the assembly of the signaling complexes that mediate the intracellular effects of EGF (8 -11).The extracellular domain of the EGF receptor is composed of four subdomains referred to as subdomains I-IV (12, 13). Subdomains I and III are homologous and together form the site at which EGF is bound. Subdomains II and IV are also homologous and are regions of high cysteine content. In the absence of ligand, the extracellular domain is held in a closed conformation by interactions between the dimerization arm in subdomain II and the tethering arm in subdomain IV (14). Upon b...