Stimulation of cellular responses by growth factors and cytokines is often accomplished by the activation of protein-tyrosine kinases (1, 6). One of the major consequences of tyrosine phosphorylation is to induce a specific set of protein-protein interactions, and thereby initiate a series of intracellular signaling cascades. The SH2 1 domains of cytosolic signaling proteins mediate the assembly of such complexes by binding to phosphotyrosine moieties within specific sequence contexts (1, 6, 7). Therefore, in order to understand signal transduction by protein-tyrosine kinases, it is important to decode the mechanisms by which SH2 domains achieve specificity in their recognition of phosphotyrosine sites.The specificity of SH2 domains was first systematically studied using a degenerate phosphopeptide library (2, 3). Subsequently, crystal structures of SH2 domains complexed with their high affinity ligands were obtained, providing a structural basis for phosphopeptide recognition by SH2 domains (4,5,8,9). From these studies and related experiments analyzing the in vivo binding sites of various SH2 domains, it has become evident that 3-6 residues C-terminal of phosphotyrosine dictate the specificity of SH2 domain binding. Importantly, SH2 domains can be divided into four subgroups on the basis of their specificity and primary sequences (2). For example, Group I SH2 domains (SH2 domains of Src family, Abl, Crk, GRB2, Nck SH2 domains, etc.) select the general motif Tyr(P)-hydrophilichydrophilic-hydrophobic and have an aromatic amino acid at the D5 position. However, Group III SH2 domains (e.g. SH2 domains of phosphoinositide 3-kinase p85, phospholipase C-␥, and Syp/SHPTP2) select the general motif Tyr(P)-hydrophobic-X-hydrophobic and have Ile or Cys at the D5 position (Fig. 1A). In the three-dimensional structures of Src and Lck SH2 domains, the D5 Tyr is at the surface and makes contacts with the side chains of both the pYϩ1 and pYϩ3 residues of the bound phosphopeptide (4, 5). However, in the three-dimensional structures of Syp and PLC-␥ SH2 domains (Group III), the aliphatic residue at the D5 position is buried deeper in the protein, opening a hydrophobic cavity for the pYϩ1 through pYϩ6 residues (8, 9) (Fig. 1B). To address the importance of the D5 position, we have investigated the effect of substituting this residue on the specificity of two Group III SH2 domains.
MATERIALS AND METHODSMutant SH2 Domain Construction-The point mutation (I383Y) on phosphoinositide 3-kinase p85 N-terminal SH2 domain was achieved by PCR mutagenesis using human p85 cDNA as template. The following primers were synthesized: 1, 5Ј-GACGGATCCTTACAAAATGCTGAA-3Ј; 2, 5Ј-GTCGAATTCCATCTTCTTTGACAACTTG-3Ј; 3, 5Ј-GGAAAT-AACAAATTATACAAAATATTTCATCGA-3Ј; 4, 5Ј-TCGATGAAATAT-TTTGTATAATTTGTTATTTCC-3Ј. Two PCR fragments were first produced using primer pairs 1 and 4, and 2 and 3. The mutant cDNA was obtained by ligating these two fragments using PCR with primers 1 and 2. The final PCR products were cut with BamHI and EcoRI, and cloned into pGEX2T v...