Regulation of the levels of tyrosine phosphorylation is essential to maintain the functions of proteins in different signaling pathways and other cellular systems, but how the steady-state levels of tyrosine phosphorylation are coordinated in different cellular systems to initiate complex cellular functions remains a formidable challenge. The receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP)͞ is a transmembrane tyrosine phosphatase whose substrates include proteins important in intracellular and transmembrane proteinsignaling pathways, cytoskeletal structure, cell-cell adhesion, endocytosis, and chromatin remodeling. Pleiotrophin (PTN the protein and Ptn the gene) is a ligand for RPTP͞ ; PTN inactivates RPTP͞ , leaving unchecked the continued endogenous activity of tyrosine kinases that increase phosphorylation of the substrates of RPTP͞ at sites dephosphorylated by RPTP͞ in cells not stimulated by PTN. Thus, through the regulation of the tyrosine phosphatase activity of RPTP͞ , the PTN͞RPTP͞ signaling pathway coordinately regulates the levels of tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins in many cellular systems. We now demonstrate that PTN disrupts cytoskeletal protein complexes, ablates calcium-dependent homophilic cell-cell adhesion, stimulates ubiquitination and degradation of N-cadherin, reorganizes the actin cytoskeleton, and induces a morphological epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in PTN-stimulated U373 cells. The data suggest that increased tyrosine phosphorylation of the different substrates of RPTP͞ in PTN-stimulated cells alone is sufficient to coordinately stimulate the different functions needed for an EMT; it is possible that PTN initiates an EMT in cells at sites where PTN is expressed in development and in malignant cells that inappropriately express Ptn.T he balanced activities of tyrosine kinases and tyrosine phosphatases dynamically regulate the steady-state levels of tyrosine phosphorylation of key proteins essential for many important cellular functions. The regulated disruption of this balance through growth factor and͞or cytokine-activated receptor-transduced signals is an important mechanism of signal transduction but, when deregulated, is a mechanism frequently underlying different diseases and a major feature in the pathogenesis of many human malignancies (1). An important gap, however, is in understanding the mechanism of how different pathways and systems are coordinated to initiate the many different cellular functions required for normal cellular homeostasis, proliferation, and differentiation of cells.The diverse substrates of the receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP)͞ (2) include -catenin (2), -adducin (3, 4), Fyn (5), GIT1͞Cat-1 (6), and P190RhoGAP (7), indicating that RPTP͞ is promiscuous in substrate specificity, but through its activity, is critically positioned to coordinately regulate the steady-state levels of tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins in different signaling networks and cellular systems. Pleiotrophin (PTN the protein and Ptn the gene) is a secret...