Regulated changes in the affinity of integrin adhesion receptors ("activation") play an important role in numerous biological functions including hemostasis, the immune response, and cell migration. Physiological integrin activation is the result of conformational changes in the extracellular domain initiated by the binding of cytoplasmic proteins to integrin cytoplasmic domains. The conformational changes in the extracellular domain are likely caused by disruption of intersubunit interactions between the ␣ and  transmembrane (TM) and cytoplasmic domains. Here, we reasoned that mutation of residues contributing to ␣/ interactions that stabilize the low affinity state should lead to integrin activation. Thus, we subjected the entire intracellular domain of the 3 integrin subunit to unbiased random mutagenesis and selected it for activated mutants. 25 unique activating mutations were identified in the TM and membrane-proximal cytoplasmic domain. In contrast, no activating mutations were identified in the more distal cytoplasmic tail, suggesting that this region is dispensable for the maintenance of the inactive state. Among the 13 novel TM domain mutations that lead to integrin activation were several informative point mutations that, in combination with computational modeling, suggested the existence of a specific TM helix-helix packing interface that maintains the low affinity state. The interactions predicted by the model were used to identify additional activating mutations in both the ␣ and  TM domains. Therefore, we propose that helical packing of the ␣ and  TM domains forms a clasp that regulates integrin activation.Integrin heterodimers are essential for the development and functioning of multicellular animals, because they mediate cell migration and cell adhesion and can influence gene expression and cell proliferation (1). All of the integrin heterodimers are composed of single pass Type I transmembrane (TM) 1 protein subunits ␣ and . A central feature of these receptors is their capacity for rapid changes in their adhesive function mediated by changes in their ligand binding affinity, operationally defined here as "activation." The prototypical integrin, platelet ␣IIb3, is activated through interactions of the cytoplasmic integrin tails (ϳ20 and 47 residues for ␣ and  tails, respectively) with intracellular proteins such as talin (2). These interactions initiate a long-range conformational change in the large extracellular domains (Ͼ700 residues each), resulting in high affinity binding of fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, and fibronectin and consequently platelet aggregation and adherence to the vessel wall (1).Initial mutational studies suggested that a salt bridge between ␣IIbArg 995 and 3Asp 723 helps maintain the integrin in the low affinity state by forming part of an interactive face between ␣ and  subunit cytoplasmic domains (3). Protein engineering studies from Springer laboratory have further advanced the idea that specific integrin ␣/ interactions maintain the low affinity conform...