The tumor suppressor VHL (von Hippel-Lindau protein) serves as a negative regulator of hypoxia-inducible factor-␣ subunits. However, accumulated evidence indicates that VHL may play additional roles in other cellular functions. We report here a novel hypoxia-inducible factor-independent function of VHL in cell motility control via regulation of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) endocytosis. In VHL null tumor cells or VHL knock-down cells, FGFR1 internalization is defective, leading to surface accumulation and abnormal activation of FGFR1. The enhanced FGFR1 activity directly correlates with increased cell migration. VHL disease mutants, in two of the mutation hot spots favoring development of renal cell carcinoma, failed to rescue the above phenotype. Interestingly, surface accumulation of the chemotactic receptor appears to be selective in VHL mutant cells, since other surface proteins such as epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet-derived growth factor receptor, IGFR1, and c-Met are not affected. We demonstrate that 1) FGFR1 endocytosis is defective in the VHL mutant and is rescued by reexpression of wild-type VHL, 2) VHL is recruited to FGFR1-containing, but not EGFR-containing, endosomal vesicles, 3) VHL exhibits a functional relationship with Rab5a and dynamin 2 in FGFR1 internalization, and 4) the endocytic function of VHL is mediated through the metastasis suppressor Nm23, a protein known to regulate dynamin-dependent endocytosis.The von Hippel-Lindau disease is an inherited disorder that manifests in tumor formation in multiple organs (1, 2). The disease is characterized by highly vascularized tumors mainly due to overproduction of angiogenic factors. The underlying genetic defect was identified as mutations in the VHL tumor suppressor gene (3). The biological role of VHL is prominently linked to its E3 3 ubiquitin ligase activity toward a subset of cellular proteins, thus promoting their ubiquitination and degradation (4, 5). Prominent among its cellular targets are the ␣ subunits (1␣, 2␣, and 3␣) of the key transcription factor, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), involved in the cellular oxygen-sensing mechanism (6 -8).Tumorigenic mutations that affect E3 ligase function of VHL result in constitutive stabilization of HIF-␣, leading to transcriptional activation of several target genes of HIF (9), including those encoding critical angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor and enzymes involved in glucose metabolism (10). Renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) harboring VHL mutations are often metastatic, and reexpression of wild-type VHL suppresses the metastatic behavior in RCC-derived cell lines (11,12), although the mechanisms remain unclear. VHL mutant cells exhibit increased scattering upon hepatocyte growth factor treatment (13). Enhanced response to SDF-1 (stromal cell-derived factor-1), due to overexpression of chemokine receptor CXCR4, was also recently identified as a possible mechanism by which VHL tumors might disseminate to distant organs (14). On the other hand, accumul...