Growth hormone (GH) signaling is tightly controlled by ubiquitination of GH receptors, phosphorylation levels, and accessibility of binding sites for downstream signaling partners. Members of the suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family function as key regulators at all levels of this pathway, and mouse knockout studies implicate SOCS2 as the primary suppressor. To elucidate the structural basis for SOCS2 function, we determined the 1.9-Å crystal structure of the ternary complex of SOCS2 with elongin C and elongin B. The structure defines a prototypical SOCS box ubiquitin ligase with a Src homology 2 (SH2) domain as a substrate recognition motif. Overall, the SOCS box and SH2 domain show a conserved spatial domain arrangement with the BC box and substrate recognition domain of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor protein, suggesting a common mechanism of ubiquitination in these cullin-dependent E3 ligases. The SOCS box binds elongin BC in a similar fashion to the VHL BC box and shows extended structural conservation with the F box of the Skp2 ubiquitin ligase. A previously unrecognized feature of the SOCS box is revealed with the burial of the C terminus, which packs together with the N-terminal extended SH2 subdomain to create a stable interface between the SOCS box and SH2 domain. This domain organization is conserved in SOCS1-3 and CIS1, which share a strictly conserved length of their C termini, but not in SOCS4, 5, and 7, which have extended C termini defining two distinct classes of inter-and intramolecular SOCS box interactions.growth hormone receptor ͉ cytokine signaling T he growth hormone (GH) signaling pathway is the main regulator of longitudinal growth in mammals, and it stimulates differentiation and mitogenesis and modulates lipid, nitrogen, and mineral metabolism. Signaling from the GH receptor (GHR) is initiated by GH-induced dimerization followed by Janus kinase (JAK) 2 crossphosphorylation and subsequent phosphorylation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) (in particular, STAT5b). Phosphorylated STAT5 dimerizes and enters the nucleus, where it initiates transcription of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I, IGFBP3, suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 1-3, CIS, and other target genes (recently reviewed in ref. 1). The duration of the GHR signal is a key determinant of the biological response. The signal is attenuated by many regulatory mechanisms, including ubiquitin-dependent receptor internalization and degradation (see, for example, ref. 2), cleavage by TACE (TNF-␣-converting enzyme) (3), tyrosine dephosphorylation of receptors and associated JAK kinases (4), and SOCS.The SOCS family comprises SOCS1-7 and CIS1, of which SOCS1-3 and CIS1 have been shown to regulate GH signaling in vitro (1). The role of SOCS2 in GH signaling in vivo has been convincingly demonstrated, as displayed by the phenotype of SOCS2-deficient mice, which are 30-40% larger than normal littermates (5). This phenotype is similar to mice overexpressing GH (6) and high growth (hg) ...