Thrombopoietin (TPO) and its receptor (Mpl) have long been associated with megakaryocyte proliferation, differentiation, and platelet formation. However, studies have also shown that the extracellular domain of Mpl (Mpl-EC) interacts with human (h) NUDC, a protein previously characterized as a human homolog of a fungal nuclear migration protein. This study was undertaken to further delineate the putative binding domain on the Mpl receptor. Using the yeast two-hybrid system assay and co-immunoprecipitation, we identified that within the Mpl-EC domain 1 (Mpl-EC-D1), amino acids 102-251 were strongly involved in ligand binding. We subsequently expressed five subdomains within this region with T7 phage display. Enzymelinked immunosorbent binding assays identified a short stretch of peptide located between residues 206 and 251 as the minimum binding domain for both TPO and hNUDC. A series of sequential Ala replacement mutations in the region were subsequently used to identify the specific residues most involved in ligand binding. Our results point to two hydrophobic residues, Leu 228 and Leu 230 , as having substantial effects on hNUDC binding. For TPO binding, mutations in residues Asp 235 and Leu 239 had the largest effect on binding efficacy. In addition, deletion of the conservative motif WGSWS reduced binding capacity for hNUDC but not for TPO. These separate binding sites on the Mpl receptor for TPO and hNUDC raise interesting implications for the cytokine-receptor interactions.
TPO2 has long been studied as the primary cytokine regulator of megakaryocyte development. Its activity is mediated by the thrombopoietin receptor (Mpl), a member of the cytokine receptor superfamily (1-4). Genetic disruption of either cytokine or receptor drastically interferes with platelet production, indicating the major role TPO and Mpl play in the activation of megakaryopoiesis and platelet production (5-7). However, despite the platelet volume decrease, the megakaryocytes and platelets that are produced remain morphologically normal and are adequate to prevent severe hemophilia in murine experiments (8). This observation leaves open the possibility for other cytokines and receptors to have an overlapping biological potency. One such candidate we have investigated as an additional ligand for Mpl is known as hNUDC. Despite having no detectable sequence similarity with TPO, hNUDC has been shown to have similar megakaryopoietic effects (9, 10). TPO and hNUDC also exhibited a communal signal transduction cascade in several megakaryocytic cells expressing Mpl (11,12).Human NUDC was initially identified and cloned as a nuclear migration protein based on the similarity of its C terminus to that of fungal NUDC from Aspergillus nidulans (13). Numerous studies have implicated hNUDC as an endogenous factor involved in cell mitotic spindle formation, cell proliferation, cell cytokinesis, and nuclear migration in a wide variety of experimental animal cells (14 -16). Although earlier studies have suggested the mechanisms by which hNUDC exerts i...