Literature citation
The c-Abl tyrosine kinase phosphorylates the Fe65 adaptor protein to stimulate Fe65/amyloid precursor protein nuclear signaling.
Perkinton M.S., Standen C.L., Lau K.F., Kesavapany S., Byers H.L., Ward M., McLoughlin D.M., Miller C.C.
The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is proteolytically processed to release a C-terminal domain that signals to the nucleus to regulate transcription of responsive genes. The APP C terminus binds to a number of phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain proteins and one of these, Fe65, stimulates APP nuclear signaling. Fe65 is an adaptor protein that contains a number of protein-protein interaction domains. These include two PTB domains, the second of which binds APP, and a WW domain that binds proline-rich ligands. One ligand for the Fe65WW domain is the tyrosine kinase c-Abl. Here, we show that active c-Abl stimulates APP/Fe65-mediated gene transcription and that this effect is mediated by phosphorylation of Fe65 on tyrosine 547 within its second PTB domain. The homologous tyrosine within the motif Tyr-(Leu/Met)-Gly is conserved in a variety of PTB domains, and this suggests that PTB tyrosine phosphorylation occurs in other proteins. As such, PTB domain phosphorylation may represent a novel mechanism for regulating the function of this class of protein.