Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
Volume 283, Issue 7, Pages 3743-3750Publisher
AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M706067200
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro Funding Source: Custom
Ask authors/readers for more resources
NPM/ALK is an oncogenic fusion protein expressed in similar to 50% of anaplastic large cell lymphoma cases. It derives from the t(2; 5)(p23; q35) chromosomal translocation that fuses the catalytic domain of the tyrosine kinase, anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), with the dimerization domain of the ubiquitously expressed nucleophosmin (NPM) protein. Dimerization of the ALK kinase domain leads to its autophosphorylation and constitutive activation. Activated NPM/ALK stimulates downstream survival and proliferation signaling pathways leading to malignant transformation. Herein, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of autoactivation of the catalytic domain of ALK. Because kinases are typically regulated by autophosphorylation of their activation loops, we systematically mutated (Tyr --> Phe) three potential autophosphorylation sites contained in the YXXXYY motif of the ALK activation loop, and determined the effect of these mutations on the catalytic activity and biological function of NPM/ALK. We observed that mutation of both the second and third tyrosine residues (YFF mutant) did not affect the kinase activity or transforming ability of NPM/ALK. In contrast, mutation of the first and second (FFY), first and third (FYF), or all three (FFF) tyrosine residues impaired both kinase activity and transforming ability of NPM/ALK. Furthermore, a DFF mutant, in which the aspartic residue introduces a negative charge similar to a phosphorylated tyrosine, possessed catalytic activity similar to the YFF mutant. Together, our findings indicate that phosphorylation of the first tyrosine of the YXXXYY motif is necessary for the autoactivation of the ALK kinase domain and the transforming activity of NPM/ALK.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available