Comprehensive Analysis of the Human SH3 Domain Family Reveals a Wide Variety of Non-canonical Specificities

SH3 domains are protein modules that mediate protein-protein interactions in many eukaryotic signal transduction pathways. The majority of SH3 domains studied thus far act by binding to proline-rich sequences in partner proteins, but a growing number of studies have revealed alternative recognition mechanisms. We have comprehensively surveyed the specificity landscape of human SH3 domains in an unbiased manner using peptide-phage display and deep sequencing. Based on similar to 70,000 unique binding peptides, we obtained 154 specificity profiles for 115 SH3 domains, which reveal that roughly half of the SH3 domains exhibit non-canonical specificities and collectively recognize a wide variety of peptide motifs, most of which were previously unknown. Crystal structures of SH3 domains with two distinct non-canonical specificities revealed novel peptide-binding modes through an extended surface outside of the canonical proline-binding site. Our results constitute a significant contribution toward a complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying SH3-mediated cellular responses.