Association of signal-regulatory proteins beta with KARAP/DAP-12

The signal-regulatory proteins (SIRP) are Ig-like cell surface receptors detected in hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells. SIRP are classified as SIRPalpha molecules, containing a 110- to 113-amino acid long, or SIRPbeta molecules, with a 5-amino acid long intracytoplasmic domain. SIRPalpha molecules belong to inhibitory immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif (ITIM)-bearing molecules. The majority of ITIM-bearing receptors are paired with activating isoforms, which share highly related extracytoplasmic domains but harbor a shorter cytoplasmic domain devoid of ITIM and contain a charged amino acid residue in their transmembrane domain. Activating receptors are associated with immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM)-bearing proteins, such as KARAP/DAP-12 and FcRgamma. In this report, we show that human SIRPbeta1 is included in an oligomeric complex with KARAP/DAP-12 in hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic transfectant cells as well as in human monocytes. The physical association between SIRPbeta1 and KARAP/DAP-12 results in the functional coupling of SIRPbeta1 engagement to the recruitment of the protein tyrosine kinase Syk and to serotonin release in RBL cell transfectants. Therefore our results show that SIRPbeta1 acts as an activating isoform of SIRPalpha molecules, confirming the co-existence of inhibitory ITIM-bearing molecules, recruiting SHP-1 and SHP-2 protein tyrosine phosphatases, and activating counterparts, whose engagement couples to protein tyrosine kinases via ITAM-bearing molecules.