Nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation: the beginning of a map

Tyrosine phosphorylation is usually associated with cytoplasmic events. Yet, over the years, many reports have accumulated on tyrosine phosphorylation of individual molecules in the nucleus, and several tyrosine kinases and phosphatases have been found to be at least partially nuclear. The question arises as to whether nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation represents a collection of loose ends of events originating in the cytoplasm or if there may be intranuclear signaling circuits relying on tyrosine phosphorylation to regulate specific processes. The recent discovery of a mechanism causing nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation has prompted us to review the cumulative evidence for nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation pathways and their possible role. While we found that no complex nuclear function has yet been shown to rely upon intranuclear tyrosine phosphorylation in an unambiguous fashion, we found a very high number of compelling observations on individual molecules that suggest underlying networks linking individual events. A systematic proteomics approach to nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation should help chart possible interaction pathways.