Regulation of the Dbl proto-oncogene by heat shock cognate protein 70 (Hsc70)

The dbl oncogene product is the defining member of a family of onco-proteins known as Dbl guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that facilitate the activation of the small GTP-binding proteins Cdc42, Rac, and Rho. Oncogenic activation of proto-Dbl occurs through loss of the amino-terminal 497 residues, rendering the protein constitutively active. Because both onco- and proto-Dbl contain the structural elements required for GEF activity (i.e. the Dbl homology (DH) and pleckstrin homology (PH) domains), it is thought that the amino terminus of proto-Dbl somehow inhibits the biochemical activity of the protein. To better understand the molecular basis of this regulation, we set forth to identify cellular proteins that preferentially bind the proto-oncogenic form of Dbl. We identified the molecular chaperone heat shock cognate protein (Hsc70) as a binding partner that preferentially interacts with the proto-oncogenic form of Dbl. Dbl is complexed with Hsc70 in transfected cells, as well as in native mouse brain extracts. The interaction between Hsc70 and proto-Dbl is mediated by at least two regions in Dbl, the aminoterminal spectrin homology domain (residues 224-417) and the pleckstrin homology domain (residues 711-808). Overexpression of a dominant negative Hsc70 mutant leads to activation of proto-Dbl GEF activity, indicating that the chaperone negatively regulates proto-Dbl function in vivo. We propose that Hsc70 attenuates Dbl activity by maintaining an inactive conformation in which the amino terminus is "folded over" the catalytic DH-PH domain.