In vitro phosphorylation and hormone binding activation of the synthetic wild type human estradiol receptor

A tyrosine kinase purified from calf uterus activates the hormone binding of endogenous estradiol receptor (ER) predephosphorylated and preinactivated by a nuclear phosphotyrosine phosphatase. The kinase also activates and phosphorylates the human estradiol receptor HEO synthesized in vitro, which differs from the wild type receptor HEGO because a glycine is replaced by a valine at position 400. Moreover, the kinase activates and phosphorylates a deletion mutant of HEO which consists almost exclusively of the hormone binding domain. Using HEGO and HEO in parallel and measuring both binding activation and phosphorylation of ER we now observe that the wild type receptor is a good kinase substrate, slightly better than HEO. Furthermore, HEGO like the calf uterus receptor in the presence of estradiol, stimulates the kinase. From present findings it appears that ER and uterus tyrosine kinase are functionally associated and that this association is abolished by glycine to valine substitution at position 400 of ER.