The c-erbA alpha-encoded thyroid hormone receptor is phosphorylated in its amino terminal domain by casein kinase II

The c-erbA alpha progenitor of the v-erbA oncogene of avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) encodes a nuclear receptor for the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) which acts as a ligand-dependent transcription factor. As previously reported (Goldberg et al., EMBO J., 7, 2425-2433), the 46 kd chicken c-erbA alpha-encoded T3 receptor (ck-ErbA alpha) is phosphorylated at two major sites. Only one of these sites (Ser28/Ser29) is retained in the v-erbA-encoded P75gag-v-erbA protein. We report here the identification of the second phosphorylation site of ck-ErbA alpha as a single serine residue localized at position 12. We propose that casein kinase II, a protein kinase distributed in the cytosolic and nuclear compartments of a number of different tissues, is responsible for serine 12 phosphorylation on the following grounds. First, serine 12 is part of a sequence containing multiple acidic amino-acids, a feature common to all sites phosphorylated by casein kinase II in physiological substrates. Second, ck-ErbA alpha was found to be phosphorylated by purified casein kinase II in vitro at the same site, as defined by two-dimensional mapping experiments, as that observed in vivo. Third, conversion of serine 12 into an unphosphorylatable alanine residue by site directed mutagenesis abolishes the phosphorylation of ck-ErbA alpha by casein kinase II in vitro. Phosphorylation of serine 12 is likely to play a role in the modulation of ErbA alpha function since both serine 12 and the casein kinase II phosphorylation sequence motif are phylogenetically conserved in all known members of the c-erbA alpha gene family encoding T3 binding proteins. The codon specifying serine 12 in ck-ErbA alpha being precisely the point where recombination between gag and ck-c-erbA alpha occurred to generate v-erbA, our results furthermore suggest that deletion of serine 12 could contribute to the oncogenic activation of v-erbA.