Phosphorylation and identification of a major tyrosine phosphorylation site in protein tyrosine phosphatase 1C

Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1C (PTP1C) was the first member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase family demonstrated to contain the src homology 2 (SH2) domain. This enzyme is believed to play a role in regulating downstream signaling in hematopoietic cells since it was predominantly expressed in these cells. However, recent studies have revealed that the protein is expressed in other tissues as well. This report describes both the phosphorylation of PTP1C in non-hematopoietic cells treated with growth factors (in vivo) and incubation of purified PTP1C with a variety of protein kinases (in vitro). PTP1C was transiently phosphorylated in A431 and 293 cells and also when the purified enzyme was incubated with receptor protein tyrosine kinases. In vitro, the tyrosine-phosphorylated PTP1C underwent rapid auto-dephosphorylation, an effect which could be blocked by the addition of sodium vanadate. On the other hand, cells containing a PTP1C in which the catalytic site had been inactivated through mutagenesis, stably phosphorylated the phosphatase. These results suggested that PTP1C was responsible for its own auto-dephosphorylation. The sites of tyrosine phosphorylation were characterized from purified enzyme following treatment with insulin receptor kinase and from PTP1C expressed in 293 cells which had been stimulated with platelet-derived growth factor. Through the techniques of peptide mapping and microsequencing, Tyr538 was determined to be the major phosphorylation site. This result was confirmed in vivo through site-specific mutagenesis of PTP1C expressed in 293 cells; changing Tyr538 to Phe538 completely abolished tyrosine phosphorylation of the molecule. In addition, Tyr538 lies within the sequence ESEYGNI which can be correlated with the consensus sequence pYXNX associated with GRB2 binding. These results suggest that PTP1C plays a prominent role in growth factor receptor-mediated signal transduction within both hematopoietic cells and tissues of non-lymphoid origin.