Assembly and function of integrin receptors is dependent on opposing alpha and beta cytoplasmic domains

The membrane proximal regions of integrin alpha and beta subunits are highly conserved in evolution. In particular, all integrin alpha subunits share the KXGFFKR sequence at the beginning of their cytoplasmic domains. Previous work has shown that this domain is important in integrin receptor assembly. Using chimeric integrin alpha and beta subunits, we show that the native cytoplasmic domains of both subunits must be present for efficient assembly. Most strikingly, chimeric alpha 1 and beta 1 subunits with reciprocally swapped intracellular domains dimerize selectively into collagen IV receptors expressed at high levels on the surface. However, these receptors, which bind ligand efficiently, are deficient in a variety of post-ligand binding events, including cytoskeletal association and induction of tyrosine phosphorylation. Furthermore, deletion of the distal alpha cytoplasmic domain in the swapped heterodimers leads to ligand-independent focal contact localization, which also occurs in wild-type subunits when the distal cytoplasmic domain is deleted. These results show that proper integrin assembly requires opposed alpha and beta cytoplasmic domains, and this opposition prevents ligand-independent focal contact localization. Our working hypothesis is that these two domains may associate during receptor assembly and provide the mechanism for integrin receptor latency.