Grb2

The Src SH2 domain typifies a large number of those characterized to date. The pTyr fits into a pocket on the opposite side of the central sheet to the pY-r3 pocket (Figure 13.27a). All known SH2 domains bind pTyr in essentially the same way, but some have a different pattern of contacts for the residues that follow. For example, in the Grb2 SH2 domain, a tryptophan side chain from the small sheet fills the pY-r3 pocket, and the bound peptide takes a different course, with important interactions to an asparagine at pY-r2. Screens of peptide libraries have detected the importance of this asparagine. The SH2 domain from PFC-yl contacts five mainly hydrophobic residues that follow pTyr. 

A further consideration is that receptors which primarily activate one pathway may, on occasion, activate a second pathway (Fig. 10-10). An example is the ability of GPCRs, such as a2-adrenergic receptors or mAChRs, to activate the MAPK cascade. Activation of adenylyl cyclase-linked receptors results in the release of G protein Py subunits, which, probably via an intermediary protein tyrosine kinase (PTK-X), stimulates phosphorylation of the adaptor protein SHC [36]. This in turn recruits the Grb2-SOS complex and activates the MAPK pathway. 

Activation of PI-PLC-linked receptors, such as the mAChR, results in increased PKC activity. Since the addition of phorbol esters, which are PKC agonists (see Ch. 20), results in phosphorylation of Raf, this mechanism may provide an explanation for the ability of PI-PLC-coupled receptors to activate MAPK. A recently discovered protein tyrosine kinase PYK2, which is enriched in the CNS, is also activated by PKC. Like PTK-X, PYK2 phosphorylates SHC and recruits the Grb2-SOS complex, which results in activation of the MAPK cascade. PYK2 is also activated by... 

Recruitment of Grb2 to the membrane activates the MAPK pathway. Grb2 is an adaptor molecule carrying one SH2 and two SH3 domains (Fig. 24-4). The Grb2 SH2 domain recognizes the tyrosine-phosphorylated moiety on certain RPTKs, such as EGFR (Fig. 24-8), and anchors... 

Due to the ready accessibility of SH2 domains by molecular biology techniques, numerous experimentally determined 3D structures of SH2 domains derived by X-ray crystallography as well as heteronuclear multidimensional NMR spectroscopy are known today. The current version of the protein structure database, accessible to the scientific community by, e.g., the Internet (http //www.rcsb.org/pdb/) contains around 80 entries of SH2 domain structures and complexes thereof. Today, the SH2 domain structures of Hck [62], Src [63-66], Abl [67], Grb2 [68-71], Syp [72], PLCy [73], Fyn [74], SAP [75], Lck [76,77], the C- and N-terminal SH2 domain ofp85a [78-80], and of the tandem SH2 domains Syk [81,82], ZAP70 [83,84], and SHP-2 [85] are determined. All SH2 domains display a conserved 3D structure as can be expected from multiple sequence alignments (Fig. 4). The common structural fold consists of a central three-stranded antiparallel ft sheet that is occasionally extended by one to three additional short strands (Fig. 5). This central ft sheet forms the spine of the domain which is flanked on both sides by regular a helices [49, 50,60]. 

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