Diacylglycerol kinases (DGKs) metabolize diacylglycerol (DAG) to phosphatidic acid (PA). In T lymphocytes, DGKα acts as a negative regulator of TCR signaling by decreasing diacylglycerol levels and inducing anergy. Here, we show that upon co-stimulation of the TCR with CD28 or SLAM, DGKα, but not DGKζ, exit from the nucleus and undergoes rapid negative regulation of its enzymatic activity. Inhibition of DGKα is dependent on the expression of SAP, an adaptor protein mutated in X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP), which is essential for SLAM-mediated signaling and contributes to TCR/CD28-induced signaling and T cell activation. Accordingly, over-expression of SAP is sufficient to inhibit DGKα, while SAP mutants unable to bind either phospho-tyrosine residues or SH3 domain are ineffective. Moreover phospholipase C activity and calcium, but not Src-family tyrosine kinases, are also required for negative regulation of DGKα. Finally, inhibition of DGKα in SAP-deficient cells partially rescues defective TCR/CD28 signaling, including Ras and ERK-1/2 activation, PKCθ membrane recruitment, induction of NF-AT transcriptional activity and IL-2 production. Thus SAP-mediated inhibition of DGKα sustains diacylglycerol signaling, thereby regulating T cell activation and may represent a novel pharmacological strategy for XLP treatment.

Material Supplementary 4.DC1http://www.jimmunol.org/content/suppl/2010/08/16/jimmunol.100033

Ras GTPases undergo post-translational modifications that govern their subcellular trafficking and localization. In particular, palmitoylation of the Golgi tags N-Ras and H-Ras for exocytotic transport and residency at the PM (plasma membrane). Following depalmitoylation, PM-Ras redistributes to all subcellular membranes causing an accumulation of palmitate-free Ras at endomembranes, including the Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum. Palmitoylation is unanimously regarded as a critical modification at the crossroads of Ras activity and trafficking control, but its precise relevance to native wild-type Ras function in growth factor signalling is unknown. We show in the present study by use of palmitoylation-deficient N-Ras mutants and via the analysis of palmitate content of agonist-activated GTP-loaded N-Ras that only palmitoylated N-Ras becomes activated by agonists. In line with an essential role of palmitoylation in Ras activation, dominant-negative RasS17N loses its blocking potency if rendered devoid of palmitoylation. Live-cell Ras-GTP imaging shows that N-Ras activation proceeds only at the PM, consistent with activated N-Ras-GTP being palmitoylated. Finally, palmitoylation-deficient N-Ras does not sustain EGF (epidermal growth factor) or serum-elicited mitogenic signalling, confirming that palmitoylation is essential for signal transduction by N-Ras. These findings document that N-Ras activation proceeds at the PM and suggest that depalmitoylation, by removing Ras from the PM, may contribute to the shutdown of Ras signalling.