Activation of tyrosine kinases by numerous growth factor and cytokine receptors leads to tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-proteins. Tyrosine-phosphorylated motifs on the IRS proteins bind to the SH2 domains in proteins that mediate downstream signals, including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, GRB-2, and SHP-2. We investigated the function of the two SHP-2 binding COOH-terminal tyrosines of IRS-1 by replacing them with phenylalanine (IRS-1 FCT ).
IRS-1FCT failed to bind SHP-2 or mediate its tyrosine phosphorylation during insulin stimulation. Although several reports suggest a critical role for SHP-2 in insulin stimulated mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and cell proliferation, IRS-1 FCT mediated these effects normally in 32D cells. Indeed, IRS-1 FCT exhibited increased tyrosine phosphorylation, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase binding and activation of protein synthesis in response to insulin. These results suggest that SHP-2 attentuates the phosphorylation and downstream signal transmission of IRS-1 and that the interaction of IRS-1 and SHP-2 is an important regulatory event which attenuates insulin metabolic responses.Insulin transmits cellular signals by binding the cell surface insulin receptor and activating the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase (1). The activated tyrosine kinase transmits downstream signals largely through the action of a class of intermediary docking proteins, including GAB-1, Shc, and a set of signaling molecules known as the insulin receptor substrate (IRS) 1 proteins, IRS-1, IRS-2, IRS-3, and IRS-4 (2-6). The NH 2 -terminal region of the IRS proteins contains extended domains that cooperate in receptor recognition (1, 2, 7), while the COOH-terminal region possesses numerous tyrosine-containing motifs that become phosphorylated and bind specific Src homology 2 (SH2) domains in signaling proteins during insulin stimulation. While each IRS protein contains unique tyrosine phosphorylation sites, three classes of sites are well conserved across the IRS proteins, multiple YMXM motifs responsible for binding regulatory subunits of phosphatidylinsositol (PI) 3Ј-kinase, a YXNX motif that binds GRB-2, and a pair of COOH-terminal motifs (YIDL and YASI) responsible for binding the SHP-2 tyrosine phosphatase. The role of the PI 3Ј-kinase and GRB-2 binding motifs on IRS-1 have been extensively studied, but the role of the SHP-2 binding sites in IRS-1 signaling is unclear (1).SHP-2 is a cytoplasmic protein tyrosine phosphatase that contains two SH2 domains (8). It is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian cells and appears to be the homolog of the Drosophila corkscrew gene responsible for activation of p21 ras downstream of a variety of tyrosine kinases (9, 10). Coordinate binding of the two SH2 domains of SHP-2 to double tyrosine motifs in target proteins such as IRS-1 increases the affinity of the association and activates the phosphatase by moving the NH 2 -terminal SH2 domain away from the phosphatase active site (11)(12)(13)(14).Homozygous disruption of SHP-2 i...