Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) are negative feedback inhibitors of cytokine and growth factor signal transduction. Although the affect of SOCS proteins on the Jak-STAT pathway has been well characterized, their role in the regulation of other signaling modules is not well understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that SOCS3 physically interacts with the SH2/SH3-containing adapter proteins Nck and Crk-L, which are known to couple activated receptors to multiple downstream signaling pathways and the actin cytoskeleton. Our data show that the SOCS3/Nck and SOCS3/Crk-L interactions depend on tyrosine phosphorylation of SOCS3 Tyr 221 within the conserved SOCS box motif and intact SH2 domains of Nck and Crk-L. Furthermore, SOCS3 Tyr 221 forms a YXXP motif, which is a consensus binding site for the Nck and Crk-L SH2 domains. Expression of SOCS3 in NIH3T3 cells induces constitutive recruitment of a Nck-GFP fusion protein to the plasma membrane and constitutive tyrosine phosphorylation of endogenous Nck. Our findings suggest that SOCS3 regulates multiple cytokine and growth factor-activated signaling pathways by acting as a recruitment factor for adapter proteins.The suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 1 represent a heterogeneous family of proteins characterized by an N-terminal protein-protein interaction domain followed by a conserved 40 amino acid motif known as the SOCS box (1-4). The N termini of SOCS proteins are divergent and can contain SH2 domains, WD40 repeats, SPRY domains, or ankyrin repeats (3, 4). The most well characterized SOCS subfamily is represented by CIS, SOCS1, SOCS2, and SOCS3, which contain a short (ϳ40 amino acids) N-terminal domain and an internal SH2 domain. These proteins have been shown to inhibit Janus kinase (Jak) signaling through SH2-dependent interactions with phosphotyrosine residues on cytokine receptors or in the catalytic loop of Jak kinases, to block downstream activation of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) (5-13).The SOCS box is also a protein-protein interaction domain and mediates binding to elongin C, a component of a multisubunit E3 ubiquitin ligase. It has been shown to regulate the stability of SOCS proteins as well as SOCS-associated signaling molecules (4, 14 -15). The current models for the mechanisms of SOCS protein function include direct inhibition of Jak-STAT signaling as well as targeting of signal transduction molecules for degradation through the ubiquitination machinery via its association with elongin C (16 -21). A well studied example of the latter mechanism is inhibition of transformation by the TEL-Jak2 oncogenic fusion protein by SOCS1. SOCS1 binds Tel-Jak2 through its SH2 domain and induces its proteasome-mediated destruction (16 -18). Other signaling proteins that are known to be degraded by SOCS include insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 and IRS-2, the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) Vav, and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) (19 -21).Gene-targeting studies have demonstrated the essential role of SOCS1 ...