Role of ACK1 (activated Cdc42-associated kinase 1) in adaptor SLP-76 signalling in T-cells

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The goal of our NSERC research program is to understand the antigen-receptor proximal signaling events that control downstream functions such as calcium mobilization and the aggregation of adaptors and kinases. The initial events that mediate activation of T-cells are mediated by proximal tyrosine kinases such as p56lck and ZAP-70 and their phosphorylation of adaptor proteins. Adaptors in turn mediate the formation of complexes needed to integrate signalling in cells. One key adaptor protein is SLP-76 (SH2 domain containing leukocyte protein of 76kDa) which plays a positive role in promoting T cell activation and development. SLP-76 contains a sterile­ alpha motif (SAM) domain that we previously showed mediates SLP-76 dimer and oligomer formation. We have also shown that the tyrosine kinase ACK1 Cdc42 (cell division cycle 42)-activated tyrosine kinase 1 (ACK1 or Tnk2) binds to SLP-76 and that the loss of the SLP-76 SAM domain disrupts binding. The classic model for TCR induction of phospholipase C (PLCγ1) activation and calcium mobilization involves another kinase ZAP-70 and its phosphorylation and its recruitment of interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase (ITK) to SLP-76. We found that ACK1 expression induced SLP-76 phosphorylation and calcium influx, and as such, the SLP-76-ACK1 module could represent a second modular pathway for the activation calcium mobilization and F-actin assembly in T-cells. To test this model, we propose: Aim 1: to examine whether the SAM domain mediated oligomerization is needed for the binding of ACK1 to SLP-76. We have discovered that ACK1 can phosphorylate SLP-76 on these key tyrosines and binds to SLP-76 via its SAM domain. This introduces are novel mechanism to regulate SLP-76 function in T-cells.