Role of the juxtamembrane tyrosine in insulin receptor-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 endogenous substrates

Prior studies have demonstrated that a juxtamembrane tyrosine (tyrosine 972) in the insulin receptor is required for the receptor to elicit various biological responses and to stimulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of two endogenous substrates, the insulin receptor substrate-1 and the adaptor protein called Shc. In the present studies the role of this tyrosine was examined in the insulin-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of a group of 60-kDa endogenous proteins. These include a 60-kDa protein which, when phosphorylated, becomes associated with the GTPase activating protein of Ras, a distinct 60-kDa protein that associates with either the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase or the tyrosine phosphatase Syp, as well as a 58/53-kDa protein that is tyrosine phosphorylated in response to insulin but has no known associated protein. In each case, a mutant insulin receptor in which tyrosine 972 has been changed to phenylalanine was found to be defective in its ability to phosphorylate these three endogenous substrates, although the mutant receptor exhibited the same level of insulin-stimulated autophosphorylation as the wild type receptor. These results further demonstrate the critical role that the juxtamembrane tyrosine 972 plays in downstream signaling by the insulin receptor.