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Cysteine residues 86 and 91 of the beta subunit of the human interleukin (hIL)-3 receptor (hbetac) participate in disulfide-linked receptor subunit heterodimerization. This linkage is essential for receptor tyrosine phosphorylation, since the Cys-86 --> Ala (Mc4) and Cys-91 --> Ala (Mc5) mutations abolished both events. Here, we used these mutants to examine whether disulfide-linked receptor dimerization affects the biological and biochemical activities of the IL-3 receptor. Murine T cells expressing hIL-3Ralpha and Mc4 or Mc5 did not proliferate in hIL-3, whereas cells expressing wild-type hbetac exhibited rapid proliferation. However, a small subpopulation of cells expressing each mutant could be selected for growth in IL-3, and these proliferated similarly to cells expressing wild-type hbetac, despite failing to undergo IL-3-stimulated hbetac tyrosine phosphorylation. The Mc4 and Mc5 mutations substantially reduced, but did not abrogate, IL-3-mediated anti-apoptotic activity in the unselected populations. Moreover, the mutations abolished IL-3-induced JAK2, STAT, and AKT activation in the unselected cells, whereas activation of these molecules in IL-3-selected cells was normal. In contrast, Mc4 and Mc5 showed a limited effect on activation of Erk1 and -2 in unselected cells. These data suggest that whereas disulfide-mediated cross-linking and hbetac tyrosine phosphorylation are normally important for receptor activation, alternative mechanisms can bypass these requirements.

The high affinity receptor for human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) consists of a cytokine-specific alpha-subunit (hGMRalpha) and a common signal-transducing beta-subunit (hbetac) that is shared with the interleukin-3 and -5 receptors. We have previously identified a constitutively active extracellular point mutant of hbetac, I374N, that can confer factor independence on murine FDC-P1 cells but not BAF-B03 or CTLL-2 cells (Jenkins, B. J., D'Andrea, R. J., and Gonda, T. J. (1995) EMBO J. 14, 4276-4287). This restricted activity suggested the involvement of cell type-specific signaling molecules in the activation of this mutant. We report here that one such molecule is the mouse GMRalpha (mGMRalpha) subunit, since introduction of mGMRalpha, but not hGMRalpha, into BAF-B03 or CTLL-2 cells expressing the I374N mutant conferred factor independence. Experiments utilizing mouse/human chimeric GMRalpha subunits indicated that the species specificity lies in the extracellular domain of GMRalpha. Importantly, the requirement for mGMRalpha correlated with the ability of I374N (but not wild-type hbetac) to constitutively associate with mGMRalpha. Expression of I374N in human factor-dependent UT7 cells also led to factor-independent proliferation, with concomitant up-regulation of hGMRalpha surface expression. Taken together, these findings suggest a critical role for association with GMRalpha in the constitutive activity of I374N.

A previous study using random mutagenesis identified an activating mutation in the common beta subunit (hbetac) of the human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, interleukin-3, and interleukin-5 receptors in which an isoleucine residue (Ile374) in the extracellular region of hbetac is replaced by asparagine (Jenkins, B. J., D'Andrea, R., and Gonda, T. J. (1995) EMBO J 14, 4276-4287). To investigate the mechanism by which this mutation (I374N) acts, we employed site-directed mutagenesis to explore predictions based on a structural model of hbetac. We focused on possible interactions between Ile374 and other hydrophobic residues in its vicinity and found that replacement of two such residues, Leu356 and Trp358, with asparagine resulted in constitutive activation of hbetac. Hydrophilic substitutions at both of these positions and at position 374 resulted in the greatest degree of activation, as measured by the growth rate of factor-independent cells, while hydrophobic substitutions had lesser or no effects. Moreover, these "weak" substitutions appeared to synergize, since factor-independent cells expressing the double mutants I374F/W358F and I374F/L356A showed substantially higher growth rates than the single mutants. Taken together, these results suggest that Ile374 normally interacts with Leu356 and Trp358, and that disruption of these interactions results in a conformational change in hbetac that leads to constitutive activity. A model relating this notion to the predicted structure and to ligand- and alpha subunit-dependent activation of hbetac is proposed.