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The intracellular portion of the epidermal growth factor receptor consists of a tyrosine kinase domain of approximately 290 amino acids and a COOH-terminal regulatory domain of approximately 230 amino acids that contains five sites of autophosphorylation. The effect of autophosphorylation on the conformation of the intracellular domain has been analyzed using gel filtration. Both phosphorylated and dephosphorylated forms of the intracellular domain exist as monomers and as dimers and appear to have an extended conformation. The Stokes' radii of phosphorylated monomers and dimers were larger than those of the dephosphorylated forms, indicating that the dephosphorylated form is more compact. These results indicate that a significant conformational change occurs in the intracellular portion of the epidermal growth factor receptor upon tyrosine autophosphorylation.

Mammalian cells contain two subspecies of RNA polymerase II, designated IIO and IIA. The objectives of these studies were to determine the structural relationship between these subspecies and to determine the functional significance of these differences. Subunits IIo and IIa were purified from calf thymus, and the effect of alkaline phosphatase treatment on electrophoretic mobility and immunochemical reactivity was examined. The removal of phosphate converts subunit IIo to a form indistinguishable from that of subunit IIa. These results indicate that subunit IIo is produced by multisite phosphorylation of subunit IIa. The distribution of phosphate within subunit IIo was determined by CNBr cleavage of in vivo labeled HeLa cell RNA polymerase II. 32P-Labeled subunit IIo was purified by immunoprecipitation and cleaved with CNBr, and the resultant peptides were analyzed. The quantitative recovery of 32P in the C-terminal peptide establishes that this domain is the primary site of phosphorylation. In an effort to assess the level of phosphorylation of the transcriptionally active form of RNA polymerase II in HeLa nuclei, transcription was carried out in the presence of 4-thiouracil triphosphate and the nascent labeled transcript cross-linked to RNA polymerase. Specific photoaffinity labeling of subunit IIo was observed. Alkaline phosphatase treatment results in an increase in the mobility of photoaffinity labeled subunit IIo to approach that of subunit IIa. These results indicate that subunit IIo is a component of transcriptionally active RNA polymerase II.

Sorting nexin 1 (SNX1) is a protein that binds to the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and is proposed to play a role in directing EGF receptors to lysosomes for degradation (R. C. Kurten, D. L. Cadena, and G. N. Gill, Science 272:1008-1010, 1996). We have obtained full-length cDNAs and deduced the amino acid sequences of three novel homologous proteins, which were denoted human sorting nexins (SNX2, SNX3, and SNX4). In addition, we identified a presumed splice variant isoform of SNX1 (SNX1A). These molecules contain a conserved domain of approximately 100 amino acids, which was termed the phox homology (PX) domain. Human SNX1 (522 amino acids), SNX1A (457 amino acids), SNX2 (519 amino acids), SNX3 (162 amino acids), and SNX4 (450 amino acids) are part of a larger family of hydrophilic molecules including proteins identified in Caenorhabditis elegans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Despite their hydrophilic nature, the sorting nexins are found partially associated with cellular membranes. They are widely expressed, although the tissue distribution of each sorting nexin mRNA varies. When expressed in COS7 cells, epitope-tagged sorting nexins SNX1, SNX1A, SNX2, and SNX4 coimmunoprecipitated with receptor tyrosine kinases for EGF, platelet-derived growth factor, and insulin. These sorting nexins also associated with the long isoform of the leptin receptor but not with the short and medium isoforms. Interestingly, endogenous COS7 transferrin receptors associated exclusively with SNX1 and SNX1A, while SNX3 was not found to associate with any of the receptors studied. Our demonstration of a large conserved family of sorting nexins that interact with a variety of receptor types suggests that these proteins may be involved in several stages of intracellular trafficking in mammalian cells.