PhosphorylationofHrsdownstreamofthe epidermal
growth factor receptor
Kristi G. Bache
1
, Camilla Raiborg
1
, Anja Mehlum
1
, Inger Helene Madshus
2
and Harald Stenmark
1
1
Department of Biochemistry, Institute for Cancer Research, the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, Oslo, Norway;
2
Institute of Pathology, the National Hospital, Oslo, Norway
The hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase
substrate Hrs is an early endosomal protein that is thought
to play a regulatory role in the trafficking ofgrowth factor/
receptor complexes through early endosomes. Stimulation
of cells with epidermalgrowthfactor (EGF) rapidly leads to
phosphorylation of Hrs, raising the question whether the
receptor tyrosine kinase phosphorylates Hrs directly. Here,
we present evidence that a downstream kinase, rather than
the active receptor kinase is responsible. We show that the
nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Src is able to phosphorylate Hrs
in vitro and in vivo, but that Hrs is nevertheless phosphory-
lated in Src-, Yes- and Fyn-negative cells. Moreover, we
show that only 10–20% ofHrs is phosphorylated following
EGF stimulation, and that phosphorylation occurs at mul-
tiple tyrosines located in different parts of Hrs. These results
suggest that Hrs is a substrate for several kinases down-
stream ofthe EGF receptor.
Keywords: endosome; membrane trafficking; Src; tyrosine
kinase.
The growthfactor or cytokine stimulated phosphorylation
of macromolecules regulates cellular functions such as
adhesion, cytoskeletal function, membrane trafficking and
gene transcription (reviewed in [1]). The hepatocyte growth
factor regulated tyrosine kinase substrate Hrs is a protein
that becomes rapidly phosphorylated upon growth factor
and cytokine stimulation [2,3]. It was first shown to be
phosphorylated in cells treated with HGF as well as platelet-
derivedgrowthfactor(PDGF)andepidermalgrowthfactor
(EGF) [2]. Later, Hrs was also identified as a tyrosine
phosphorylated protein in hematopoietic cells treated with
the cytokines interleukin-2 (IL-2) and granulocyte-macro-
phage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) [3]. Even though
Hrs was identified as a phosphorylated protein, neither the
responsible kinase(s), the exact phosphorylation site(s) nor
the functional significance ofthephosphorylation have been
identified so far. Recent results suggest that in order for Hrs
phosphorylation to take place, endosomal localization
of Hrs is required [4]. Hrs is localized to early endosomes
via a phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns3P)-binding
FYVE domain [5] and a coiled-coil domain [6]. It has been
shown to bind the signal transducing adaptor molecules
STAM [3] and STAM 2/Hbp [7,8], the SNARE protein
SNAP-25 [9], and the signal transmitter downstreamof the
transforming growth factor-b/activin receptors, Smad 2 [10].
In addition, a functional clathrin box motif has recently been
found in the C-terminal part of Hrs, and direct binding
between Hrs and clathrin was discovered, suggesting that
clathrin is recruited to early endosomes via Hrs [11].
Putative homologues ofHrs have been identified in
various eukaryotes, including the class E vacuolar protein
sorting molecule Vps27p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae [12].
More than 40 vps mutants have been identified in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae [13–15], and a subset of 13 of
these are designated as the class E vps mutants. These
mutants accumulate vacuolar, endocytic and trans-Golgi
markers in an aberrant multilamellar structure, the class E
compartment [16–18]. Mice that lack Hrs die during early
embryogenesis, demonstrating that Hrs is an essential
protein. The embryos show severe defects in ventral folding
morphogenesis and contain enlarged transferrin receptor-
positive structures [19]. Drosophila larvae that lack Hrs
likewise contain enlarged endosomes, and electron micro-
scopy has revealed that the formation of endosomal
invaginations is inhibited in the absence ofHrs [20]. Because
Hrs is an essential protein with functions in membrane
trafficking and signal transduction, it will be important to
determine the functional significance of its phosphorylation.
In this paper, we have investigated whether Hrs is
phosphorylated by the EGF receptor or a downstream
kinase. We find that Hrs is phosphorylated on multiple
tyrosines by kinases downstreamofthe receptor. While the
nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Src is able to phosphorylate
Hrs both in vitro and in vivo, other tyrosine kinases also
phosphorylate Hrs.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Antibodies and plasmid constructs
Anti-myc Ig was from the 9E10 hybridoma [21]. The horse-
radish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated anti-phosphotyrosine
Correspondence to H. Stenmark, Department of Biochemistry,
The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello N-0310 Oslo, Norway.
Fax: + 47 22508692, Tel.: + 47 22934951,
E-mail: stenmark@ulrik.uio.no
Abbreviations: Hrs, hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine
kinase substrate; EGF, epidermalgrowth factor; GM-CSF, granulo-
cyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; HGF, hepatocyte growth
factor; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; PtdIns3P, phosphati-
dylinositol 3-phosphate; STAM, signal transducing adaptor molecule;
Vps, vacuolar protein sorting; MBP, maltose binding protein;
TGFa, transforming growth factor-a.
(Received 15 March 2002, revised 3 May 2002, accepted 17 June 2002)
Eur. J. Biochem. 269, 3881–3887 (2002) Ó FEBS 2002 doi:10.1046/j.1432-1033.2002.03046.x
Ig (RC20H) was from Transduction Laboratories. Anti-
serum against Hrs was raised against the recombinant
protein [11]. Human anti-EEA1 serum was a gift from Ban-
Hock Toh Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Mouse anti-Src Ig and recombinant active Src (p60
c–Src
)
were from Upstate (Waltham, MA, USA). [c-
33
P]ATP was
from Amersham. HRP-labelled secondary antibodies were
from Jackson Immunoresearch (West Grove, PE, USA).
pGEM-myc-Hrs1–289 and pGEM-myc-Hrs287–775 were
made by PCR with mouse Hrs [2] as the template. pSGT-
Src
Y527F
used for expression of a constitutive active Src
construct was a gift from S. Courtneidge (Van Andel
Research Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, USA). Non-fusion
pEGFP-EGFR used for expression of EGF-receptor in
SYF-2 cells was a gift from A. Sorkin (University of
Colorado Health Science Center, Denver, CO, USA).
Transient expression in HEp-2 and HeLa cells
The pSGT-Src
Y527F
construct was expressed in HEp-2 cells
using the FugeneÒ (Roche) system according to the
manufacturer’s instructions, and the cells were analyzed
24 h after transfection. pGEM constructs were expressed in
cells using modified Ankara T7 RNA polymerase recom-
binant vaccinia virus and lipofection as described previously
[22].
Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy
For studying localization ofHrs in starved and EGF
stimulated cells, Hep-2 cells were grown on coverslips,
starved for 4 h in serum-free medium, and stimulated (or
not) for 8 min with EGF (100 ngÆmL
)1
). The cells were then
permeabilized with 0.05% saponin and fixed with 3%
paraformaldehyde before staining with the antibodies
indicated, as described [23]. Coverslips were examined using
a Leica TCS NT confocal microscope equipped with a
Kr/Ar laser and a PL Fluotar 100·/1.30 oil immersion
objective.
EGF/TGFa stimulation and immunoprecipitation of Hrs
Hep-2 cells were starved for 4 h in serum-free medium and
then stimulated (or not) for 8 min with EGF or TGFa (both
100 ngÆmL
)1
) for 10 or 20 min at 4 °C with EGF. The cells
were washed three times with ice-cold NaCl/P
i
and lysed for
15mininlysisbuffer(125m
M
KAc, 25 m
M
Hepes, 25 m
M
MgAc, 5 m
M
EGTA, 0.5% NP40, 1 m
M
dithiothreitol,
pH 7.2) at 37 °C or supplemented with mammalian phos-
phatase inhibitor cocktail II and protease inhibitor cocktail
(Sigma). After preclearance ofthe lysate by centrifugation, it
was incubated with 25 lL protein A–Sepharose (Pharma-
cia) preincubated with 20 lL anti-Hrs Ig. Immunoprecip-
itates were washed three times with washing buffer (125 m
M
KAc, 25 m
M
Hepes, 2.5 m
M
MgAc, 5 m
M
EGTA, 1 m
M
dithiothreitol, pH 7.2) supplemented with phosphatase
inhibitor cocktail II, and Hrs was eluted in sample buffer
for sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophor-
esis (SDS/PAGE) or two dimensional PAGE (8
M
urea,
65 m
M
dithiothreitol, 2% (w/v) Pharmalyte (Pharmacia
AB) and 0.5% (v/v) Triton X-100) (10% gels). For the 2D
PAGE the material was subjected to isoelectric focusing on
linear Immobiline Dry Strips, pH 3–10 (Amersham Phar-
macia Biotech, Uppsala, Sweden), with the Pharmacia
Multipor II apparatus and procedure. After equilibration in
2% (w/v) SDS, the strips were placed on top of a vertical
SDS/PAGE gel and subjected to electrophoresis with a Bio-
Rad Protean II apparatus. Following SDS/PAGE, proteins
were transferred to 0.45 lm pore size poly(vinylidene
fluoride) membranes (Millipore) and incubated with prima-
ry and secondary antibodies before detection with the
SuperSignal chemiluminescence kit from Pierce. In all
experiments, the membranes were stripped and reblotted
with anti-Hrs Ig to verify equal loadings ofthe samples.
Immunoprecipitation ofHrs from HeLa cells transfected
with a constitutively active Src mutant, or SYF-2 cells
transfected with EGF-receptor
HeLa cells transfected or not with the plasmid expressing
active Src were starved for 4 h before lysis and immuno-
precipitation ofHrs as described above. Hrs was eluted
in sample buffer for SDS/PAGE. peGFP-EGFR was
expressed in SYF-2 cells and and starved for 4 h before
stimulating or not with EGF (100 ngÆmL
)1
) for 8 min. The
cells were lysed and Hrs immunoprecipitated as described,
and eluted in sample buffer for SDS/PAGE. Following
SDS/PAGE, proteins were transferred to 0.45-lm pore size
poly(vinylidene difluoride) membranes (Millipore) and
incubated with primary and secondary antibodies before
detection with SuperSignal chemiluminescence from Pierce.
In vitro
phosphorylation of Hrs
Mops buffer (10 m
M
MgCl
2
,50m
M
Mops pH 7.0, 150 m
M
NaCl) supplemented with 25 lCiÆmL
)1
[c-
33
P]ATP was
mixedwith1lg maltose binding protein (MBP), 1 lg
MBP–Hrs or buffer only, and 0.5 U recombinant active Src
was added after heating ofthe samples to 30 °C. After
20 min at 30 °C, the reactions were stopped by adding
3·SDS-sample buffer. Following SDS/PAGE, the gel was
fixed and dried and left overnight in a phosphorimager
(Molecular Dynamics).
RESULTS
Phosphorylation ofHrs at 37 °C and 4 °C
Inhibition of endocytosis by dominant-negative dynamin
expression and hypertonic media prevents the EGF-induced
phosphorylation of Hrs. This suggests that the phosphory-
lation ofHrs takes place on endosomes [4]. As the activation
of the EGF receptor occurs efficiently at 4 °C [24,25],
whereas endocytosis is blocked, we studied the EGF-
induced phosphorylationofHrs at this temperature in order
to further investigate the relationship between endocytosis
and Hrs phosphorylation. As shown in Fig. 1, essentially no
Hrs phosphorylationofHrs was detected in unstimulated
cells (lane 1), whereas EGF stimulation for 8 min at 37 °C
caused a strong tyrosine phosphorylationofHrs (lane 2).
When the cells were stimulated with EGF for 10 or 20 min
at 4 °C (lanes 3–4), thephosphorylation was much weaker
than that detected at 37 °C, supporting the idea that
endocytosis ofthe receptor/ligand complex is important for
the phosphorylationof Hrs. Nevertheless, some phosphory-
lation occurred even at 4 °C, indicating that endocytosis is
3882 K. G. Bache et al. (Eur. J. Biochem. 269) Ó FEBS 2002
not an absolute requirement for Hrsphosphorylation and
that a small fraction ofHrs may be phosphorylated at the
plasma membrane.
Hrs phosphorylation does not require an active
EGF receptor kinase
It has been proposed previously that the EGF receptor
tyrosine kinase may be responsible for the phosphorylation
of Hrs [4,26], and our finding that Hrs is phosphorylated to
some extent at 4 °C does not exclude this possibility. To
investigate if the activated EGF receptor kinase phosphory-
lates Hrs directly, we measured Hrsphosphorylation upon
the stimulation of EGF receptors with two ligands that have
different properties. While EGF remains bound to the
receptor at the acidic endosomal pH, thus activating the
receptor kinase, transforming growthfactor a (TGFa)
rapidly dissociates and leaves the EGF receptor inactive
after internalization into early endosomes [27,28]. There-
fore, if Hrs is phosphorylated by thereceptor kinase, we
would expect that only EGF, and not TGFa,causesits
phosphorylation.
HEp-2 cells, which are well characterized with respect
to EGF and TGFa signalling [27], were serum-starved
andstimulatedwithEGForTGFa before the cells were
washed and Hrs was immunoprecipitated from the lysate.
We chose to stimulate the cells with thegrowth factors
for 8 min, as thegrowth factor-stimulated phosphoryla-
tion ofHrs is maximal at this time point [2–4]. The
tyrosine phosphorylation was analyzed by immunoblot-
ting using an antibody reacting specifically to phospho-
tyrosine (Fig. 2). The membranes were stripped and
reblotted with anti-Hrs Ig to verify equal loadings of
the samples. We found that both EGF and TGFa
had the same ability to stimulate Hrs phosphorylation.
This indicates that Hrs is not phosphorylated by the
EGF receptor kinase and implies the involvement of a
downstream kinase.
Hrs is a substrate for Src phosphorylation
in vitro
and
in vivo
When considering tyrosine kinases that are activated
downstream ofthe EGF receptor, we regarded Src family
kinases as possible candidates, as these kinases are activated
downstream of all known receptors that mediate Hrs
phosphorylation [29–34]. To study whether Src can phos-
phorylate Hrs in vitro, active Src was mixed with recom-
binant Hrs fused to maltose-binding protein (MBP). As a
negative control we used MBP only. The phosphoryla-
tion was measured by the incorporation of radioactive
phosphate, and we found that MBP-Hrs, but not MBP
alone, was phosphorylated by Src (Fig. 3A). In addition we
observed a strong phosphorylation product of about
60 kDa in all lanes, corresponding to autophosphorylated
Fig. 3. Src phosphorylates Hrs in vitro and in vivo. (A) Radioactive
ATP was mixed with Hrs fused to maltose binding protein (MBP)
(lane 3) or MBP alone (lane 2). An additional control containing buffer
only was also included (lane 1). Recombinant active Src was added,
and the samples were incubated at 30 °C for 20 min before the reac-
tions were stopped by adding 3· sample buffer for SDS/PAGE. The
gel was fixed and dried and exposed in a phosphoimager over night.
(B) HeLa cells were transfected or not with an active Src construct and
serum-starved for 4 h before Hrs was immunoprecipitated and phos-
phorylation analyzed by immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine
Ig (upper panel) or anti-Hrs Ig (lower panel).
Fig. 1. PhosphorylationofHrs is reduced at 4 °C. HEp-2 cells were
serum-starved for 4 h before stimulation with EGF for 8 min at 37 °C
(lane 2, upper panel) or 10 and 20 min at 4 °C(lanes3and4,upper
panel). Hrs was immunoprecipitated and phosphorylation analyzed by
immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine Ig (upper panel) or anti-
HrsIg(lowerpanel).
Fig. 2. Hrsphosphorylation is caused by both EGF and TGFa. Hep-2
cells were serum-starved for 4 h and stimulated with EGF or TGFa as
indicated. Hrs was immunoprecipitated and phosphorylation analyzed
by immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine Ig (upper panel) or
anti-Hrs Ig (lower panel).
Ó FEBS 2002 Tyrosine phosphorylationofHrs (Eur. J. Biochem. 269) 3883
Src. These results show that Hrs is a substrate for Src
phosphorylation in vitro.
In order to study if Hrs is a substrate for Src
phosphorylation in vivo, we investigated whether a consti-
tutively active Src construct was able to phosphorylate Hrs
in serum-starved cells. HeLa cells were transfected with the
active Src construct and serum-starved for 4 h before lysing
the cells and immunoprecipitating Hrs. Phosphorylation
was examined by immunoblotting. As expected, no phos-
phorylated Hrs was detected in the serum-starved cells
without the active Src construct. However, in the trans-
fected cells we could observe a strong phosphorylation of
Hrs (Fig. 3B). These results indicate that Src is able to
phosphorylate Hrs in vivo.
After transfection of HeLa cells with the active Src
construct and analysis by confocal fluorescence microsco-
py, we observed a number of large vesicular structures
that were positively stained for Src and partly colocalized
with Hrs and EEA1 (Fig. 4). These enlarged structures
might represent enlarged endosomes resulting from the
hyper-phosphorylation ofHrs or other endosomal pro-
teins. However, it has been shown that v-Src induces
constitutive macropinocytosis in rat fibroblasts resulting in
large pinocytic vesicles [35], and the enlarged structures we
observed might also be related to this phenomenon. In
any case, the colocalization between Src and Hrs is
consistent with the idea that Hrs is a substrate for Src
phosphorylation.
Fig. 4. Hrs colocalizes with constitutively
active Src on large endocytic structures. Hep-2
cells were transfected with the pSGT-Src
Y527F
construct that expresses constitutively active
Src, and permeabilized with 0.05% saponin
before fixation with 3% paraformaldehyde.
Src was stained with anti-Src Ig (rhodamine)
(a), Hrs with anti-Hrs Ig (FITC) (b) and early
endosomes with anti-EEA1 Ig (Cy5) (c).
Merged images are shown to illustrate colo-
calization between active Src and Hrs (yellow)
(d),HrsandEEA1(turquoise)(e)andactive
Src and EEA1 (purple) (f). Examples of
enlarged structures are pointed out (arrows).
Size bar ¼ 5 lm.
3884 K. G. Bache et al. (Eur. J. Biochem. 269) Ó FEBS 2002
Hrs is phosphorylated in cells that lack
Src, Yes and Fyn
The previous results led us to suspect that Src plays an
important role in thephosphorylationof Hrs. Therefore, we
wanted to examine whether EGF-induced phosphorylation
of Hrs can take place in cells lacking Src. The mouse
fibroblast cell line SYF-2, which is negative for Src and the
related kinases Yes and Fyn, was used for this experiment.
The EGF receptor is not endogenously expressed in this cell
line, and therefore had to be transfected in before serum-
starvation and EGF stimulation. As expected, no tyrosine
phosphorylation ofHrs was detected in starved SYF-2 cells
(Fig. 5, lane 1). However, when the cells were stimulated
with EGF (lane 2), we observed a significant phosphoryla-
tion of Hrs. This result demonstrates that kinases other than
Src, Yes and Fyn are able to phosphorylate Hrs.
Hrs is phosphorylated on multiple tyrosines,
and only a minor fraction is phosphorylated
Even though the ligand-induced phosphorylationofHrs has
been documented in many studies, the fraction ofHrs that is
phosphorylated has never been determined. Furthermore, it
is not known if Hrs is phosphorylated on single or multiple
tyrosine residues. In order to investigate this, we stimulated
Hep-2cellsfor8minwithEGFandanalyzedthe
phosphorylation ofHrs by 2D PAGE, which should enable
us to separate phosphorylated Hrs from nonphosphorylated
Hrs based on differences in the pI. We expected phosphory-
lated Hrs to have a slightly lower pI than nonphosphory-
lated Hrs, and to observe multiple spots if there are multiple
phosphorylation sites. In unstimulated cells, Hrs migrated
as a strong spot at pI 6, with a minor spot at slightly lower
pI (Fig. 6A). The nature of this minor spot is not known.
Significantly, in cells that were stimulated with EGF, we
observed at least three additional spots towards the acidic
side ofthe gel (Fig. 6B). When reprobing the blots with anti-
phosphotyrosine Ig, we confirmed that these three addi-
tional spots corresponded to phosphorylated Hrs (Fig. 6D),
whereas we observed no phosphorylation in the unstimu-
lated cells (Fig. 6C). To study if thephosphorylation occurs
in the N- or C-terminal regions of Hrs, we transfected an
N-terminal (Hrs1–289) and a C-terminal (Hrs287–775) Hrs
construct into HeLa cells and studied their phosphorylation
(Fig. 7) in the presence of EGF. Interestingly, both of these
constructs were phosphorylated, although Hrs287–775
showed the relatively strongest phosphorylation. We con-
clude from these experiments that Hrs is phosphorylated on
Fig. 5. Hrs is phosphorylated in cells lacking Src, Yes and Fyn. SYF-2
cells, which are negative for the Src family kinases Src, Yes and Fyn,
were transfected with EGF receptor, serum-starved for 4 h and sti-
mulated or not for 8 min with EGF. Hrs was immunoprecipitated
and phosphorylation analyzed by immunoblotting with anti-phospho-
tyrosine Ig (upper panel) or anti-Hrs Ig (lower panel).
Fig. 6. 2D PAGE reveals that only a minor fraction ofHrs is phos-
phorylated upon EGF stimulation. Hep-2 cells were serum-starved for
4 h and then stimulated (b and d) or not (a and c) for 8 min with EGF.
Hrs was then immunoprecipitated and analyzed by 2D gel electro-
phoresis and immunoblotting with anti-Hrs Ig (a and b) or anti-
phosphotyrosine Ig (c and d). Arrowheads indicate additional spots
appearing after stimulation, corresponding to phosphorylated Hrs.
Fig. 7. Both N- and C-terminal parts ofHrs are phosphorylated. Myc-
tagged wild-type Hrs or the deletion constructs Hrs1–289 and Hrs287–
775 were transfected into HeLa cells, which were stimulated for 8 min
with EGF. The expressed constructs were immunoprecipitated from cell
lysates using an antibody against the myc epitope, and analyzed by
immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine Ig (upper panel) or anti-
myc Ig (lower panel). Arrows indicate the position ofthe Ig heavy chain.
Ó FEBS 2002 Tyrosine phosphorylationofHrs (Eur. J. Biochem. 269) 3885
multiple tyrosine residues. When comparing the intensity of
the spots corresponding to phosphorylated forms with that
corresponding to nonphosphorylated Hrs, it is striking that
the former is much weaker than the latter one (10–20% as
measured by quantitation ofthe gel spots). This indicates
that only a fraction ofHrs becomes phosphorylated upon
EGF stimulation of cells.
DISCUSSION
In the present work, we show evidence that the phos-
phorylation ofHrs occurs downstreamofthe EGF
receptor kinase. Our findings that Src colocalizes with Hrs
and can phosphorylate Hrs in vitro and in vivo suggest
that this kinase may be involved in thephosphorylation of
Hrs. On the other hand, as EGF-dependent phosphory-
lation ofHrs occurs in cells that lack Src, Yes and Fyn,
Hrs must also be a substrate for other kinases. Our
2D-gel analysis, which indicates that Hrs is phosphoryl-
ated on multiple tyrosine residues upon EGF stimulation,
is consistent with this view.
There are 29 tyrosines in Hrs, and four of these are
conserved in Hrs from nematode, fly, mouse, rat and
human. Recent work has shown that tyrosine 334 (and
possibly tyrosine 329) ofHrs is phosphorylated [36]. We
found that the N-terminal part (residues 1–289) and the
C-terminal part (residues 287–775) were both phosphory-
lated, with the latter showing the relatively highest phos-
phorylation. Together with the fact that multiple spots
representing phosphorylated Hrs could be observed by 2D
PAGE, these findings lead us to conclude that multiple
tyrosines in Hrs are phosphorylated upon EGF stimulation.
By transfecting cells with a constitutively active mutant of
Src, we found that active Src has a strong ability to
phosphorylate Hrs in the absence ofgrowth factor/cytokine
stimuli. In addition we observed phosphorylationof Hrs
in vitro when incubating MBP fusion ofHrs with recom-
binant active Src. Src is activated in several signalling
pathways, including those known to lead to Hrs phos-
phorylation, and it localizes to the plasma membrane and
endosomes [37–41]. The facts that Hrs has functions in
membrane trafficking and the signalling pathway of growth
factors and cytokines [2,19], that it is localized to the limiting
membrane of early endosomes [26], and that it partially
colocalizes with Src (this study), are consistent with our
finding that Hrs is a substrate for Src phosphorylation. It is
evident, however, that kinases other than Src, Yes and Fyn
may also have Hrs as a substrate, because Hrs is still
phosphorylated in Src/Yes/Fyn negative cells upon EGF
stimulation. It is possible that different kinases phosphory-
late different tyrosine residues in Hrs, or that alternative
kinases can phosphorylate Hrs in the absence of Src. The
functional relevance ofthe Src-induced phosphorylation of
Hrs thus needs to be investigated further.
Previous work has shown that phosphorylated Hrs is
mainly present in cytosol, suggesting that phosphorylation
of Hrs may cause it to dissociate from endosome mem-
branes [4]. On the other hand, EGF stimulation does not
cause any detectable redistribution ofHrs from membranes
to cytosol [4]. This apparent paradox may be explained by
our present results, which show that only a minor fraction of
Hrs is phosphorylated upon EGF stimulation of HEp-2
cells. It will take further work to establish the exact
mechanism behind the cycling ofHrs between the cytosol
and endosomal membranes, and the functional consequen-
ces ofHrs phosphorylation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Sara Courtneidge for pSGT-Src
Y527F
.Thisworkwas
supported by the Top Research Programme, the Research Council of
Norway, the Norwegian Cancer Society, the Novo-Nordisk Founda-
tion and the Anders Jahre Foundation.
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Ó FEBS 2002 Tyrosine phosphorylationofHrs (Eur. J. Biochem. 269) 3887
. prevents the EGF-induced
phosphorylation of Hrs. This suggests that the phosphory-
lation of Hrs takes place on endosomes [4]. As the activation
of the EGF receptor. Phosphorylation of Hrs downstream of the epidermal
growth factor receptor
Kristi G. Bache
1
, Camilla Raiborg
1
,