Potent SHC tyrosine phosphorylation by epidermal growth factor at low receptor density or in the absence of receptor autophosphorylation sites.

The importance of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor expression level and autophosphorylation sites in src homology and collagen protein (SHC) tyrosine phosphorylation has been studied. In contrast to EGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of the GTPase-activating protein for ras (rasGAP) and phospholipase C-gamma 1 (PLC-gamma 1), SHC tyrosine phosphorylation occurs at a very low receptor density in parental NIH3T3 mouse fibroblasts expressing less than 1 x 10(4) EGF receptors per cell. In transfected NIH3T3 cells expressing human EGF receptors (approximately 4 x 10(5) receptors per cell), maximal levels of SHC and PLC-gamma 1 tyrosine phosphorylation occur when approximately 4 x 10(4) receptors or more are occupied by ligand. At lower levels of receptor occupancy only SHC phosphorylation was significant. Also, EGF treatment of mouse keratinocytes, which represent a physiological target of EGF, express a low number of EGF receptors (approximately 2 x 10(4) receptors per cell), and stringently require EGF to grow, results in intense SHC tyrosine phosphorylation, compared to rasGAP or PLC-gamma 1. SHC is also efficiently tyrosine phosphorylated by an EGF receptor deletion mutant (Dc214) that is devoid of autophosphorylation sites, but which remains mitogenically responsive to EGF. The EGF receptor mutant Dc214 is able to activate the ras guanine nucleotide exchanger and phosphorylate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), presumable as a result of complex formation between tyrosine phosphorylated SHC and GRB2. These results indicate that potent EGF-induced SHC tyrosine phosphorylation can be triggered in cells having relatively few receptors. Also, our data show that EGF receptors are able to phosphorylate SHC, activate the exchange of guanine nucleotide on ras and phosphorylate MAPK by a mechanism that does not require receptor autophosphorylation sites and, therefore, the src homology 2 (SH2):phosphotyrosine-dependent interaction of SHC or GRB2 with the EGF receptor.