Grb10 interacts differentially with the insulin receptor, insulin-like growth factor I receptor, and epidermal growth factor receptor via the Grb10 Src homology 2 (SH2) domain and a second novel domain located between the pleckstrin homology and SH2 domains.

The Grb10 protein appears to be an adapter protein of unknown function that has been implicated in insulin receptor (IR) signaling. The interaction of this protein with the IR has been shown to be mediated in part by the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain of Grb10. Here we demonstrate the existence of a second novel domain within Grb10 that interacts with the IR and insulin-like growth factor receptor in a kinase-dependent manner. This domain was localized to a region of approximately 50 amino acids, and we term it the BPS domain to denote its location between the PH and SH2 domains. The BPS domain does not bear any obvious resemblance to other known protein interaction domains but is highly conserved among the Grb10-related proteins Grb7 and Grb14. We show that the BPS domain interaction is dependent upon receptor tyrosine kinase activity. Furthermore, interaction of the BPS domain requires the kinase domain of the IR, since mutation of the paired tyrosine residues (Y1150F/Y1151F) within the IR activation loop dramatically reduced the interaction. Last, our data suggest that the presence of two distinct protein interaction domains may help to determine the specificity by which Grb10 interacts with different receptors. Specifically, the IR, which appears to interact most strongly with Grb10, interacts well with both the SH2 and BPS domains. Conversely, the insulin-like growth factor receptor and EGFR, which interact less avidly with Grb10, interact well only with the BPS domain or the SH2 domain, respectively. In summary, our findings demonstrate the existence of a previously unidentified tyrosine kinase activity-dependent binding domain located between the Pleckstrin homology and SH2 domains of Grb10.