c-Src Signaling Induced by the Adapters Sin and Cas Is Mediated by Rap1 GTPase

Abstract

Oncogenic Src proteins have been extensively studied to gain insight into the signaling mechanisms of Src. To better understand signaling through wild-type Src, we used an approach that involves activation of Src signaling through the binding of physiologic ligands to the Src SH3 domain. To this end, we used full-length and truncated versions of the multiadapter molecules Cas and Sin to activate c-Src, and we examined the intracellular pathways that mediate Src signaling under these conditions. We show that although all proteins bind to and are phosphorylated by c-Src, quantitative differences exist in the ability of the different ligands to activate c-Src signaling. In addition, we show that Sin- and Cas-induced Src signaling, as assayed by transcriptional activation, is exclusively mediated through a pathway that involves the adapter Crk and the GTP-binding protein Rap1. These data are in contrast to previous observations showing Ras to mediate signaling downstream of transforming Src alleles. In our system, we found that signaling through the oncogenic SrcY527 mutant is indeed mediated by Ras. In addition, we found that Rap1 also mediates oncogenic Src signaling. Our results show for the first time that Rap1 mediates c-Src kinase signaling and reveal mechanistic differences in the signaling properties of wild-type and transforming Src proteins.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was initiated in the laboratory of David Baltimore, and we thank him for support. We thank C. Roman and A. Koleske for critically reading the manuscript. We also thank C. Hauser for the AP-1 construct and P. Stork for the Rap1N17 mutant.

This work was supported in part by American Cancer Society grant RPG99-09-01MGO and by Department of Defense grant BC980976. L.X. is supported by American Cancer Society grant RPG99-09-01MGO. K.A. was supported in part by Department of Defense grant BC980671.