Src family kinases interfere with dimerization of STAT5A through a phosphotyrosine-SH2 domain interaction.

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is driven by the expression of the BCR-ABL oncoprotein. STAT5 is a BCR-ABL substrate and persistently activated by tyrosine phosphorylation in CML cells. Activated STAT5 (pSTAT5) drives proliferation and survival of leukemic cells and contributes to initial transformation and maintenance of the disease. In cytokine-induced STAT5 signaling, phosphorylation of STAT5A on Y694 leads to nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor, followed by DNA-binding and gene induction. However, Src-family kinases (SFK) mediate cytoplasmic retention of pSTAT5A leading to attenuated target gene expression and colony formation in CML cells.

Results: In this study we show that autophosphorylation of Y416 in the highly conserved activation loop of SFK generates a potent recruitment site for the SH2 domain of STAT5A. Binding of the SH2 domain to the activation loop is required for STAT5A(Y694) phosphorylation by SFK, but at the same time promotes the persistent cytoplasmic localization of the transcription factor as found in BCR-ABL(+) leukemia. As a consequence of the complex formation between tyrosine-phosphorylated SFK and the SH2 domain of STAT5A, the dimerization of STAT5A is impaired. We further demonstrate that constitutively active STAT5A(S710F) escapes from SFK-mediated cytoplasmic retention by enhancing STAT5A dimer stability.

Conclusion: Our results reveal important structural aspects of cytoplasmic pSTAT5A found in myeloid leukemias and will contribute to the understanding of STAT5A mediated cytoplasmic signaling.