Sulfotyrosine, an interaction specificity determinant for extracellular protein-protein interactions

Abstract

AbstractTyrosine sulfation, a post-translational modification, can enhance and often determine protein-protein interaction specificity. Sulfotyrosyl residues (sTyr) are formed by tyrosyl- protein sulfotransferases (TPSTs) during maturation of certain secreted proteins. Here we consider three contexts for sTyr function. First, a single sTyr residue is critical for high-affinity peptide-receptor interactions in plant peptide hormones and animal receptors for glycopeptide hormones. Second, structurally flexible anionic segments often contain a cluster of two or three sTyr residues within a six-residue span. These sTyr residues are essential for coreceptor binding of the HIV-1 envelope spike protein during virus entry and for chemokine interactions with many chemokine receptors. Third, several proteins that interact with thrombin, central to normal blood-clotting, require the presence of sTyr residues in the context of acidic sequences termed hirudin- like motifs. Consequently, many proven and potential therapeutic proteins derived from blood-consuming invertebrates depend on sTyr residues for their activity. Technical advances in generating and documenting site-specific sTyr substitutions facilitate discovery and analysis, and promise to enable engineering of defined interaction determinants.