Evolution of Gab family adaptor proteins

Abstract

The Gab/dos/Soc-1 proteins form a family of multi-adaptor/scaffolding proteins involved in receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. To further understanding of the Gab family and the Drosophila Dos protein in particular, we isolated a dos homolog from both Drosophila pseudoobscura and Drosophila virilis and compared their gene structures and protein sequences with the rest of the Gab family. The presence of two conserved introns confirmed that the dos and gab genes are orthologous, but the Caenorhabditis elegans soc-1 gene had no unambiguously conserved introns with either dos or gab. However, phylogenetic analysis suggests that soc-1 probably represents a divergent member of the Gab family. Apart from the PH domain, which is well conserved in all Gab family members, the proteins show a low level of sequence conservation. Two tyrosines that probably bind to the Src Homology 2 (SH2) domains of a tyrosine phosphatase in all Gab family members are conserved at the C-terminal end; two other potential SH2-binding sites in Dos were also identified, as well as several proline rich sequences that might bind to SH3 or EVH1 domains in other proteins. A major partner for mammalian Gab is phospholipase C-γ (PLC-γ); genetic and biochemical tests for a PLC-γ-SH3::Dos interaction were negative, indicating that if Drosophila PLC-γ binds to Dos, it must do so indirectly or through an SH2-phosphotyrosine interaction.