Abstract
The adapter protein Fe65 has been proposed to be the link between the intracellular domains of the amyloid precursor protein, APP (AICD), and the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP-CT). Functional linkage between these two proteins has been established, and mutations within LRP-CT affect the amount of Aβ produced from APP. Previous work showed that AICD binds to protein interaction domain 2 (PID2) of Fe65. Although the structure of PID1 was determined recently, all attempts to demonstrate LRP-CT binding to this domain failed. We used biophysical experiments and binding studies to investigate the binding among these three proteins. Full-length Fe65 bound more weakly to AICD than did N-terminally truncated forms; however, the intramolecular domain-domain interactions that had been proposed to inhibit binding could not be observed using amide H-D exchange. Surprisingly, when LRP-CT is phosphorylated at Tyr4507, it bound to Fe65 PID1 despite the fact that this domain belongs to the Dab-like subclass of PIDs that are not supposed to be phosphorylation-dependent. Mutation of a critical arginine abolished binding, providing further proof of the phosphorylation dependence. Fe65 PID1 thus provides a link between the Dab-like class and the IRS-like class of PIDs and is the first Dab-like family member to show phosphorylation-dependent binding.