Several tyrosine phosphorylation sites in the insulin receptor kinase substrate IRS-1 are predicted to be within Tyr-Met-X-Met (YMXM) motifs, and synthetic peptides corresponding to these sequences are excellent substrates for the insulin receptor kinase in vitro (Shoelson, S. E., Chatterjee, S., Chaudhuri, M., and White, M. F. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 89, 2027-2031). In this study, YMXM-containing peptides are shown to act as substrates for two members of the nonreceptor subfamily of tyrosine kinases, v-Src and v-Abl (the transforming gene products of Rous sarcoma virus and Abelson murine leukemia virus, respectively). For v-Src, a baculovirus expression system was used which was capable of producing milligram quantities of pure 60-kDa v-Src in Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells. The source of v-Abl was an Escherichia coli expression vector that produces a fusion protein of glutathione S-transferase with the abl catalytic domain. The synthetic YMXM-containing peptides had among the highest apparent affinities described to date for either tyrosine kinase, with Km values as low as 97 microM for v-Src and v-Abl. Comparisons with the results obtained with the insulin receptor kinase revealed differences in substrate specificity among the enzymes. In particular, v-Src was more tolerant of substitutions at the Met+1 and Met+3 positions in the YMXM motif than either v-Abl or the insulin receptor kinase but was more dependent on the presence of a preceding acidic amino acid. For v-Abl, the presence of threonine at any position in the YMXM motif caused a reduction in catalytic efficiency. Phosphorylated YMXM motifs are recognition elements for binding to the src homology 2 domains of phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase and additional proteins; hence, differences in specificity of tyrosine kinases toward YMXM-containing proteins may have relevance to downstream signaling events.