Quantitative Phosphoproteomics Analysis of ERBB3/ERBB4 Signaling

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 8;11(1):e0146100. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146100. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The four members of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR/ERBB) family form homo- and heterodimers which mediate ligand-specific regulation of many key cellular processes in normal and cancer tissues. While signaling through the EGFR has been extensively studied on the molecular level, signal transduction through ERBB3/ERBB4 heterodimers is less well understood. Here, we generated isogenic mouse Ba/F3 cells that express full-length and functional membrane-integrated ERBB3 and ERBB4 or ERBB4 alone, to serve as a defined cellular model for biological and phosphoproteomics analysis of ERBB3/ERBB4 signaling. ERBB3 co-expression significantly enhanced Ba/F3 cell proliferation upon neuregulin-1 (NRG1) treatment. For comprehensive signaling studies we performed quantitative mass spectrometry (MS) experiments to compare the basal ERBB3/ERBB4 cell phosphoproteome to NRG1 treatment of ERBB3/ERBB4 and ERBB4 cells. We employed a workflow comprising differential isotope labeling with mTRAQ reagents followed by chromatographic peptide separation and final phosphopeptide enrichment prior to MS analysis. Overall, we identified 9686 phosphorylation sites which could be confidently localized to specific residues. Statistical analysis of three replicate experiments revealed 492 phosphorylation sites which were significantly changed in NRG1-treated ERBB3/ERBB4 cells. Bioinformatics data analysis recapitulated regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase and Akt pathways, but also indicated signaling links to cytoskeletal functions and nuclear biology. Comparative assessment of NRG1-stimulated ERBB4 Ba/F3 cells revealed that ERBB3 did not trigger defined signaling pathways but more broadly enhanced phosphoproteome regulation in cells expressing both receptors. In conclusion, our data provide the first global picture of ERBB3/ERBB4 signaling and provide numerous potential starting points for further mechanistic studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • B-Lymphocytes / cytology
  • B-Lymphocytes / drug effects
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism*
  • Cell Line
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neuregulin-1 / metabolism
  • Neuregulin-1 / pharmacology
  • Phosphoproteins / genetics*
  • Phosphoproteins / metabolism
  • Phosphorylation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Mapping
  • Proteome / genetics*
  • Proteome / metabolism
  • Receptor, ErbB-3 / genetics*
  • Receptor, ErbB-3 / metabolism
  • Receptor, ErbB-4 / genetics*
  • Receptor, ErbB-4 / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction*

Substances

  • Neuregulin-1
  • Nrg1 protein, mouse
  • Phosphoproteins
  • Proteome
  • ErbB3 protein, mouse
  • Erbb4 protein, mouse
  • Receptor, ErbB-3
  • Receptor, ErbB-4

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Belgian government agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) Grant number IWT 110431, awarded to DB (URL: http://www.iwt.be). The funder provided support including salaries for authors SKW and IL, but had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Evotec (München) GmbH and Janssen Pharmaceutica provided support in the form of salaries for authors MK, NJ, SE, HD, MP, EJ, JTML and DB, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript, except that both approved publication of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.