Regulation of the interaction of Disabled-1 with CIN85 by phosphorylation with Cyclin-dependent kinase 5

Disabled-1 (Dab1) is an adaptor protein mediating Reelin signaling in neuronal migration during brain development. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5)-p35 is a proline-directed Ser/Thr kinase also involved in neuronal migration. The interaction between Dab1 and Cdk5 is in need of investigation. Dab1 was phosphorylated at Ser400 and Ser491 by Cdk5 in vivo. We search for proteins that interact with Dab1 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner at these sites, and identified CIN85, an SH3-containing adaptor protein involved in endocytosis, and CPα/CPβ, which are subunits of barbed end F-actin-capping proteins (CP), as proteins bound to unphosphorylated Dab1 by mass spectrometric analysis. It was shown that the PTPAPR sequence of Dab1, conforming to the PxxxPR atypical SH3-binding motif, was the binding site for SH3 domains of CIN85. The results that phosphorylation at Ser491 close to the PTPAPR sequence inhibited association with CIN85 may provide a mechanism regulating the interaction between the PxxxPR motif proteins and SH3 domains of CIN85 family proteins. Together with previous results that CIN85 regulates actin assembly, present results raise the possibility that Cdk5 modulates actin dynamics through regulation of CIN85-Dab1 interaction by the Dab1 phosphorylation.