Serine Phosphorylation of SLP76 Is Dispensable for T Cell Development but Modulates Helper T Cell Function

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 20;12(1):e0170396. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170396. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The adapter protein SLP76 is a key orchestrator of T cell receptor (TCR) signal transduction. We previously identified a negative feedback loop that modulates T cell activation, involving phosphorylation of Ser376 of SLP76 by the hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1). However, the physiological relevance of this regulatory mechanism was still unknown. To address this question, we generated a SLP76-S376A-expressing knock-in mouse strain and investigated the effects of Ser376 mutation on T cell development and function. We report here that SLP76-S376A-expressing mice exhibit normal thymocyte development and no detectable phenotypic alterations in mature T cell subsets or other lymphoid and myeloid cell lineages. Biochemical analyses revealed that mutant T cells were hypersensitive to TCR stimulation. Indeed, phosphorylation of several signaling proteins, including SLP76 itself, phospholipase Cγ1 and the protein kinases AKT and ERK1/2, was increased. These modifications correlated with increased Th1-type and decreased Th2-type cytokine production by SLP76-S376A T cells, but did not result in significant changes of proliferative capacity nor activation-induced cell death susceptibility. Hence, our results reveal that SLP76-Ser376 phosphorylation does not mediate all HPK1-dependent regulatory effects in T cells but it fine-tunes helper T cell responses.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Phosphoproteins / metabolism*
  • Phosphorylation
  • Serine / metabolism*
  • Signal Transduction
  • T-Lymphocytes / metabolism*

Substances

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing
  • Phosphoproteins
  • SLP-76 signal Transducing adaptor proteins
  • Serine

Grants and funding

V.N. was funded by a doctoral contract of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This work was funded by grants from the Institut Pasteur (www.pasteur.fr), the French National Center for Scientific Research (www.cnrs.fr), the Ligue Contre le Cancer – Comité de Paris (www.ligue-cancer.net; grants nr. RS12/75-107 and RS13/75-30 to V.D.B.), the Agence National de la Recherche (www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr; grant nr. ANR-11-BSV3-0025 to A.A). French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm); website: www.inserm.fr. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.