PTPRM

Receptor-type tyrosine-protein phosphatase mu is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the PTPRM gene.

The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) family. Protein tyrosine phosphatases are protein enzymes that remove phosphate moieties from tyrosine residues on other proteins. Tyrosine kinases are enzymes that add phosphates to tyrosine residues, and are the opposing enzymes to PTPs. PTPs are known to be signaling molecules that regulate a variety of cellular processes including cell growth, differentiation, mitotic cycle, and oncogenic transformation. PTPs can be both cytosolic and transmembrane.

Transmembrane PTPs are known as receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases (RPTPs). RPTPs are single pass transmembrane proteins usually with one or two catalytic domains in their intracellular domain (the part of the protein that is inside the cell) and diverse extracellular structures (the part of the protein that is outside the cell).

PTPmu possesses an extracellular region, a single transmembrane region, a 158 amino acid long juxtamembrane domain and two tandem tyrosine phosphatase domains (referred to as D1 and D2) in its intracellular domain, and thus represents an RPTP. Only the membrane proximal phosphatase domain, D1, is catalytically active. The extracellular region contains a meprin-A5 antigen-PTP mu (MAM) domain, an Ig-like domain and four fibronectin type III-like repeats. There are other RPTPs that resemble PTPmu. These proteins are all grouped as type IIb RPTPs, and include PTPkappa (κ), PTPrho (ρ), and PCP-2. The structure of type IIb RPTPs classifies them as members of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell adhesion molecules, in addition to being tyrosine phosphatases. The structure of PTPmu suggests that it can regulate cell adhesion and migration using its extracellular cell adhesion molecule features, while also regulating the level of tyrosine phosphorylation inside of cells using its catalytic tyrosine phosphatase domain. A series of reviews have been written about RPTPs including PTPmu. PTPmu is expressed in different organ tissues in the body, including the lung, heart and brain, pancreas, endothelial cells in capillaries and arteries throughout the body, and in retinal and brain cells. PTPmu has been shown to increase the mRNA of the K+ channel Kv1.5 in cardiac myocytes when CHO cells expressing PTPmu are cultured with cardiac myocytes.

PTPmu protein expressed on the surface of cells is able to mediate binding between two cells, which results in the clustering of the cells, known as cell–cell aggregation. PTPmu accomplishes this by interacting with another PTPmu molecule on an adjacent cell, known as homophilic binding. The Ig domain of PTPmu is responsible for promoting homophilic binding. The Ig domain is also responsible for localizing PTPmu to the plasma membrane surface of the cell. The ability of closely related molecules like PTPmu and PTPkappa to separate themselves to associate only with their identically matched (homologous) molecules, known as sorting, is attributed to the MAM domain. The MAM, Ig, and the first two FNIII repeats are the minimum extracellular domains required for efficient cell–cell adhesion. Crystallographic studies demonstrated that the MAM and Ig domains are tightly associated into one functional entity. Additional crystal structure analysis by Aricescu and colleagues predicted that the adhesive interface between two PTPμ proteins is between the MAM and Ig domains of one PTPμ protein interacts with the first and second FN III domains of the second PTPμ protein. The type IIb RPTPs mediate adhesion, with the exception of PCP-2.

There are a number of ways that RPTP catalytic activity can be regulated (for reviews, see ). Dimerization of identical RPTP proteins at the cell surface leaves the PTP domains either in an open active conformation, as in the case of PTPmu and LAR, or in an inhibited conformation that leaves the catalytic domain inaccessible, in the case of CD45, PTPalpha, and PTPzeta/beta. The binding of different parts of the protein with itself (ex. by folding to interact with itself), known as intramolecular interactions, can affect the activity of RPTPs. The cytoplasmic domains of different RPTPs can interact to yield heterodimers of RPTP proteins, which then influence catalytic activity (for example, see ).

The regulation of PTPmu catalytic activity is complex. Like most RPTPs, the membrane proximal (or D1) phosphatase domain of PTPmu is catalytically active. At high cell density, when PTPmu molecules bind to one another homophilically, phosphotyrosine levels are decreased. This suggests that PTPmu may be catalytically active at high cell density. Substrates of PTPmu (proteins that are dephosphorylated by PTPmu), such as p120catenin, tend to be dephosphorylated at high cell density, supporting the hypothesis that PTPmu is catalytically active when bound homophilically. PTPmu is constitutively dimerized due to its extracellular domain.

Crystal structure analysis of the D1 of PTPmu demonstrated that PTPmu dimers are in an open active conformation. Even though PTPmu dimers may be active, an additional study suggests that the extracellular domain of PTPmu reduces phosphatase activity. In this study, it was shown that the cytoplasmic domain of PTPmu (a PTPmu molecule lacking the extracellular domain) has greater phosphatase activity than the full-length protein in an enzymatic phosphatase assay.