Decrease in beta-subunit phosphotyrosine correlates with internalization and activation of the endosomal insulin receptor kinase.

In a previous study, we showed that the rat hepatic insulin receptor (IR) kinase of endosomes (ENs) was transiently activated to levels exceeding those of plasma membrane (PM) receptors following insulin injection. Phosphatase treatment of EN receptors abolished IR kinase activation implicating beta-subunit autophosphorylation as a mediator of the activation process (Khan, M. N., Baquiran, G., Brule, C., Burgess, J., Foster, B., Bergeron, J. J. M., and Posner, B. I. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 12931-12940). In the present study, the phosphotyrosine (PY) content of the IR beta-subunit in PM and ENs was estimated by two different methods. In one method, direct in vivo labeling with 32Pi followed by receptor immunoprecipitation was carried out. In the second method, immunoblotting with antibodies against the submembrane domain of the IR beta-subunit, encompassing residue 960 (alpha 960), and with antibodies against PY (alpha PY) was used to determine the content of PY/beta-subunit in PM and ENs following injection of insulin. By both methods, it was found that the PY content of PM IR was significantly greater than that of IR in ENs. With doses of 1.5 micrograms of insulin/100 g body weight (50% receptor occupancy) or 15 micrograms/100 g body weight (receptor saturation), the PY/beta-subunit of PM IR attained a level 2.0 to 2.5-fold of that observed for the IR of ENs. Surprisingly, the IR of ENs incorporated 3 to 5 times more PY/beta-subunit than those of PM consequent to autophosphorylation. Exogenous IR kinase activity (poly(Glu:Tyr)) in PM changed only slightly with insulin dose. In contrast, EN receptors exhibited a dose-dependent increase in kinase activity coincident with the decrease in PY/beta-subunit levels. A comparison of the proportion of receptor and kinase activity immunoprecipitated by alpha PY both before and after autophosphorylation indicated that ENs but not PM contained a small population of lightly phosphorylated but highly activated receptors. Since Thr12-Lys (IR kinase residues 1142-1153) efficiently inhibited IR autophosphorylation of both PM and EN receptors, Tris phosphorylation of beta-subunit regulatory tyrosines was unlikely. These results may be explicable by a dephosphorylation-dependent activation of IR kinase, as seen with the src family of tyrosine kinases.