The adaptor protein p130Cas (CAS, BCAR1) represents a nodal signaling platform for integrin and growth factor receptor signaling, and influences normal development and tissue homeostasis. Its altered expression drives many pathological conditions including tumor growth, metastasis and drug resistance in many cancer types. How p130Cas contributes to many of these pathologies is still poorly understood. Therefore, the overall aim of my PhD work was to provide new insights to p130Cas signaling and its regulation. The SH3 domain is indispensable for p130Cas signaling, but the ligand binding characteristics of the p130Cas SH3 domain, and the structural determinants of its regulation were not well understood. To be able to study various aspects of p130Cas signaling we identified an atypical binding motif in p130Cas SH3 domain by establishing collaborations with Dr Veverka (Structural biology) and Dr Lepšík (Computational biochemistry; Academy of Sciences, CZ) which gave new insight into this binding interface. Through these collaborations I generated chimeras of p130Cas SH3 domain with its ligands for structural NMR analysis and learned how to visualize and analyze structures. Furthermore, my work expanded our knowledge of p130Cas SH3 ligand binding regulation and led to a novel model of Src-p130Cas- FAK...

The protein p130Cas (human ortholog BCAR1) is a major substrate for phosphorylation by the Src family kinase and plays a central role in oncogenic transformation. Increased level of BCAR1 correlates with primary tumour growth and cancer progression. Localized to focal adhesion, p130Cas serves as a mechanosensor and mediates key interactions with the extracellular environment. The structure of p130Cas is crucial for its function, mainly the anchoring domains SH3 and CCH, together with the substrate domain which is extended when under tension. This Master's thesis presents a newly developer FRET mechanosensor based on the structure of p130Cas. The sensor utilizes the anchoring domains of p130Cas for proper localization to focal adhesions, where it can detect tension in living cells. Key words: p130CAS, FRET, focal adhesions, mechanosensing

The protein p130Cas (human ortholog BCAR1) is a major substrate for phosphorylation by the Src family kinase and plays a central role in oncogenic transformation. Increased level of BCAR1 correlates with primary tumour growth and cancer progression. Localized to focal adhesion, p130Cas serves as a mechanosensor and mediates key interactions with the extracellular environment. The structure of p130Cas is crucial for its function, mainly the anchoring domains SH3 and CCH, together with the substrate domain which is extended when under tension. This Master's thesis presents a newly developer FRET mechanosensor based on the structure of p130Cas. The sensor utilizes the anchoring domains of p130Cas for proper localization to focal adhesions, where it can detect tension in living cells. Key words: p130CAS, FRET, focal adhesions, mechanosensing

iv Abstract Crosstalk of integrin and mTOR signalling is an essential process that monitors cellular interaction with extracellular matrix and transmits these inputs to cell growth signalling. Although adhesion status of the cell monitored by integrin signalling is clearly important for regulation of cellular growth, a little is known about the crosstalk of integrin and mTOR signalling. In this study, we employed two different approaches to describe and elucidate character of this crosstalk. p130Cas is an adaptor protein phosphorylated by Src kinase and focal adhesion kinase upon integrin ligand binding and implicated in cell adhesion, motility and survival in both Src-transformed and untransformed cells. Recently, p130Cas was also described in cellular pathology, mainly by its ability to stimulate cell invasion and metastasis. In this study, we described that p130Cas affects mTOR signalling in Src-transformed cells. Substrate domain of p130Cas was found to be indispensable for this effect and is also responsible for serum-induced activation of mTOR signalling. In addition, we prepared cell lines overexpressing various Rheb protein versions and characterized them in context of mTOR signalling, integrin signalling and cell cycle progression. Interestingly, a cell line overexpressing constitutively active...

Protein p130Cas is the major tyrosine phosphorylated protein in cells transformed by v-crk and v-src oncogenes. P130Cas plays an important role in invasiveness and metastasis of Src-transformed cells. In breast cancer patients, high p130Cas levels are associated with higher recurrence of disease, poor response to tamoxifen treatment and lower overall survival. In non-transformed cells, after the stimulation of integrins, protein p130Cas is phosphorylated in substrate domain affecting cell migration and cytoskeletal dynamics. For this signalling is the SH3 domain of p130Cas indispensable. In this thesis, was for the first time using the Phage display method analysed and subsequently characterized the binding motif of SH3 domain of p130Cas. Based on this high-affinity motif [AP]-P-[APMS]-K-P-[LPST]-[LR]- [LPST], we predicted new interaction partners of protein p130Cas and subsequently confirmed the interaction with the Ser/Thr kinase PKN3. This kinase colocalizes with p130Cas in the nucleus and perinuclear region and could phosphorylate p130Cas. In this thesis, we also analysed the effect of phosphomimicking mutation of tyrosine from sequence ALYD, which is conserved in the sequence of SH3 domains, on ability of these domains to bind ligands. This mutation reduced binding by about 3 orders of...

Both p130Cas and PKN3 are important regulators of cellular signaling deregulation of which leads to malignant behavior of cancer cells. Recently we have found that SH3 domain of p130Cas mediates interaction with proline rich region of PKN3 suggesting their possible cooperation in regulation of these processes. In this work we have focused on the phosphorylation of p130Cas by PKN3 and identified serine 498 (S498) within the serine rich domain of p130Cas to be phosphorylated by PKN3 in vitro. Given that S498 is localized within the 14-3-3 binding motif and its phosphorylation is required for interaction of p130Cas with 14-3-3 proteins, we propose potential existence of novel PKN3/p130Cas/14-3-3 signaling axis. In the second part of the work we have studied this pathway in response to antiestrogen treatment in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cell line MCF7. Although we have shown inactivation of PKN3 occurs as an early response to tamoxifen treatment, we do not rule out its possible role in further promotion of resistance to antiestrogens. Furthermore, understanding the signaling triggered by interaction of PKN3 with p130Cas and its possible downstream effects on promoting malignant growth of cancer cells would help in finding novel therapeutic targets.

P130Cas (Crk-associated substrate, CAS) is a multiadaptor protein important in integrin signalling where it positively regulates cell motility, invasion, proliferation and survival. CAS lacks enzymatic activity, but its binding to other signalling proteins could lead to the change of phosphorylation status of its substrate domain, which is the main mode, through which CAS takes part in regulating cell behavior. Local tensions in focal adhesions lead to an extension of CAS substrate domain, leaving phosphorylation sites more accessible for kinases, which subsequently leads to an increased CAS substrate domain phosphorylation. The CAS anchorage in focal adhesions is mediated by its SH3 domain, probably through the interactions with FAK, and also by C-terminal domain, where interaction partners are not known. The aim of my project is to find out, which proteins mediate the CAS anchorage to the focal adhesions. The elucidation of CAS anchorage to focal adhesions will contribute to the understanding of mechanosensory function of CAS. Experimental data suggest that tyrosine phosphorylation of the CAS SH3 domain plays an important role in the regulation of its binding properties. Another goal of my diploma project was to analyze the significance of tyrosine phosphorylation within SH3 domain and other...

Protein CAS is a major tyrosine-phosphorylated protein in cells transformed by v-crk and v-src oncogenes. It is a multidomain adaptor protein, which serves as a scaffold for assembly of signalling complexes which are important for migration and invasiveness of Src-transformed cells. A novel phosphorylation site in N-terminal SH3 domain was identified - tyrosine 12 located on binding surface of CAS SH3 domain. To study biological importance of tyrosine 12 phosphorylation, non-phosphorylable (Y12F) and phosphomimicking ( Y12E) mutant of CAS were prepared. We found that phosphomimicking mutation Y12E leads to decreased interaction of CAS SH domain with kinase FAK a phosphatase PTP-PEST and also reduce tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK. Using GFP-tagged CAS protein, we show that Y12E mutation caused delocalization of CAS from focal adhesion but has no effect on localization of CAS to podosome-type adhesion. Non-phosphorylable mutation Y12F cause hyperphosphorylation of CAS substrate domain and decrease turnover of focal adhesion and associated cell migration of mouse embryonal fibroblasts (MEFs) independent to integrin singalling. Analogically to migration, CAS Y12F decrease invasiveness of Src-transformed MEF. The results of this diploma thesis show that phosphorylation of Tyr12 in CAS SH3 domain is...

Crk associated substrate (Cas) is an adaptor protein that becomes phosphorylated upon integrin signaling and influences regulation of cell processes such as migration, proliferation and survival. It consists of multiple domains and regions that can interact with several signaling proteins involved in different signaling pathways. Cas was first discovered as a highly phosphorylated protein in v-Src and v-Crk transformed cells, showing involvement of this protein in cell transformation High level of Breast cancer antiestrogen resistance protein (BCAR-1), a homologue to Cas has shown to correlate with rapid reoccurrence of breast cancer and also create resistance towards Tamoxifen, the widely used medicine for receptor positive breast cancer patients. We have defined boundaries of two regions of Cas termed serine rich region (SRR) and Src binding domain (SBD) respectively and have isolated these segments for biochemical and structural studies. The structure of the serine rich part of Cas has been determined by NMR spectroscopy and reveals a four-helix bundle with unusually long loops. The 14-3-3 protein binds to Cas in a phospho-serine dependent manner and our study suggests that the binding site is located between two helices. The SH2-SH3 domain of a Src family kinase, Lck has also been crystallized in complex with a nine residue long peptide corresponding to the region in Cas that binds to SH2 domains. The structure of this complex has been solved at 2.7Å and shows that Cas binds Src family kinases (SFK) with high affinity suggesting a specific interaction between these two molecules. The biochemical studies on the specific binding site of these molecules show that SFK can bind to any of the phosphorylated tyrosines on the SH2 binding domain of Cas and only one phospho-tyrosine is enough to establish the binding. This binding assay does also indicate that SH3 binding domain of Cas is not essential for SFK binding.