Four proline-rich sequences of the guanine-nucleotide exchange factor C3G bind with unique specificity to the first Src homology 3 domain of Crk

The widely expressed cellular Crk protein has the domain structure SH2-SH3-SH3. We have previously demonstrated that the more N-terminal SH3 domain of Crk (CrkSH3(N)) specifically binds several cytoplasmic proteins. A cDNA encoding one of these proteins was isolated and found to have two different splice forms. The sequence is virtually identical to C3G, a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor. The center region of the 145-155-kDa protein contains four similar proline-rich sequences which are capable of binding individually to the SH3(N) domains of c-Crk and v-Crk. Comparison of these sequences in C3G to proline-rich sequences in other Crk-binding proteins suggests that positively charged amino acids following the prolines play an important role in the binding to the CrkSH3(N) domain. The endogenous C3G could be coprecipitated with Crk from cell lysates of cells expressing high levels of c-Crk or v-Crk, suggesting high binding affinity and a possible interaction in vivo. Unlike many other SH3-binding proteins which interact with multiple SH3 domains, C3G from cell lysates binds preferentially to the CrkSH3(N) domain. This unique binding specificity supports the idea that C3G plays an important role in Crk signaling pathways.