EPH tyrosine kinase receptors regulate epithelial morphogenesis and phosphorylate the PAR-3 scaffold protein to modulate downstream signaling networks

The EPH family is the largest among receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) in humans. In contrast to other RTKs, EPH receptors (EPHRs) cognate ligands, ephrins, are tethered to the cell surface. This results in EPHRs-ephrin signaling being mainly involved in short-range cell-cell communication events that regulate cell adhesion, migration and tissue boundary formation. Although EPHRs functions have been broadly studied, the molecular mechanisms by which they mediate these processes are far from being understood. To address this question, we sought to identify new downstream effector proteins for EPHRs and to determine their requirement for EPHR-regulated functions. To unravel EPHR-associated signaling complexes under native conditions, we applied a mass spectrometry-based approach, namely BioID proximity labeling. We obtained a composite proximity network from EPHA4, -B2, -B3 and -B4 receptors that comprises 395 proteins, most of which were not previously linked to EPH signaling. A gene ontology and pathway term analysis of the most common candidates highlighted cell polarity as a novel function associated with EPHR activity. We found that EPHA1 and EPHB4 expression is restricted to the basal and lateral membrane domains in polarized Caco-2 3D spheroidal cell cultures. We further discovered that their depletion impairs spheroid morphogenesis. In parallel, we examined the contribution of a number of candidates, selected from EPHR proximity networks, via loss-of-function in an EPHR-dependent cell segregation assay. We showed that depletion of the signaling scaffold PAR-3 blocks cell sorting. We also delineated a signalling complex involving C-terminal SRC kinase (CSK), whose recruitment to PAR-3 complexes is dependent on EPHR signals. Our work sheds light on EPHR signaling networks and provides a better understanding of the mechanisms by which EPHRs signal at the membrane to contribute to the establishment of cellular phenotypes.