Reprogramming signal transduction through a designer receptor tyrosine kinase

Controlling signal transduction with artificial designer receptors is a promising approach to realize future medicine for intractable diseases. Although several functional artificial receptors have been reported by domain engineering, more sophisticated engineering within domains has yet to be thoroughly investigated. Here we demonstrate motif-based engineering of a receptor tyrosine kinase for reprogramming signal transduction. We design a scaffold-less tyrosine kinase domain that does not recruit any signal transducers but retains its kinase function. The resultant scaffold-less tyrosine kinase domain is linked to a tyrosine motif that recruits a target signaling molecule upon its phosphorylation. The engineered tyrosine motif–kinase fusion protein is further connected to a small molecule- or light-dependent dimerizing domain that can switch on the kinase activity in response to an external stimulus. The resultant designer receptors attain specific chemical- or photo-activation of signaling molecules of interest in mammalian cells. Thus, our designer receptor tyrosine kinase proves the possibility of rationally reprogramming intracellular signal transduction on a motif basis. The motif-based receptor engineering may realize tailor-made functional receptors useful in the fields of biology and medicine.