None of The Four Tyrosine Residues is Essential for the Bio-logical Activity of Erythropoietin

Erythropoietin (EPO), a glycoprotein hormone, regulates the proliferation and differentiation of ereythroid progenitor cells. Many attempts have been made to identify the functionally important amino acids of the hormone. One of those early studies has found that heavy redioiodination of EPO caused the loss of its biological activity, suggesting some important role of one of the four tyrosine residues (Goldwasser, 1981). Thus, in this study, we have generated and tested four $Tyr{\dashrightarrow}Phe$ substitution mutants to clarify the possible role of the tyrosine residue(s) in the hormone's Tyrosine residue(s) in the hormone's biological activity. When the mutant and wild type EPO cDBAs were transfected into COS-7 cells and the biological activities of the muteins were assayed using the primary murine erythroid spleen cells, no mutation tested was found to affect the biological activity of the hormone. Thus we conclude that, contrary to the previous observation, none of the four tyrosine in eryghropoietin is critically involved in the binding of the hormone to its receptor.