Identification of a Protein Interacting with Human Nebulin SH3 Domain by Yeast Two-hybrid Screening

Nebulin is an unusually large actin-binding protein specific to the skeletal muscle of vertebrates. The correlation of nebulin size with thin filament length have led to the suggestion that nebulin acts as a molecular ruler for the length of thin filaments. An SH3 domain occupies the C terminus of nebulin, in the sarcomeric Z-disk and is preceded by a 120-residue stretch containing multiple putative phosphorylation sites. SH3 domain mediates protein-protein interaction involved in the subcellular localization of proteins, cytoskeletal organization and signal transduction. However the binding partner and physiological role of nebulin SH3 domains remains unknown. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, we identified supervillin, an actin-binding protein, as a nebulin SH3 domain-interacting protein. The SH3 domain of nebulin binds to the sequence encoding amino acids 977 to 1335 of supervillin. But the sequence encoding amino acids 977 to 1335 displays weaker binding than the sequence encoding amino acids 977 to 1788.