Dimerization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) leads to the activation of its tyrosine kinase. To elucidate whether dimerization is responsible for activation of the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain or just plays a role in the stabilization of the active form, the activated status of wild-type EGFR moiety in the heterodimer with kinase activity-deficient mutant receptors was investigated. The kinase activity of the wildtype EGFR was partially activated by EGF in the heterodimer with intracellular domain deletion (sEGFR) or ATP binding-deficient mutant (K721A) EGFRs, while the wild-type EGFR in the heterodimer of wild-type and phosphate transfer activity-deficient mutant receptor D813N could be fully activated. After treatment with EGF, the ATP binding affinity and the V-max of the wildtype EGFR increased. In the presence of sEGFR, a similar increase in the affinity for ATP was observed, but V-max did not change. A two-step activation mechanism for EGFR was proposed: upon binding of EGF, the affin -ity for ATP increased and then, as a result of interaction between the neighboring tyrosine kinase domain, V-max increased. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).