Src homology 2 (SH2) domain found in SH2 domain-bearing protein kinases D and E (ShkD and ShkE)
SH2-bearing genes cloned from Dictyostelium include two transcription factors, STATa and STATc, and a signaling factor, SHK1 (shkA). A database search of the Dictyostelium discoideum genome revealed two additional putative STAT sequences, dd-STATb and dd-STATd, and four additional putative SHK genes, dd-SHK2 (shkB), dd-SHK3 (shkC), dd-SHK4 (shkD), and dd-SHK5 (shkE). This model contains members of shkD and shkE. All of the SHK members are most closely related to the protein kinases found in plants. However these kinases in plants are not conjugated to any SH2 or SH2-like sequences. Alignment data indicates that the SHK SH2 domains carry some features of the STAT SH2 domains in Dictyostelium. When STATc's linker domain was used for a BLAST search, the sequence between the protein kinase domain and the SH2 domain (the linker) of SHK was recovered, suggesting a close relationship among these molecules within this region. SHK's linker domain is predicted to contain an alpha-helix which is indeed homologous to that of STAT. Based on the phylogenetic alignment, SH2 domains can be grouped into two categories, STAT-type and Src-type. SHK family members are in between, but are closer to the STAT-type which indicates a close relationship between SHK and STAT families in their SH2 domains and further supports the notion that SHKs linker-SH2 domain evolved from STAT or STATL (STAT-like Linker-SH2) domain found in plants. In SHK, STAT, and SPT6, the linker-SH2 domains all reside exclusively in the C-terminal regions. In general SH2 domains are involved in signal transduction. They typically bind pTyr-containing ligands via two surface pockets, a pTyr and hydrophobic binding pocket, allowing proteins with SH2 domains to localize to tyrosine phosphorylated sites.
Jiyao W et al.(2023). "The conserved domain database in 2023.",