Achieving a Graded Immune Response: BTK Adopts a Range of Active/Inactive Conformations Dictated by Multiple Interdomain Contacts

Capturing the functionally relevant forms of dynamic, multidomain proteins is extremely challenging. Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a kinase essential for B and mast cell function, has stubbornly resisted crystallization in its full-length form. Here, nuclear magnetic resonance and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry show that BTK adopts a closed conformation in dynamic equilibrium with open, active conformations. BTK lacks the phosphotyrosine regulatory tail of the SRC kinases, yet nevertheless achieves a phosphotyrosine-independent C-terminal latch. The unique proline-rich region is an internal "on'' switch pushing the autoinhibited kinase toward its active state. Newly identified autoinhibitory contacts in the BTK pleckstrin homology domain are sensitive to phospholipid binding, which induces large-scale allosteric changes. The multiplicity of these regulatory contacts suggests a clear mechanism for gradual or "analog'' kinase activation as opposed to a binary "on/off'' switch. The findings illustrate how previously modeled information for recalcitrant full-length proteins can be expanded and validated with a convergent multidisciplinary experimental approach.