Abstract

The transformation of molecular binding events into cellular decisions is the basis of most biological signal transduction. A fundamental challenge faced by these systems is that protein-ligand chemical affinities alone generally result in poor sensitivity to ligand concentration, endangering the system to error. Here, we examine the lipid-binding pleckstrin homology and Tec homology (PH-TH) module of Brutons tyrosine kinase (Btk) Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and membrane-binding kinetic measurements, we identify a self-contained phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate (PIP3) sensing mechanism that achieves switch-like sensitivity to PIP3 levels, surpassing the intrinsic affinity discrimination of PIP3:PH binding. This mechanism employs multiple PIP3 binding as well as dimerization of Btk on the membrane surface. Mutational studies in live cells confirm that this mechanism is critical for activation of Btk in vivo. These results demonstrate how a single protein module can institute a minimalist coincidence detection mechanism to achieve high-precision discrimination of ligand concentration.