Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are fundamental to the regulation of cellular signallingcascades triggered by protein tyrosine kinases. Most receptor-like PTPs (RPTPs) comprise two tandemPTP domains, with only the membrane proximal domains (D1) having significant phosphatase activity;the membrane distal domains (D2) display little to no catalytic activity. Intriguingly, however, manyRPTP D2s share the catalytically essential Cys and Arg residues of D1s. D2 of RPTP
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may function asa redox sensor that mediates regulation of D1 via reactive oxygen species. Oxidation of Cys723 of RPTP
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D2 (equivalent to PTP catalytic Cys residues) stabilizes RPTP
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dimers, induces rotational coupling, andis required for inactivation of D1 phosphatase activity. Here, we investigated the structural consequencesof RPTP
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D2 oxidation. Exposure of RPTP
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D2 to oxidants promotes formation of a cyclic sulfenamidespecies, a reversibly oxidized state of Cys723, accompanied by conformational changes of the D2 catalyticsite. The cyclic sulfenamide is highly resistant to terminal oxidation to sulfinic and sulfonic acids.Conformational changes associated with RPTP
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D2 oxidation have implications for RPTP
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quaternarystructure and allosteric regulation of D1 phosphatase activity.