Résumé
Type I Interferons (IFN) are key cytokines in the regulation of the innate immune response. All IFNs bind to a shared cell surface receptor comprised of two subunits, IFNAR1 and IFNAR2. Together with IFN the receptors assemble to hetero-trimeric “ternary” complexes which initiate phosphorylation cascades through the intracellularly associated Janus-Kinases Jak1 and Tyk2. Detailed structure–function analysis of IFNs has established that the dynamics and affinities of IFN interactions with the receptor subunits play a critical role for regulating signalling specificities. Here we have explored the IFN-induced assembly of the ternary signalling complex at physiological expression level by dual colour single molecule imaging. To this end, we employed highly specific and efficient orthogonal posttranslational labelling approaches with photostable organic fluorophores combined with TIRF-microscopy. By single molecule co-localization and co-tracking analysis we have mapped lateral distribution and diffusion of the two receptor subunits with very high spatial and temporal resolution in living cells. Thus, we were able to monitor IFN-induced assembly, co-diffusion and dissociation of individual ternary signalling complexes in the plasma membrane. Systematic modulation of the binding affinities towards the receptor subunits revealed that binding affinity of IFNα2 towards IFNAR1 is optimized for efficient ternary complex formation at physiological receptor surface concentrations. Interestingly, the negative feedback regulator ubiquitin-specific protease 18 (USP18) reduces receptor dimerization by IFNα2, but not IFNβ, which binds to IFNAR1 with higher affinity. Strikingly, this USP18-dependent loss of 2D affinity could be mimicked by truncating the receptor’s intracellular domains. These observations suggest that ternary complexes are stabilized by intracellular interactions of Jak1 and Tyk2 and that these interactions are interfered by USP18, thus selectively abrogating signalling by IFNs with low affinity towards IFNAR1.