Recent findings have suggested that certain ligand-dependent responses to EGF may be propagated in a manner that is not dependent on the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R, Campos-Gonzalez, R., and Glenney, J. R., Jr. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 14535-14538) or, alternatively, that these responses may occur through the interaction of the human tyrosine kinase-deficient EGF-R with an as yet unidentified kinase (Selva, E., Raden, D. L., and Davis, R. J. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 2250-2254). These conclusions represent a significant departure from our current understanding of signal transduction by receptor tyrosine kinases. Therefore we examined the effect of expression of tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF receptor in murine NIH-3T3-2.2 cells on the EGF-dependent phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP-2) kinase. In parental cells (NIH-3T3-2.2) that express low levels of endogenous murine EGF-R, there was no demonstrable EGF-dependent coupling to MAP-2 kinase. In NIH-3T3-2.2 cells transfected with tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF-R, there was unexpected EGF-dependent phosphorylation of MAP-2 kinase. Analysis of the tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF-R in these cells revealed significant tyrosine phosphorylation of the EGF-R. A low level of endogenous murine EGF-R present in these cells were also phosphorylated on tyrosine residues and displayed autokinase activity. Similar results were obtained using an unrelated cell line (B82L cells), in which EGF-dependent phosphorylation of MAP-2 kinase was previously attributed to signal propagation through a tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF-R (Campos-Gonzalez, R., and Glenney, J. R., Jr. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 14535-14538). Taken together, these results suggest that the tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF-R are able to amplify the response to activation of low levels of endogenous murine EGF-R, thus leading to EGF-dependent phosphorylation of MAP-2 kinase in cells expressing tyrosine kinase-negative human EGF-R.