Residues Important for Nitrate/Proton Coupling in Plant and Mammalian CLC
Transporters |
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Authors: | Eun-Yeong Bergsdorf Anselm A Zdebik and Thomas J Jentsch |
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Institution: | ‡Department of Physiology and Pathology of Ion Transport, Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) and Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC), D-13125 Berlin, Germany and the §Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, London Epithelial Group, Royal Free Campus, University College London (UCL), London NW3 2PF, United Kingdom |
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Abstract: | Members of the CLC gene family either function as chloride channels or as
anion/proton exchangers. The plant AtClC-a uses the pH gradient across the
vacuolar membrane to accumulate the nutrient
in this organelle. When AtClC-a was
expressed in Xenopus oocytes, it mediated
exchange
and less efficiently mediated Cl–/H+ exchange.
Mutating the “gating glutamate” Glu-203 to alanine resulted in an
uncoupled anion conductance that was larger for Cl– than
. Replacing the “proton
glutamate” Glu-270 by alanine abolished currents. These could be
restored by the uncoupling E203A mutation. Whereas mammalian endosomal ClC-4
and ClC-5 mediate stoichiometrically coupled
2Cl–/H+ exchange, their
transport is largely uncoupled from
protons. By contrast, the AtClC-a-mediated
accumulation in plant vacuoles
requires tight
coupling. Comparison of AtClC-a and ClC-5 sequences identified a proline in
AtClC-a that is replaced by serine in all mammalian CLC isoforms. When this
proline was mutated to serine (P160S), Cl–/H+
exchange of AtClC-a proceeded as efficiently as
exchange, suggesting a role of this residue in
exchange. Indeed, when the corresponding serine of ClC-5 was replaced by
proline, this Cl–/H+ exchanger gained efficient
coupling. When inserted into the model Torpedo chloride channel
ClC-0, the equivalent mutation increased nitrate relative to chloride
conductance. Hence, proline in the CLC pore signature sequence is important
for
exchange and conductance both in
plants and mammals. Gating and proton glutamates play similar roles in
bacterial, plant, and mammalian CLC anion/proton exchangers.CLC proteins are found in all phyla from bacteria to humans and either
mediate electrogenic anion/proton exchange or function as chloride channels
(1). In mammals, the roles of
plasma membrane CLC Cl– channels include transepithelial
transport
(2–5)
and control of muscle excitability
(6), whereas vesicular CLC
exchangers may facilitate endocytosis
(7) and lysosomal function
(8–10)
by electrically shunting vesicular proton pump currents
(11). In the plant
Arabidopsis thaliana, there are seven CLC isoforms
(AtClC-a–AtClC-g)2
(12–15),
which may mostly reside in intracellular membranes. AtClC-a uses the pH
gradient across the vacuolar membrane to transport the nutrient nitrate into
that organelle (16). This
secondary active transport requires a tightly coupled
exchange. Astonishingly, however, mammalian ClC-4 and -5 and bacterial EcClC-1
(one of the two CLC isoforms in Escherichia coli) display tightly
coupled Cl–/H+ exchange, but anion flux is largely
uncoupled from H+ when
is transported
(17–21).
The lack of appropriate expression systems for plant CLC transporters
(12) has so far impeded
structure-function analysis that may shed light on the ability of AtClC-a to
perform efficient
exchange. This dearth of data contrasts with the extensive mutagenesis work
performed with CLC proteins from animals and bacteria.The crystal structure of bacterial CLC homologues
(22,
23) and the investigation of
mutants (17,
19–21,
24–29)
have yielded important insights into their structure and function. CLC
proteins form dimers with two largely independent permeation pathways
(22,
25,
30,
31). Each of the monomers
displays two anion binding sites
(22). A third binding site is
observed when a certain key glutamate residue, which is located halfway in the
permeation pathway of almost all CLC proteins, is mutated to alanine
(23). Mutating this gating
glutamate in CLC Cl– channels strongly affects or even
completely suppresses single pore gating
(23), whereas CLC exchangers
are transformed by such mutations into pure anion conductances that are not
coupled to proton transport
(17,
19,
20). Another key glutamate,
located at the cytoplasmic surface of the CLC monomer, seems to be a hallmark
of CLC anion/proton exchangers. Mutating this proton glutamate to
nontitratable amino acids uncouples anion transport from protons in the
bacterial EcClC-1 protein (27)
but seems to abolish transport altogether in mammalian ClC-4 and -5
(21). In those latter
proteins, anion transport could be restored by additionally introducing an
uncoupling mutation at the gating glutamate
(21).The functional complementation by AtClC-c and -d
(12,
32) of growth phenotypes of a
yeast strain deleted for the single yeast CLC Gef1
(33) suggested that these
plant CLC proteins function in anion transport but could not reveal details of
their biophysical properties. We report here the first functional expression
of a plant CLC in animal cells. Expression of wild-type (WT) and mutant
AtClC-a in Xenopus oocytes indicate a general role of gating and
proton glutamate residues in anion/proton coupling across different isoforms
and species. We identified a proline in the CLC signature sequence of AtClC-a
that plays a crucial role in
exchange. Mutating it to serine, the residue present in mammalian CLC proteins
at this position, rendered AtClC-a Cl–/H+ exchange
as efficient as
exchange. Conversely, changing the corresponding serine of ClC-5 to proline
converted it into an efficient
exchanger. When proline replaced the critical serine in Torpedo
ClC-0, the relative conductance of
this model Cl– channel was drastically increased, and
“fast” protopore gating was slowed. |
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