scholarly journals On the Mechanism of MgATP-dependent Gating of CFTR Cl− Channels

2002 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Vergani ◽  
Angus C. Nairn ◽  
David C. Gadsby

CFTR, the product of the gene mutated in cystic fibrosis, is an ATPase that functions as a Cl− channel in which bursts of openings separate relatively long interburst closed times (τib). Channel gating is controlled by phosphorylation and MgATP, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain controversial. To investigate them, we expressed CFTR channels in Xenopus oocytes and examined, in excised patches, how gating kinetics of phosphorylated channels were affected by changes in [MgATP], by alterations in the chemical structure of the activating nucleotide, and by mutations expected to impair nucleotide hydrolysis and/or diminish nucleotide binding affinity. The rate of opening to a burst (1/τib) was a saturable function of [MgATP], but apparent affinity was reduced by mutations in either of CFTR's nucleotide binding domains (NBDs): K464A in NBD1, and K1250A or D1370N in NBD2. Burst duration of neither wild-type nor mutant channels was much influenced by [MgATP]. Poorly hydrolyzable nucleotide analogs, MgAMPPNP, MgAMPPCP, and MgATPγS, could open CFTR channels, but only to a maximal rate of opening ∼20-fold lower than attained by MgATP acting on the same channels. NBD2 catalytic site mutations K1250A, D1370N, and E1371S were found to prolong open bursts. Corresponding NBD1 mutations did not affect timing of burst termination in normal, hydrolytic conditions. However, when hydrolysis at NBD2 was impaired, the NBD1 mutation K464A shortened the prolonged open bursts. In light of recent biochemical and structural data, the results suggest that: nucleotide binding to both NBDs precedes channel opening; at saturating nucleotide concentrations the rate of opening to a burst is influenced by the structure of the phosphate chain of the activating nucleotide; normal, rapid exit from bursts occurs after hydrolysis of the nucleotide at NBD2, without requiring a further nucleotide binding step; if hydrolysis at NBD2 is prevented, exit from bursts occurs through a slower pathway, the rate of which is modulated by the structure of the NBD1 catalytic site and its bound nucleotide. Based on these and other results, we propose a mechanism linking hydrolytic and gating cycles via ATP-driven dimerization of CFTR's NBDs.

Diabetes ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 53 (Supplement 3) ◽  
pp. S123-S127 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Campbell ◽  
P. Proks ◽  
J. D. Lippiat ◽  
M. S.P. Sansom ◽  
F. M. Ashcroft

2002 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 545-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasios G. Dousmanis ◽  
Angus C. Nairn ◽  
David C. Gadsby

The roles played by ATP binding and hydrolysis in the complex mechanisms that open and close cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) Cl− channels remain controversial. In this work, the contributions made by ATP and Mg2+ ions to the gating of phosphorylated cardiac CFTR channels were evaluated separately by measuring the rates of opening and closing of single channels in excised patches exposed to solutions in which [ATP] and [Mg2+] were varied independently. Channel opening was found to be rate-limited not by the binding of ATP alone, but by a Mg2+-dependent step that followed binding of both ATP and Mg2+. Once a channel had opened, sudden withdrawal of all Mg2+ and ATP could prevent it from closing for tens of seconds. But subsequent exposure of such an open channel to Mg2+ ions alone could close it, and the closing rate increased with [Mg2+] over the micromolar range (half maximal at ∼50 μM [Mg2+]). A simple interpretation is that channel closing is stoichiometrically coupled to hydrolysis of an ATP molecule that remains tightly associated with the open CFTR channel despite continuous washing. If correct, that ATP molecule appears able to reside for over a minute in the catalytic site that controls channel closing, implying that the site must entrap, or have an intrinsically high apparent affinity for, ATP, even without a Mg2+ ion. Such stabilization of the open-channel conformation of CFTR by tight binding, or occlusion, of an ATP molecule echoes the stabilization of the active conformation of a G protein by GTP.


Nature ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 433 (7028) ◽  
pp. 876-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Vergani ◽  
Steve W. Lockless ◽  
Angus C. Nairn ◽  
David C. Gadsby

2013 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Csanády ◽  
Csaba Mihályi ◽  
Andras Szollosi ◽  
Beáta Töröcsik ◽  
Paola Vergani

A central step in the gating of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride channel is the association of its two cytosolic nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) into a head-to-tail dimer, with two nucleotides bound at the interface. Channel opening and closing, respectively, are coupled to formation and disruption of this tight NBD dimer. CFTR is an asymmetric adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette protein in which the two interfacial-binding sites (composite sites 1 and 2) are functionally different. During gating, the canonical, catalytically active nucleotide-binding site (site 2) cycles between dimerized prehydrolytic (state O1), dimerized post-hydrolytic (state O2), and dissociated (state C) forms in a preferential C→O1→O2→C sequence. In contrast, the catalytically inactive nucleotide-binding site (site 1) is believed to remain associated, ATP-bound, for several gating cycles. Here, we have examined the possibility of conformational changes in site 1 during gating, by studying gating effects of perturbations in site 1. Previous work showed that channel closure is slowed, both under hydrolytic and nonhydrolytic conditions, by occupancy of site 1 by N6-(2-phenylethyl)-ATP (P-ATP) as well as by the site-1 mutation H1348A (NBD2 signature sequence). Here, we found that P-ATP prolongs wild-type (WT) CFTR burst durations by selectively slowing (>2×) transition O1→O2 and decreases the nonhydrolytic closing rate (transition O1→C) of CFTR mutants K1250A (∼4×) and E1371S (∼3×). Mutation H1348A also slowed (∼3×) the O1→O2 transition in the WT background and decreased the nonhydrolytic closing rate of both K1250A (∼3×) and E1371S (∼3×) background mutants. Neither P-ATP nor the H1348A mutation affected the 1:1 stoichiometry between ATP occlusion and channel burst events characteristic to WT CFTR gating in ATP. The marked effect that different structural perturbations at site 1 have on both steps O1→C and O1→O2 suggests that the overall conformational changes that CFTR undergoes upon opening and coincident with hydrolysis at the active site 2 include significant structural rearrangement at site 1.


2006 ◽  
Vol 282 (7) ◽  
pp. 4533-4544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wang ◽  
Karen Bernard ◽  
Ge Li ◽  
Kevin L. Kirk

Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride channels are essential mediators of salt transport across epithelia. Channel opening normally requires ATP binding to both nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs), probable dimerization of the two NBDs, and phosphorylation of the R domain. How phosphorylation controls channel gating is unknown. Loss-of-function mutations in the CFTR gene cause cystic fibrosis; thus, there is considerable interest in compounds that improve mutant CFTR function. Here we investigated the mechanism by which CFTR is activated by curcumin, a natural compound found in turmeric. Curcumin opened CFTR channels by a novel mechanism that required neither ATP nor the second nucleotide-binding domain (NBD2). Consequently, this compound potently activated CF mutant channels that are defective for the normal ATP-dependent mode of gating (e.g. G551D and W1282X), including channels that lack NBD2. The stimulation of NBD2 deletion mutants by curcumin was strongly inhibited by ATP binding to NBD1, which implicates NBD1 as a plausible activation site. Curcumin activation became irreversible during prolonged exposure to this compound following which persistently activated channels gated dynamically in the absence of any agonist. Although CFTR activation by curcumin required neither ATP binding nor heterodimerization of the two NBDs, it was strongly dependent on prior channel phosphorylation by protein kinase A. Curcumin is a useful functional probe of CFTR gating that opens mutant channels by circumventing the normal requirements for ATP binding and NBD heterodimerization. The phosphorylation dependence of curcumin activation indicates that the R domain can modulate channel opening without affecting ATP binding to the NBDs or their heterodimerization.


2004 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Csanády ◽  
Kim W. Chan ◽  
Angus C. Nairn ◽  
David C. Gadsby

The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), encoded by the gene mutated in cystic fibrosis patients, belongs to the family of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins, but, unlike other members, functions as a chloride channel. CFTR is activated by protein kinase A (PKA)-mediated phosphorylation of multiple sites in its regulatory domain, and gated by binding and hydrolysis of ATP at its two nucleotide binding domains (NBD1, NBD2). The recent crystal structure of NBD1 from mouse CFTR (Lewis, H.A., S.G. Buchanan, S.K. Burley, K. Conners, M. Dickey, M. Dorwart, R. Fowler, X. Gao, W.B. Guggino, W.A. Hendrickson, et al. 2004. EMBO J. 23:282–293) identified two regions absent from structures of all other NBDs determined so far, a “regulatory insertion” (residues 404–435) and a “regulatory extension” (residues 639–670), both positioned to impede formation of the putative NBD1–NBD2 dimer anticipated to occur during channel gating; as both segments appeared highly mobile and both contained consensus PKA sites (serine 422, and serines 660 and 670, respectively), it was suggested that their phosphorylation-linked conformational changes might underlie CFTR channel regulation. To test that suggestion, we coexpressed in Xenopus oocytes CFTR residues 1–414 with residues 433–1480, or residues 1–633 with 668–1480, to yield split CFTR channels (called 414+433 and 633+668) that lack most of the insertion, or extension, respectively. In excised patches, regulation of the resulting CFTR channels by PKA and by ATP was largely normal. Both 414+433 channels and 633+668 channels, as well as 633(S422A)+668 channels (lacking both the extension and the sole PKA consensus site in the insertion), were all shut during exposure to MgATP before addition of PKA, but activated like wild type (WT) upon phosphorylation; this indicates that inhibitory regulation of nonphosphorylated WT channels depends upon neither segment. Detailed kinetic analysis of 414+433 channels revealed intact ATP dependence of single-channel gating kinetics, but slightly shortened open bursts and faster closing from the locked-open state (elicited by ATP plus pyrophosphate or ATP plus AMPPNP). In contrast, 633+668 channel function was indistinguishable from WT at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. We conclude that neither nonconserved segment is an essential element of PKA- or nucleotide-dependent regulation.


eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Sorum ◽  
Beáta Töröcsik ◽  
László Csanády

CFTR, the chloride channel mutated in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, is opened by ATP binding to two cytosolic nucleotide binding domains (NBDs), but pore-domain mutations may also impair gating. ATP-bound NBDs dimerize occluding two nucleotides at interfacial binding sites; one site hydrolyzes ATP, the other is inactive. The pore opens upon tightening, and closes upon disengagement, of the catalytic site following ATP hydrolysis. Extent, timing, and role of non-catalytic-site movements are unknown. Here we exploit equilibrium gating of a hydrolysis-deficient mutant and apply Φ value analysis to compare timing of opening-associated movements at multiple locations, from the cytoplasmic ATP sites to the extracellular surface. Marked asynchrony of motion in the two ATP sites reveals their distinct roles in channel gating. The results clarify the molecular mechanisms of functional cross-talk between canonical and degenerate ATP sites in asymmetric ABC proteins, and of the gating defects caused by two common CF mutations.


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