Journalartikel

Jahr der Veröffentlichung: 2019

Seiten: 12507-12520

Zeitschrift: Journal of Biological Chemistry

Bandnummer: 294

Heftnummer: 33

ISSN: 0021-9258

Open Access Status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA119.008255

Verlag: Elsevier

Abstract: 
The limited sodium availability of freshwater and terrestrial environments was a major physiological challenge during vertebrate evolution. The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) is present in the apical membrane of sodium-absorbing vertebrate epithelia and evolved as part of a machinery for efficient sodium conservation. ENaC belongs to the degenerin/ENaC protein family and is the only member that opens without an external stimulus. We hypothesised that ENaC evolved from a proton-activated sodium channel present in ionocytes of freshwater vertebrates and therefore investigated whether such ancestral traits are present in ENaC isoforms of the aquatic pipid frog Xenopus laevis Using whole-cell and single-channel electrophysiology of Xenopus oocytes expressing ENaC isoforms assembled from αβγ- or δβγ-subunit combinations, we demonstrate that Xenopus δβγ-ENaC is profoundly activated by extracellular acidification within biologically relevant ranges (pH 8.0 - 6.0). This effect was not observed in Xenopus αβγ-ENaC or human ENaC orthologs. We show that protons interfere with allosteric ENaC inhibition by extracellular sodium ions, thereby increasing probability of channel opening. Using homology modelling of ENaC structure and site-directed mutagenesis, we identified a cleft region within the extracellular loop of the δ-subunit that contains several acidic amino acid residues that confer proton sensitivity and enable allosteric inhibition by extracellular sodium ions. We propose that Xenopus δβγ-ENaC can serve as a model for investigating ENaC transformation from a proton-activated toward a constitutively active ion channel. Such transformation might have occurred during the evolution of tetrapod vertebrates to enable bulk sodium absorption during the water-to-land transition.

Harvard-Zitierstil: Wichmann, L., Dulai, J., Marles-Wright, J., Maxeiner, S., Szczesniak, P., Manzini, I., et al. (2019) An extracellular acidic cleft confers profound H+-sensitivity to epithelial sodium channels containing the δ-subunit in Xenopus laevis, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 294(33), pp. 12507-12520. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA119.008255

APA-Zitierstil: Wichmann, L., Dulai, J., Marles-Wright, J., Maxeiner, S., Szczesniak, P., Manzini, I., & Althaus, M. (2019). An extracellular acidic cleft confers profound H+-sensitivity to epithelial sodium channels containing the δ-subunit in Xenopus laevis. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 294(33), 12507-12520. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA119.008255