title: Mapping of the acetylcholine binding site of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: [3H]nicotine as an agonist photoaffinity label.
abstract: The agonist [3H]nicotine was used as a photoaffinity label for the acetylcholine binding sites on the Torpedo nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR). [3H]nicotine binds at equilibrium with Keq = 0.6 microM to the agonist binding sites. Irradiation with 254-nm light of AChR-rich membranes equilibrated with [3H]nicotine resulted in covalent incorporation into the alpha- and gamma-subunits, which was inhibited by agonists and competitive antagonists but not by noncompetitive antagonists. Inhibition of labeling by d-tubocurarine demonstrated that the alpha-subunit was labeled via both agonist sites but the gamma-subunit was labeled only via the site that binds d-tubocurarine with high affinity. Within the alpha-subunit, 93% of the labeling was contained within a 20-kDa Staphylococcus aureus V8 proteolytic fragment beginning at Ser-173. Sequence analysis of this peptide indicated that approximately 80% of the incorporation was into Tyr-198, approximately 13% was into Cys-192, and approximately 7% was into Tyr-190. Chymotryptic digestion of the alpha-subunit confirmed that Tyr-198 was the principal amino acid labeled by [3H]nicotine. This confirmation required a novel radio-sequencing strategy employing omicron-phthalaldehyde, since the efficiency of photolabeling was low (approximately 1.0%) and the labeled chymotryptic peptide was not isolated in sufficient quantity to be identified by mass. [3H]Nicotine, which is the first photoaffinity agonist used, labels primarily Tyr-198 in contrast to competitive antagonist affinity labels, which label primarily Tyr-190 and Cys-192/Cys-193.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000345:Affinity Labels; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D002918:Chymotrypsin; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009538:Nicotine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D010449:Peptide Mapping; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D014101:Torpedo; D014316:Tritium
chemical_list: D000345:Affinity Labels; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D014316:Tritium; D009538:Nicotine; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D002918:Chymotrypsin; C028344:glutamyl endopeptidase; D000109:Acetylcholine