Alternative mechanism of activation of the epithelial na+ channel by cleavage.
We examined activation of the human epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) by cleavage. We focused on cleavage of alphaENaC using the serine protease subtilisin. Trimeric channels formed with alphaFM, a construct with point mutations in both furin cleavage sites (R178A/R204A), exhibited marked reduction in spontaneous cleavage and an approximately 10-fold decrease in amiloride-sensitive whole cell conductance as compared with alphaWT (2.2 versus 21.2 microsiemens (microS)). Both alphaWT and alphaFM were activated to similar levels by subtilisin cleavage. Channels formed with alphaFD, a construct that deleted the segment between the two furin sites (Delta175-204), exhibited an intermediate conductance of 13.2 microS. More importantly, alphaFD retained the ability to be activated by subtilisin to 108.8 +/- 20.9 microS, a level not significantly different from that of subtilisin activated alphaWT (125.6 +/- 23.9). Therefore, removal of the tract between the two furin sites is not the main mechanism of channel activation. In these experiments the levels of the cleaved 22-kDa N-terminal fragment of alpha was low and did not match those of the C-terminal 65-kDa fragment. This indicated that cleavage may activate ENaC by the loss of the smaller fragment and the first transmembrane domain. This was confirmed in channels formed with alphaLD, a construct that extended the deleted sequence of alphaFD by 17 amino acids (Delta175-221). Channels with alphaLD were uncleaved, exhibited low baseline activity (4.1 microS), and were insensitive to subtilisin. Collectively, these data support an alternative hypothesis of ENaC activation by cleavage that may involve the loss of the first transmembrane domain from the channel complex.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14214.
John Cong
JC
Hu
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14214.
Abderrahmane
A
Bengrine
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14214.
Agnieszka
A
Lis
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14214. Electronic address: awayda@buffalo.edu.
Mouhamed S
MS
Awayda
D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D053503:Epithelial Sodium Channels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D045683:Furin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary / Q000502:physiology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000502:physiology; D020860:Subtilisin / Q000737:chemistry*; D014982:Xenopus laevis
D053503:Epithelial Sodium Channels; C507045:SCNN1A protein, human; D020860:Subtilisin; D045683:Furin