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Lookup NU author(s): Lukas Wichmann, Dr Jon Marles-WrightORCiD, Dr Mike Althaus
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc., 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
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.
Author(s): Wichmann L, Dulai JS, Marles-Wright J, Maxeiner S, Szczesniak PP, Manzini I, Althaus M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Biological Chemistry
Year: 2019
Volume: 294
Issue: 33
Pages: 12507-12520
Print publication date: 16/08/2019
Online publication date: 27/06/2019
Acceptance date: 27/06/2019
Date deposited: 28/06/2019
ISSN (print): 0021-9258
ISSN (electronic): 1083-351X
Publisher: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA119.008255
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.008255
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