De Angeli, Alexis; Moran, Oscar; Wege, Stefanie; Filleur, Sophie; Ephritikhine, Genevieve; Thomine, Sebastien; Barbier-Brygoo, Helene; Gambale, Franco
ATP Binding to the C Terminus of the Arabidopsis thaliana Nitrate/Proton Antiporter, AtCLCa, Regulates Nitrate Transport into Plant Vacuoles
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, 284:26526-26532, SEP 25 2009

Nitrate, one of the major nitrogen sources for plants, is stored in the vacuole. Nitrate accumulation within the vacuole is primarily mediated by the NO(3)(-)/H(+) exchanger AtCLCa, which belongs to the chloride channel (CLC) family. Crystallography analysis of hCLC5 suggested that the C-terminal domain, composed by two cystathionine beta-synthetase motifs in all eukaryotic members of the CLC family is able to interact with ATP. However, interaction of nucleotides with a functional CLC protein has not been unambiguously demonstrated. Here we show that ATP reversibly inhibits AtCLCa by interacting with the C-terminal domain. Applying the patch clamp technique to isolated Arabidopsis thaliana vacuoles, we demonstrate that ATP reduces AtCLCa activity with a maximum inhibition of 60%. ATP inhibition of nitrate influx into the vacuole at cytosolic physiological nitrate concentrations suggests that ATP modulation is physiologically relevant. ADP and AMP do not decrease the AtCLCa transport activity; nonetheless, AMP (but not ADP) competes with ATP, preventing inhibition. A molecular model of the C terminus of AtCLCa was built by homology to hCLC5 C terminus. The model predicted the effects of mutations of the ATP binding site on the interaction energy between ATP and AtCLCa that were further confirmed by functional expression of site-directed mutated AtCLCa.

DOI:10.1074/jbc.M109.005132

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