Quantification of the Intracellular Life Time of Water Molecules To
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J Membrane Biol DOI 10.1007/s00232-017-9988-4 Quantification of the Intracellular Life Time of Water Molecules to Measure Transport Rates of Human Aquaglyceroporins 1 2 3 2 Madelene Palmgren • Malin Hernebring • Stefanie Eriksson • Karin Elbing • 1 4 1 2 3 Cecilia Geijer • Samo Lasicˇ • Peter Dahl • Jesper S. Hansen • Daniel Topgaard • Karin Lindkvist-Petersson1,2 Received: 18 May 2017 / Accepted: 7 September 2017 Ó The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication Abstract Orthodox aquaporins are transmembrane chan- Introduction nel proteins that facilitate rapid diffusion of water, while aquaglyceroporins facilitate the diffusion of small Aquaporins (AQPs) are transmembrane proteins that are uncharged molecules such as glycerol and arsenic trioxide. represented throughout all kingdoms of life, including Aquaglyceroporins play important roles in human physi- animals and plants as well as in lower organisms such as ology, in particular for glycerol metabolism and arsenic yeast and bacteria. Their primary function is to facilitate detoxification. We have developed a unique system water and glycerol transport across cell membranes applying the strain of the yeast Pichia pastoris, where the (Verkman 2012). The aquaporin family is commonly endogenous aquaporins/aquaglyceroporins have been divided into three sub-groups, the orthodox aquaporins removed and human aquaglyceroporins AQP3, AQP7, and (sole water facilitators), the aquaglyceroporins (that facil- AQP9 are recombinantly expressed enabling comparative itate the transport of solutes such as glycerol, arsenic tri- permeability measurements between the expressed pro- oxide and urea), and the superaquaporins. There are 13 teins. Using a newly established Nuclear Magnetic Reso- human aquaporins abbreviated AQP0-12, which are widely nance approach based on measurement of the intracellular distributed in specific cell types in many organs and tissues life time of water, we propose that human aquaglycero- (Day et al. 2014). AQP3, 7, 9, and 10 belong to the porins are poor facilitators of water and that the water aquaglyceroporin sub-group, and in recent years, several transport efficiency is similar to that of passive diffusion reports suggest that the human aquaglyceroporins are across native cell membranes. This is distinctly different essential players in human health and disease (Hara-Chi- from glycerol and arsenic trioxide, where high glycerol kuma and Verkman 2008b; Maeda 2012). Commonly, the transport efficiency was recorded. aquaglyceroporins are stated to have dual permeability, both for water and solutes such as glycerol (Laforenza et al. Keywords Aquaporin Á Aquaglyceroporin Á Water 2016). The transport specificity of the aquaglyceroporins is transport Á NMR Á P. pastoris well-documented in the literature, frequently using either Xenopus laevis oocytes to measure the water transport rates, or artificial membranes creating liposomes with & Karin Lindkvist-Petersson inserted proteins. In both these systems, the water transport [email protected] is indirectly measured by detecting the swelling/shrinkage 1 Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of the oocytes/liposomes upon an applied change in of Gothenburg, Box 462, 405 30 Go¨teborg, Sweden osmolality, and water transport is quantified in terms of the 2 Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund osmotic water permeability coefficient. Here, we apply a University, BMC C13, 221 84 Lund, Sweden more direct method for studying water exchange over 3 Physical Chemistry, Lund University, P.O.B. 124, biological membrane by using nuclear magnetic resonance 22100 Lund, Sweden (NMR), which allows for the transport mechanisms to be 4 CR Development, AB, Naturvetarva¨gen 14, 22362 Lund, studied in equilibrium conditions without applying an Sweden osmotic gradient (Eriksson et al. 2017). 123 M. Palmgren et al.: Quantification of the Intracellular Life Time of Water… We established a unique approach to measure transport Table 1 Primers used for cloning. Nucleic acid sequences for pri- of water, glycerol, and arsenic trioxide [As(III)] in a native mers used for creating the AGP1 deletion in P. pastoris GS115 aqy1D cell membrane using the yeast Pichia pastoris. In this strain approach, human AQP3, AQP7, and AQP9 are highly Primer# Primer sequence (50-30 - direction) expressed in an AQP deletion strain of P. pastoris, where 1 CAGTGAATTCGGAAGGTCAATCTACTACACGTG both endogenous aquaporins (Aqy1 and Agp1) have been 2 GACTGCGGCCGCGCAACTTTCACCAGCTTAGC removed by standard cloning strategies. Spheroplasts of 3 CATAGCGGCCGCTTGTGGCTTCTGCGTTCC these strains have AQP-containing lipid bilayers without 4 GGTGGCAGTTCTAGATCGAGG requiring elaborate protein purification schemes or need of 5 AAGGTTTCAGGACCTGTTGCT exchanging detergent micelle-stabilized membrane pro- teins into the lipid bilayers, necessary in liposome-based 6 TATTCTCGTCTCCTATTGGCG approaches. We applied the diffusion NMR method that 7 CACAAATCCAAGAGACTGAAGAC enables quantification of the rate of water exchange 8 CGATAGCTTGAATGTAAGTACCG between intracellular and extracellular compartments on a 9 AGCGCTTGTTCTTGAAGAGT millisecond time-scale (Eriksson et al. 2017). Interestingly, 10 ACTCTTCAAGAACAAGCGCT in our system, when human aquaglyceroporins are in their 11 CGAGTCTTCAGTCTCTTGGAT native environment (lipid bilayer) and the water transport rate is measured by the non-invasive NMR method, the water transport capability of the human aquaglyceroporins nourseothricin was cut out from the pSLnat plasmid (Ter- are not significantly different from the passive water dif- nes et al. 2011) and inserted into the NotI site of pPICZB fusion across the plasma membrane of cells without plasmid flanked by upstream and downstream regions to aquaglyceroporins expressed. Still, all aquaglyceroporins the AGP1 gene. The construct was confirmed by investigated significantly facilitate the transport of glycerol sequencing. The deletion cassette was amplified by PCR and As(III) in the same system. Thus, we suggest that (primer 5 and 6, Table 1) and transformed into P. pastoris human aquaglyceroporins are poor water facilitators com- GS115 aqy1D::HIS4 (Cregg 2007). Transformed cells were pared to orthodox aquaporins, and that their main function plated on YPD-agar plates including 1% w/v yeast extract, in the body is to facilitate transport of other solutes such as 2% w/v peptone and 2% w/v agar, 2% w/v glucose, and glycerol and arsenic trioxide. grown for 2 days at room temperature before they were replica plated onto YPDS-agar plates (YPD-agar pla- tes ? 1 M sorbitol) ? Nourseothricin (clonNAT) (15 lg/ Materials and Methods ml) (GoldBio, USA). Plates were incubated at 30 °C for 3-4 days. Transformants were re-streaked for single colo- Yeast Strains nies on YPD-agar plates ? clonNAT (15 lg/ml). Suc- cessful deletion of the AGP1 gene was verified by genomic Pichia pastoris strains used in this study derives from the PCR using 5 different primer pairs (primer 1 ? 10, X33 strain (commercially available from Thermo Fisher, 1 ? 11, 1 ? 4, 7 ? 8, and 9 ? 4, Table 1). Life Technologies, USA). The protein encoded by gene PAS_chr4_0784 in P. pastoris GS115 was identified with Protein Expression and Western Blot Analysis 35% sequence identity using Fps1 as query in a BLASTp. This protein was named Aquaglyceroporin 1 (Agp1). A The human aquaporins AQP1, AQP3, AQP7, and AQP9 double-deletion strain P. pastoris GS115 aqy1D::HIS4 with a His6 purification tag were cloned into pPICZB agp1D::NatMX was generated by inserting a deletion cas- vector using restriction enzyme EcoRI and XbaI. To sette by homologue recombination into P. pastoris GS115 identify clones that express the protein of interest, AQP aqy1D::HIS4 (Fischer et al. 2009). The double-cloning transformants were spotted on YPD-agar plates supple- approach used for deleting AGP1 was previously described mented with increasing zeocin concentrations (0, 0.5, 1.0, by Ternes and co-workers (Ternes et al. 2011). A *670 bp and 2.0 mg/ml) (Thermo Fisher, Life Technologies, USA). fragment upstream of AGP1-containing restriction sites for The five most zeocin-resistant clones of each AQP con- XbaI and NotI and a *800 bp downstream fragment struct were further analyzed for expression levels. Cells reaching into the AGP1 gene containing NotI and XbaI were pre-grown in buffered glycerol complex medium restriction sites were amplified from genomic DNA by (BMGY: 1% w/v yeast extract, 2% w/v peptone, 100 mM PCR (primer 1 ? 2 and 3 ? 4, respectively, Table 1). potassium phosphate pH 6.0, 1.34% w/v yeast nitrogen Both fragments were simultaneously ligated into the NotI base, 0.4 mg/L biotin, 1% v/v glycerol) for 24 h, and site of a pPICZ B vector. The antibiotic resistance gene protein production was induced with methanol to a final 123 M. Palmgren et al.: Quantification of the Intracellular Life Time of Water… concentration of 0.25% v/v for 6 h (for AQP3, AQP7, 20 mM HEPES pH 7.5, re-suspended in a 1:1 v/v solution AQP9) or 1 h (for AQP1). Cells were harvested at with buffer, and transferred to 5-mm disposable NMR 20009g for 5 min and washed in 20 mM HEPES pH 7.5. tubes and centrifuged at 10009g for 10 min to achieve a Plasma membranes were purified using the protocol of pellet with high concentration of cells. The tubes were kept Panaretou and Piper (2006). Approximately, 300-ll cell on ice until measurement. The NMR diffusion measure- pellet was harvested and re-suspended in an equal volume ments were done at 0 °C for AQP1 and aqy1Dagp1D of breaking buffer (20 mM Tris–HCl pH 7.5, 0.4 M induced for 1 h and at 20 °C for strain AQP3, 7, and 9 and sucrose, 4 mM EDTA, 2 mM DTT) containing protease aqy1Dagp1D induced for 6 h. According to Eriksson et al., inhibitor (Roche Diagnostics) and glass beads. Cells were the temperatures and induction times were chosen so that broken by Fast Prep (MP Biomedical, USA), cell debris the same set of mixing times (tm) allowed a precise was removed at 6009g for 10 min at 4 °C, and the total quantification of exchange for all strains, aqy1Dagp1D, membrane was collected by centrifugation at 21,0009g for aqy1Dagp1D ? hAQP1, and aqy1Dagp1D ? AQP3,7,9 30 min at 4 °C.