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Reconstitution of water channel function of an aquaporin overexpressed and purified from Pichia pastoris
Author(s) -
Karlsson Maria,
Fotiadis Dimitrios,
Sjövall Sara,
Johansson Ingela,
Hedfalk Kristina,
Engel Andreas,
Kjellbom Per
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)00082-6
Subject(s) - pichia pastoris , aquaporin , xenopus , chemistry , phosphorylation , dephosphorylation , biochemistry , gating , yeast , biophysics , recombinant dna , biology , phosphatase , gene
The aquaporin PM28A is one of the major integral proteins in spinach leaf plasma membranes. Phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of Ser274 at the C‐terminus and of Ser115 in the first cytoplasmic loop has been shown to regulate the water channel activity of PM28A when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. To understand the mechanisms of the phosphorylation‐mediated gating of the channel the structure of PM28A is required. In a first step we have used the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris for expression of the pm28a gene. The expressed protein has a molecular mass of 32462 Da as determined by matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization‐mass spectrometry, forms tetramers as revealed by electron microscopy and is functionally active when reconstituted in proteoliposomes. PM28A was efficiently solubilized from urea‐ and alkali‐stripped Pichia membranes by octyl‐β‐ D ‐thioglucopyranoside resulting in a final yield of 25 mg of purified protein per liter of cell culture.