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Secretory pathway Ca-ATPases are less characterized mammalian calcium pumps than plasma membrane Ca-ATPases and sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPases. Here we report analysis of molecular evolution, alternative splicing, tissue-specific expression and subcellular localization of the second isoform of the secretory pathway Ca-ATPase (SPCA2), the product of the ATP2C2 gene. The primary structure of SPCA2 from rat duodenum deduced from full-length transcript contains 944 amino acid residues, and exhibits 65% sequence identity with known SPCA1. The rat SPCA2 sequence is also highly homologous to putative human protein KIAA0703, however, the latter seems to have an aberrant N-terminus originating from intron 2. The tissue-specificity of SPCA2 expression is different from ubiquitous SPCA1. Rat SPCA2 transcripts were detected predominantly in gastrointestinal tract, lung, trachea, lactating mammary gland, skin and preputial gland. In the newborn pig, the expression profile is very similar with one remarkable exception: porcine bulbourethral gland gave the strongest signal. Upon overexpression in cultured cells, SPCA2 shows an intracellular distribution with remarkable enrichment in Golgi. However, in vivo SPCA2 may be localized in compartments that differ among various tissues: it is intracellular in epidermis, but enriched in plasma membranes of the intestinal epithelium. Analysis of SPCA2 sequences from various vertebrate species argue that ATP2C2 gene radiated from ATP2C1 (encoding SPCA1) during adaptation of tetrapod ancestors to terrestrial habitats., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Intracytoplasmic free calcium ions (Ca++) are maintained at a very low concentration in mammalian tissue by extruding Ca++ from the cytoplasm against a steep extracellular Ca++ concentration gradient, mainly through the activity of plasma membrane Ca++ pump-ATPase. The present study aimed to elucidate how endothelin-1 (ET-1) affects the morphology of sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae and ultrastructural distribution of plasma membrane ATPases and intracytoplasmic free Ca++ in isolated rat hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells. Sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae were observed by scanning electron microscope. Ando's electron cytochemical method was used for ultrastructural localization of Ca++-Mg++-ATPase activity, electron immunogold postembedding method for Ca++ pump-ATPase immunoactivity, and antimonate method for intracytoplasmic free Ca++. Addition of ET-1 to sinusoidal endothelial cells significantly decreased Ca++-Mg++-ATPase activity and Ca++ pump-ATPase expression and increased intracytoplasmic free Ca++ concentration, concomitant with a decrease in diameter of sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae. Co-treatment with Bosentan abolished the actions of ET-1. These results suggest that ET-1 suppresses Ca++-Mg++-ATPase activity and Ca++ pump-ATPase expression on the plasma membrane of sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae, thereby attenuating the extrusion of intracytoplasmic free Ca++ into the extracellular space, leading to an increased concentration of intracytoplasmic free calcium ions and contraction of sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae.

Ca(2+)-ATPase is responsible for active transport of calcium ions across the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane. This coupling involves an ordered sequence of reversible reactions occurring alternately at the ATP site within the cytoplasmic domains, or at the calcium transport sites within the transmembrane domain. These two sites are separated by a large distance and conformational changes have long been postulated to play an important role in their coordination. To characterize the nature of these conformational changes, we have built atomic models for two reaction intermediates and postulated the mechanisms governing the large structural changes. One model is based on fitting the X-ray crystallographic structure of Ca(2+)-ATPase in the E1 state to a new 6 A structure by cryoelectron microscopy in the E2 state. This fit indicates that calcium binding induces enormous movements of all three cytoplasmic domains as well as significant changes in several transmembrane helices. We found that fluorescein isothiocyanate displaced a decavanadate molecule normally located at the intersection of the three cytoplasmic domains, but did not affect their juxtaposition; this result indicates that our model likely reflects a native E2 conformation and not an artifact of decavanadate binding. To explain the dramatic structural effect of calcium binding, we propose that M4 and M5 transmembrane helices are responsive to calcium binding and directly induce rotation of the phosphorylation domain. Furthermore, we hypothesize that both the nucleotide-binding and beta-sheet domains are highly mobile and driven by Brownian motion to elicit phosphoenzyme formation and calcium transport, respectively. If so, the reaction cycle of Ca(2+)-ATPase would have elements of a Brownian ratchet, where the chemical reactions of ATP hydrolysis are used to direct the random thermal oscillations of an innately flexible molecule., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.)

Tubular aggregates are specific subcellular structures that appear in skeletal muscle fibres under different pathological conditions. The origin of the tubular aggregates is generally ascribed to proliferating membranes of sarcoplasmic reticulum. There are, however, histochemical indications for the presence of mitochondrial enzymes in tubular aggregates suggesting contribution of mitochondria to the genesis of tubular aggregates. In this study we used an immunocytochemical detection technique to assess participation of mitochondria and of sarcoplasmic reticulum in derivation of tubular aggregates. The fast skeletal muscle fibres (m. gastrocnemius) of mice bearing the double invalidation for both the mitochondrial and the cytosolic isoforms of creatine kinase (CK), an enzyme involved in energetics of muscle cells, were employed as a model muscle with tubular aggregates (Steeghs et al., Cell 89, 93-103, 1997). Immunogold labelling of the bc1 complex, a specific integral protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane, provided strong signals in both the mitochondria and tubular aggregates but not in other ultrastructural components of muscle fibres. A similar strong immunogold signal was obtained when labelling for SERCA1, a specific enzyme of the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane, in regions of typical occurrence of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and in tubular aggregates. In double labelling experiments, we found simultaneous labelling of tubular aggregates with both the bc1 and SERCA1 antibodies. It is concluded, that in CK-/- mouse both the inner mitochondrial membrane and the membrane of the sarcoplasmic reticulum participate in the formation of tubular aggregates.

Thapsigargin (TG) is a potent inhibitor of Ca(2+)-ATPase from sarcoplasmic and endoplasmic reticula. Previous enzymatic studies have concluded that Ca(2+)-ATPase is locked in a dead-end complex upon binding TG with an affinity of <1 nM and that this complex closely resembles the E(2) enzymatic state. We have studied the structural effects of TG binding by cryoelectron microscopy of tubular crystals, which have previously been shown to comprise Ca(2+)-ATPase molecules in the E(2) conformation. In particular, we have compared 3D reconstructions of Ca(2+)-ATPase in the absence and presence of either TG or its dansylated derivative. The overall molecular shape of Ca(2+)-ATPase in the reconstructions is very similar, demonstrating that the TG/Ca(2+)-ATPase complex does indeed physically resemble the E(2) conformation, in contrast to massive domain movements that appear to be induced by Ca(2+) binding. Difference maps reveal a consistent difference on the lumenal side of the membrane, which we conclude corresponds to the thapsigargin-binding site. Modeling the atomic structure for Ca(2+)-ATPase into our density maps reveals that this binding site is composed of the loops between transmembrane segments M3/M4 and M7/M8. Indirect effects are proposed to explain the effects of the S3 stalk segment on thapsigargin affinity as well as thapsigargin-induced changes in ATP affinity. Indeed, a second difference density was observed at the decavanadate-binding site within the three cytoplasmic domains, which we believe reflects an altered affinity as a result of the long-range conformational coupling that drives the reaction cycle of this family of ATP-dependent ion pumps., (Copyright 2001 Academic Press.)

A set of programs has been developed for averaging the data from tubular crystals belonging to different helical classes. This was done either by (i) cutting out molecules constituting a unit cell from density maps, and aligning and averaging them in real space; (ii) transforming the densities in a unit cell to layer-line data according to a (possibly artificial) helical symmetry, aligning and averaging them in reciprocal space. These methods were applied to tubular crystals of Ca2+-ATPase. Either method worked well and substantially improved the data quality. Transforming the reconstructed images to the layer-line data has many advantages and is essential for fully exploiting the power of averaging.

Solvent flattening is considered to be a principal means for improving the data quality in X-ray crystallography. It could be equally effective for tubular crystals of membrane proteins imaged by electron microscopy because of the large empty space inside the tubes. However, tubular crystals are difficult objects for solvent flattening due to lack of electron diffraction amplitudes. Therefore, solvent flattening was used to align images more accurately and to improve the completeness of the data by reducing contributions of noise in the solvent (+ lipid) region. The methods developed were tested with the tubular crystals of Ca2+-ATPase embedded in amorphous ice. The improvement of the data quality was remarkable when solvent flattening was applied to many individual images before averaging. In this way, noises contaminated in the protein region by contrast transfer function were removed effectively. Solvent flattening was far more powerful than simple averaging described in Part II of this series (K. Yonekura, C. Toyoshima, Ultramicroscopy 84 (2000) 15).

There are many examples of macromolecules that form helical tubes or crystals, which are useful for structure determination by electron microscopy and image processing. Helical crystals can be thought of as two-dimensional crystals that have been rolled into a cylinder such that two lattice points are superimposed. In many real cases, helical crystals of a particular macromolecule derive from an identical two-dimensional lattice but have different lattice points superimposed, thus producing different helical symmetries which cannot be simply averaged in Fourier-space. When confronted with this situation, one can select images corresponding to one of the observed symmetries at the expense of reducing the number of images that can be used for data collection and averaging, or one can calculate separate density maps from each symmetry, then align and average them together in real-space. Here, we present a third alternative, which is based on averaging of the Fourier-Bessel coefficients, gn,l(r), and which allows the inclusion of data from all symmetry groups derived from a common two-dimensional lattice. The method is straightforward and simple in practice and is shown, through a specific example with real data, to give results comparable to real-space averaging., (Copyright 1999 Academic Press.)

The membrane-associated regions of the human erythrocyte Ca2+ pump were investigated by hydrophobic photolabeling. Purified Ca2+ pump was reconstituted in asolectin vesicles loaded with [3H]DIPETPD, a photochemical probe designed to label deeply into the hydrophobic core of the lipid bilayer (Delfino et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 3458-3474, 1993). After photolysis and SDS-PAGE analysis, a significant light-dependent labeling of the Ca2+ pump was found. Controlled proteolysis of the photoadduct with trypsin or protease V8 followed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting yielded individual labeled fragments. The labeling pattern indicated the existence of three sequential clusters of transmembrane regions, consistent with the current model for the topography of this enzyme.