Resistance of Ca2+-ATPase to dilution by excess phospholipid in reconstituted vesicles

Reconstitution of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase: mechanisms of membrane protein insertion into liposomes during reconstitution procedures involving the use of detergents

The Ca(2+)-ATPase from skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum was reconstituted into sealed phospholipid vesicles using the method recently developed for bacteriorhodopsin (Rigaud, J.L., Paternostre, M.T. and Bluzat, A. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 2677-2688). Liposomes prepared by reverse-phase evaporation were treated with various amounts of Triton X-100, octyl glucoside, sodium cholate or dodecyl octa(oxyethylene) glycol ether (C12E8) and protein incorporation was studied at each step of the liposome solubilization process by each of these detergents. After detergent removal by SM-2 Bio-Beads the resulting vesicles were analyzed with respect to protein incorporation by freeze-fracture electron microscopy, sucrose density gradients and Ca2+ pumping measurements. The nature of the detergent used for reconstitution proved to be important for determining the mechanism of protein insertion. With octyl glucoside, direct incorporation of Ca(2+)-ATPase into preformed liposomes destabilized by saturating levels of this detergent was observed and gave proteoliposomes homogeneous in regard to protein distribution. With the other detergents, optimal Ca(2+)-ATPase pumping activities were obtained when starting from Ca(2+)-ATPase/detergent/phospholipid micellar solutions. However, the homogeneity of the resulting recombinants was shown to be dependent upon the detergent used and in the presence of Triton X-100 or C12E8 different populations were clearly evidenced. It was further demonstrated that the rate of detergent removal drastically influenced the composition of resulting proteoliposomes: upon slow detergent removal from samples solubilized with Triton X-100 or C12E8, Ca(2+)-ATPase was found seggregated and/or aggregated in very few liposomes while upon rapid detergent removal compositionally homogeneous proteoliposomes were obtained with high Ca2+ pumping activities. The reconstitution process was further analyzed by centrifugation experiments and the results demonstrated that the different mechanisms of reconstitution were driven predominantly by the tendency for self-aggregation of the Ca(2+)-ATPase. A model for Ca(2+)-ATPase reconstitution was proposed which accounted for all our results. In summary, the advantage of the systematic studies reported in this paper was to allow a rapid and easy determination of the experimental conditions for optimal detergent-mediated reconstitution of Ca(2+)-ATPase. Proteoliposomes prepared by the present simple method exhibited the highest Ca2+ pumping activities reported to date in Ca(2+)-ATPase reconstitution experiments performed in the absence of Ca2+ precipitating agents.

Immunogenicity of liposomes and iscoms containing the major outer membrane protein of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: influence of protein content and liposomal bilayer composition

The influences of Neisseria gonorrhoeae protein IB content and bilayer composition of liposomes and protein content of iscoms on immunogenicity were investigated. Changes in the protein content of liposomes did not influence the immunoglobulin G response, whereas the response was lowered when the amount of protein in iscoms was increased. Bilayer composition only influenced the primary immunoglobulin G response; immunological memory was not affected.

Current concepts in membrane protein reconstitution

The reconstitution of integral proteins into artificial lipid vesicles is largely prompted by the complexity of most biological membranes and the inherent difficulty of studying individual components in situ. Ideally, therefore, the reconstituted system should consist of a single protein in a lipid matrix which mimics the native membrane in all but its diversity. While such an approach allows individual components of a complex system to be studied in isolation it should also be sufficiently versatile to permit the generation of increasingly sophisticated multicomponent models. From the considerable number of reconstitution techniques which have been developed I have tried in this review to identify those characteristics of a particular system which maximise both the information it can provide and its versatility.

Dependence of the fluorescence of fluorescein labelled (Ca2+, Mg2+)-ATPase upon the lipid to protein ratio in sarcoplasmic reticulum reconstituted systems

Reconstituted sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) vesicles have been prepared mixing fluorescein labelled SR, excess endogenous lipids and deoxycholate by a rapid dilution protocol and several freeze-thaw treatments. We have found that both the steady-state level and the polarization of fluorescein fluorescence of these reconstituted systems monotonically increase as a function of the lipid to protein ratio between 80 and 2000 (on a mole per mole basis). The magnitude of this increase is about 15%. Detergents, such as Triton X-100 and deoxycholate, when added to SR labelled vesicles below their critical micelle concentrations also induce similar changes in fluorescein fluorescence. We suggest that lipid dilution of protein in these reconstituted systems induce a decrease of the level of self-quenching by promoting dissociation of (Ca2+, Mg2+)-ATPase.

Phase behavior of membranes reconstituted from dipentadecanoylphosphatidylcholine and the Mg2+-dependent, Ca2+-stimulated adenosinetriphosphatase of sarcoplasmic reticulum: evidence for a disrupted lipid domain surrounding protein

A new method was used for reconstituting active sodium deoxycholate solubilized Ca2+-ATPase of rabbit skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum. Removal of the detergent by dialysis at the pretransition temperature of the pure lipid (22 degrees C) favored the formation of sheet-like structures with a lipid and protein content close to that of the detergent-solubilized sample. Freeze-fracture electron micrographs revealed the Ca2+-ATPase to be organized in rows corresponding to the typical banded pattern seen in low-temperature freeze-fracture micrographs of pure lipid bilayers. Incubation of the sheetlike structures at a temperature (38 degrees C) above the pure lipid main phase transition (33.5 degrees C) caused closure of the sheets into vesicles displaying homogeneous intramembranous particle distributions, at least for membranes containing less than 150 lipids per Ca2+-ATPase. However, in membranes of higher lipid content, free lipid patches were seen both above and below the lipid phase transition. By use of high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry, three classes of excess heat capacity peaks were observed in the vesiculated samples. A broadened "free lipid" peak occurred for samples containing between 550 and 200 lipids per protein (Tm = 33.5 degrees C, as for the order-disorder transition in pure lipid vesicles). Between 200 and 150 lipids per Ca2+-ATPase, a broad shoulder became apparent in the range of 29-32 degrees C. Below 150 lipids per Ca2+-ATPase, a peak at 26-28 degrees C became increasingly prominent with lower lipid content. At a lipid to protein ratio of about 30, no peaks in heat capacity were observed. The temperature dependence of diphenylhexatriene fluorescence anisotropy revealed a similar pattern of membrane phase behavior, except that a phase transition was detected at 33.5 degrees C in all membranes studied. On the basis of these observations, we propose that the Ca2+-ATPase is surrounded by a "lipid annulus" of motionally inhibited lipid molecules that do not contribute to a calorimetrically detectable phase transition. Beyond the annulus, "secondary domains" of disrupted lipid packing account for the peak at 26-28 degrees C and the 29-32 degrees C shoulders. At high lipid to protein ratios, the secondary domains coexist with protein-free, lipid-bilayer patches, which account for the peak at 33.5 degrees C.

Reconstitution of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase with excess lipid dispersion of the pump units

Sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase has been reconstituted with excess lipid (25-150 g egg phosphatidylcholine per g sarcoplasmic reticulum protein) by a procedure combining the use of a non-ionic detergent with cholate dialysis. The reconstituted vesicles were analyzed by sucrose density fractionation and freeze-fracture electron microscopy. At the lowest lipid to protein ratios some vesicles containing aggregated protein were observed. At a lipid to protein ratio of 150:1 (w/w) only 30-40% of the reconstituted protein sedimented through 7% (w/v) sucrose. The remainder of the latter preparation was characterized by a high Ca2+-uptake capacity and a coupling ratio of 1.6 mol Ca2+ transported per mol ATP hydrolyzed. Intramembranous particles in this preparation occurred isolated in the membrane. In most cases only one particle could be seen on a fracture face. Cross-linking with cupric phenanthroline indicated that protein-protein contacts were drastically reduced by reconstitution. It is concluded that aggregation of intramembranous particles is not required for optimal Ca2+-transport function. The dispersed preparation obtained by a combined reconstitution and sucrose density fractionation procedure is useful for further characterization of the Ca2+ pump.

New approaches for the reconstitution and functional assay of membrane transport proteins. Application to the anion transporter of human erythrocytes

The human red blood cell anion transport protein, band 3, was isolated and reconstituted into lipid vesicles. The main feature of the new reconstitution is the replacement of native lipids and of solubilizing detergent by externally added lipids, while band 3 protein is immobilized on a gel matrix. The vesicles formed upon detergent removal and sonication are unilamellar and sealed, and band 3 protein is the major polypeptide detectable in them. The method consists of: (a) solubilization of alkali-treated red blood cell membranes by Triton X-100; (b) binding of glycophorin and band 3 protein to diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose in Triton X-100 solution, followed by high ionic strength elution; (c) band 3 protein complexation to organomercurial Sepharose; (d) exchange of the Triton X-100 with the dialyzable detergent octylglucopyranoside, while band 3 protein is complexed to the column; (e) elution of band 3 by cysteine (5 mM) in the presence of octylglucopyranoside; (f) addition of lipids (asolectin or egg phosphatidylcholine) to the protein-detergent suspension; and (g) dialysis of the mixture against 1% bovine serum albumin to remove the detergent completely. The vesicles were assayed for anion transport capacity by a novel procedure which is based on the fluorescent substrate N-(2-aminoethylsulfonate)7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD-taurine) and on anti-NBD-antibodies as quenchers of extravesicular NBD-taurine fluorescence. Efflux of NBD-taurine from vesicles was monitored in a continuous mode as a decrease in intravesicular fluorescence. The band 3-mediated flux was approx. 50% inhibitable by externally added disulfonic stilbenes, indicating the random distribution of band 3 protein in reconstituted vesicles. Both the specific transfer rate (i.e., nmol substrate/mg protein per min) of band 3 and its energy of activation (Ea) in the artificial lipid milieu were similar to those obtained with the native system. Glycophorin incorporation into this milieu had no significant effect on the associated anion transport properties.