Incorporation of the transmembrane hydrophobic domain of glycophorin into small unilamellar phospholipid vesicles Ion Flux studies

Abstract Human erythrocyte glycophorin is one of the best characterized integral membrane proteins. Reconstitution of the membrane-spanning hydrophobic segment of glycophorin (the tryptic insoluble peptide released when glycophorin is treated with trypsin) with liposomes results in the production of freeze-fracture intrabilayer particles of 80 A diameter (Segrest, J.P., Gulik-Krzywicki, T. and Sardet, C. (1974) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 71, 3294–3298), with particles appearing at or above a tryptic insoluble peptide concentration of 4 mmol per mol phosphatidylcholine. In the present study, increasing concentrations of tryptic insoluble peptide were added to sonicated small unilamellar egg phosphatidylcholine vesicles and the rate of efflux of 22 Na + was examined by rapid (30 s) gel filtration on Sephadex G-50. Below a concentation of 3–5 mmol tryptic insoluble peptide/mol phosphatidylcholine, 22 Na + efflux occurs at a constant slow rate at given tryptic insoluble peptide concentrations. Above a concentration of 3–5 mM, the rate of efflux is biphasic at given tryptic insoluble peptide concentrations, exhibiting both an initial fast and a subsequent slow component. On the basis of graphic and computer curve-fitting analysis, with increasing tryptic insoluble peptide concentration, the rate of the slow component reaches a plateau at a tryptic insoluble peptide concentration of 3–5 mM and remains essentially constant until much higher concentrations are reached; the fast component increases linearly with increasing tryptic insoluble peptide concentration well beyond 5 mM. The most consistent interpretation of this data is as follows. The slow 22 Na + efflux component is due to perturbations of small unilamellar vesicle integrity by tryptic insoluble peptide monomers. At a tryptic insoluble peptide concentration of 3–5 mmol/mol, a critical concentration is reached following which there is intrabilayer tryptic insoluble peptide self-association. The fast 22 Na + efflux component is due to the increasing presence of tryptic insoluble peptide self-associated multimers the 80-A particles seen by freeze-fracture electron microscopy) which results in a significantly larger bilayer defect than do tryptic insoluble peptide monomers. The failure of complete saturation of efflux by the fast component is ascribed to the presence of two populations of small unilamellar vesicles, some of which contain tryptic insoluble peptide multimers and some of which do not. Addition of cholesterol to the tryptic insoluble peptide/phosphatidylcholine vesicles decreases the rate of 22 Na + efflux by inhibiting primarily the fast component. Freeze-fracture electron microscopy indicates that the presence of cholesterol has no effect on the size, number or distribution of 80-A intra-bilayer particles in the tryptic insoluble peptide/phosphatidylcholine vesicles. These results are consistent with a mechanism to explain the fast Na + efflux component involving protein-lipid boundary perturbations. Efflux of 45 Ca 2+ from phosphatidylcholine vesicles is also enhanced by incorporation of tryptic insoluble peptide, but only if divalent cations (Ca 2+ or Mg 2+ ) are present in the external bathing media as well as inside the sonicated vesicles. If monovalent Na + only is present in the bathing media no 45 Ca 2+ efflux is seen. Under conditions where 45 Ca 2+ efflux is seen, both a fast and a slow component are present, although both appear lower than corresponding rate constants for 22 Na + efflux. These results suggest a coordinated mechanism for ion efflux induced by tryptic insoluble peptide and, together with the 22 Na + efflux studies, may have mechanistic implications for the transbilayer phospholipid exchange (flip-flop) suggesed to be induced at glycophorin/phospholipid interfaces (de Kruiff, B., van Zoelen, E.J.J. and van Deenen, L.L.M. (1978) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 509, 537–542).