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Crystal structure of a Na+-bound Na+,K+-ATPase preceding the E1P state

Nature volume 502, pages 201–206 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Na+,K+-ATPase pumps three Na+ ions out of cells in exchange for two K+ taken up from the extracellular medium per ATP molecule hydrolysed, thereby establishing Na+ and K+ gradients across the membrane in all animal cells. These ion gradients are used in many fundamental processes, notably excitation of nerve cells. Here we describe 2.8 Å-resolution crystal structures of this ATPase from pig kidney with bound Na+, ADP and aluminium fluoride, a stable phosphate analogue, with and without oligomycin that promotes Na+ occlusion. These crystal structures represent a transition state preceding the phosphorylated intermediate (E1P) in which three Na+ ions are occluded. Details of the Na+-binding sites show how this ATPase functions as a Na+-specific pump, rejecting K+ and Ca2+, even though its affinity for Na+ is low (millimolar dissociation constant). A mechanism for sequential, cooperative Na+ binding can now be formulated in atomic detail.

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Figure 1: Crystal structure of Na+,K+-ATPase in the transition state analogue E1∼P·ADP·3Na+.
Figure 2: Comparison of the Na+-bound form of Na+,K+-ATPase with a K+ bound form and with SERCA1a in the corresponding state.
Figure 3: Transmembrane Na+-binding sites.
Figure 4: A proposed model for binding sequence of three Na+.

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Protein Data Bank

Data deposits

Atomic coordinates and structure factors for the reported crystal structures are deposited in the Protein Data Bank under accession numbers 3WGV (with oligomycin) and 3WGU (without oligomycin).

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Hasegawa and H. Okumura of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) for data collection at BL41XU of SPring-8, and J. Petersen, A. M. Beck Sørensen and A. Lillevang for technical assistance with membrane purification. We are grateful to D. B. McIntosh for help in improving the manuscript, and J. Tsueda for help in preparing figures. This work is a part of a long-term project (2009B0025) at SPring-8 and was supported by a Specially Promoted Project Grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (to C.T.) as well as by research grants from the Lundbeck Foundation (to B.V.), the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Fabrikant Vilhelm Pedersen og Hustrus Legat (to B.V. and F.C.), the Danish Medical Research Council (to B.V. and F.C.) and the FI/Danish-Japanese cooperation program from the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation (to F.C.).

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  1. Ryuta Kanai and Haruo Ogawa: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan,

    Ryuta Kanai, Haruo Ogawa & Chikashi Toyoshima

  2. Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark,

    Bente Vilsen & Flemming Cornelius

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  1. Ryuta Kanai
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Contributions

C.T., B.V. and F.C. planned and supervised the study. B.V. and F.C. prepared purified membranes containing Na+,K+-ATPase. R.K. and C.T. crystallized the ATPase; R.K., H.O. and C.T. collected diffraction data, determined the structure and prepared figures. C.T., B.V. and F.C. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chikashi Toyoshima.

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Kanai, R., Ogawa, H., Vilsen, B. et al. Crystal structure of a Na+-bound Na+,K+-ATPase preceding the E1P state. Nature 502, 201–206 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12578

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