It is widely recognized that the phenotype of familial hyperkalemic hypertension is mainly a consequence of increased activity of the renal Na + -Cl 2 cotransporter (NCC) because of altered regulation by with no-lysine-kinase 1 (WNK1) or WNK4. either by low chloride hypotonic stress or coinjection of oocytes with the solute carrier family 26 (anion exchanger)-member 9 (SLC26A9) cRNA, promoted WNK4 autophosphorylation and increased NCC-dependent Na + transport in a WNK4-dependent manner. Substitution of the leucine with phenylalanine at residue 322 of WNK4, homologous to the chloride-binding pocket in L-WNK1, converted WNK4 into a constitutively autophosphorylated kinase that activated NCC, even without chloride depletion. Elimination of the catalytic activity (D321A or D321K-K186D) or the autophosphorylation site (S335A) in mutant WNK4-L322F abrogated the positive effect on NCC. These observations suggest that WNK4 can exert differential effects on NCC, depending on the intracellular chloride concentration.

Familial hyperkalemic hypertension (FHHt) can be mainly attributed to increased activity of the renal Na:Cl cotransporter (NCC), which is caused by altered expression and regulation of the with-no-lysine (K) 1 (WNK1) or WNK4 kinases. The WNK1 gene gives rise to a kidney-specific isoform that lacks the kinase domain (KS-WNK1), the expression of which occurs primarily in the distal convoluted tubule. The role played by KS-WNK1 in the modulation of the WNK/STE20-proline-alanine rich kinase (SPAK)/NCC pathway remains elusive. In the present study, we assessed the effect of human KS-WNK1 on NCC activity and on the WNK4-SPAK pathway. Microinjection of oocytes with human KS-WNK1 cRNA induces remarkable activation and phosphorylation of SPAK and NCC. The effect of KS-WNK1 was abrogated by eliminating a WNK-WNK-interacting domain and by a specific WNK inhibitor, WNK463, indicating that the activation of SPAK/NCC by KS-WNK1 is due to interaction with another WNK kinase. Under control conditions in oocytes, the activating serine 335 of the WNK4 T loop is not phosphorylated. In contrast, this serine becomes phosphorylated when the intracellular chloride concentration ([Cl]) is reduced or when KS-WNK1 is coexpressed with WNK4. KS-WNK1-mediated activation of WNK4 is not due to a decrease of the [Cl]. Coimmunoprecipitation analysis revealed that KS-WNK1 and WNK4 interact with each other and that WNK4 becomes autophosphorylated at serine 335 when it is associated with KS-WNK1. Together, these observations suggest that WNK4 becomes active in the presence of KS-WNK1, despite a constant [Cl].

WNK lysine-deficient protein kinase 4 (WNK4) is an important regulator of renal salt handling. Mutations in its gene cause pseudohypoaldosteronism type II, mainly arising from overactivation of the renal Na/Cl cotransporter (NCC). In addition to full-length WNK4, we have observed faster migrating bands (between 95 and 130 kDa) in Western blots of kidney lysates. Therefore, we hypothesized that these could correspond to uncharacterized WNK4 variants. Here, using several WNK4 antibodies and WNK4 mice as controls, we showed that these bands indeed correspond to short WNK4 variants that are not observed in other tissue lysates. LC-MS/MS confirmed these bands as WNK4 variants that lack C-terminal segments. In HEK293 cells, truncation of WNK4's C terminus at several positions increased its kinase activity toward Ste20-related proline/alanine-rich kinase (SPAK), unless the truncated segment included the SPAK-binding site. Of note, this gain-of-function effect was due to the loss of a protein phosphatase 1 (PP1)-binding site in WNK4. Cotransfection with PP1 resulted in WNK4 dephosphorylation, an activity that was abrogated in the PP1-binding site WNK4 mutant. The electrophoretic mobility of the short variants of renal WNK4 suggested that they lack the SPAK-binding site and thus may not behave as constitutively active kinases toward SPAK. Finally, we show that at least one of the WNK4 short variants may be produced by proteolysis involving a Zn-dependent metalloprotease, as recombinant full-length WNK4 was cleaved when incubated with kidney lysate.

Protein self-assembly governs protein function and compartmentalizes cellular processes in space and time. Current methods to study it suffer from low-sensitivity, indirect read-outs, limited throughput, and/or population-level rather than single-cell resolution. We designed a flow cytometry-based single methodology that addresses all of these limitations: Distributed Amphifluoric FRET or DAmFRET. DAmFRET detects and quantifies protein self-assemblies by sensitized emission FRET in vivo, enables deployment across model systems-from yeast to human cellsand achieves sensitive, single-cell, high-throughput read-outs irrespective of protein localization or solubility. Video Link The video component of this article can be found at https://www.jove.com/video/59577/ 11 , which allows a single construct to express both donor-and acceptor-tagged protein. The emission spectrum of unconverted mEos3.1 (GFPlike donor) sufficiently overlaps with the excitation spectrum of photoconverted mEos3.1 (dsRed-like acceptor) to allow FRET to occur when the