FLASH-EDT2--4',5'-bis(1,3,2-dithioarsolan-2-yl)fluorescein-(1,2-ethanedithiol)2--has been reported to fluoresce only after binding with high affinity to a specific tetracysteine motif (CCXXCC, "Cys4") and thus to provide a technique for labeling recombinant proteins in vivo (Griffin et al. Science 281:269-272). We have attempted to use FLASH-EDT2 as a site-specific label of the II-III loop of the dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR) in skeletal muscle. Upon expression in dysgenic myotubes (which lack endogenous alpha1s), an alpha1s mutated to contain CCRECC in the II-III loop was able to produce L-type calcium currents and to mediate skeletal-type excitation-contraction (EC) coupling, but FLASH-EDT2 labeling revealed no difference from non-transfected dysgenic myotubes. HeLa-S3 cells transfected with Cys4-containing calmodulin were significantly more fluorescent than non-transfected cells, whereas the difference between transfected and non-transfected cells was less apparent for CHO-K and HEK 293 cells. Because the fluorescence of non-transfected cells increased substantially after treatment with FLASH-EDT2, it suggested the possibility that FLASH binds to endogenous cysteine-containing proteins. This finding was confirmed in cuvette experiments in which FLASH-EDT2 fluorescence was observed after FLASH-EDT, was added to protein homogenates from myotubes or cell lines. The enhanced fluorescence was abolished by pretreatment of cells or cell homogenates with coumarine maleimide (CPM), which modifies cysteine residues covalently. Thus, enhanced FLASH fluorescence appears to occur both after binding to an introduced Cys4 motif and to endogenous, cysteine-containing proteins. Therefore, FLASH-EDT2 may be useful only for labeling those recombinant proteins that express at a very high level.

Rabbit and human ClC-2G Cl− channels are voltage sensitive and activated by protein kinase A and low extracellular pH. The objective of the present study was to investigate the mechanism involved in acid activation of the ClC-2G Cl− channel and to determine which amino acid residues play a role in this acid activation. Channel open probability ( P o) at ±80 mV holding potentials increased fourfold in a concentration-dependent manner with extracellular H+concentration (that is, extracellular pH, pH trans ), with an apparent acidic dissociation constant of pH 4.95 ± 0.27. 1-Ethyl-3(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide-catalyzed amidation of the channel with glycine methyl ester increased P o threefold at pH trans 7.4, at which the channel normally exhibits low P o. With extracellular pH reduction (protonation) or amidation, increased P o was due to a significant increase in open time constants and a significant decrease in closed time constants of the channel gating, and this effect was insensitive to applied voltage. With the use of site-directed mutagenesis, the extracellular region EELE (amino acids 416–419) was identified as the pH sensor and amino acid Glu-419 was found to play the key or predominant role in activation of the ClC-2G Cl− channel by extracellular acid.

A ClC-2G(2 alpha) Cl- channel was identified to be present in human lung and stomach, and a partial cDNA for this Cl- channel was cloned from a human fetal lung library. A full-length expressible human ClC-2G(2 alpha) cDNA was constructed by ligation of mutagenized expressible rabbit ClC-2G(2 alpha) cDNA with the human lung ClC-2G(2 alpha) cDNA, expressed in oocytes, and characterized at the single-channel level. Adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate-dependent protein kinase (PKA) treatment increased the probability of opening of the channel (Po). After PKA activation, the channel exhibited a linear (r = 0.99) current-voltage curve with a slope conductance of 22.1 +/- 0.8 pS in symmetric 800 mM tetraethylammonium chloride (TEACl; pH 7.4). Under fivefold gradient conditions of TEACl, a reversal potential of +21.5 +/- 2.8 mV was measured demonstrating anion-to-cation discrimination. As previously demonstrated for the rabbit ClC-2G(2 alpha) Cl- channel, the human analog, hClC-2G(2 alpha), was active at pH 7.4 as well as when the pH of the extracellular face of the channel (trans side of the bilayer; pHtrans) was asymmetrically reduced to pH 3.0. The extent of PKA activation was dependent on pHtrans. With PKA treatment, Po increased fourfold with a pHtrans of 7.4 and eightfold with a pHtrans of 3.0. Effects of sequential PKA addition followed by pHtrans reduction on the same channel suggested that the PKA- and pH-dependent increases in channel Po were separable and cumulative. Northern analysis showed ClC-2G(2 alpha) mRNA to be present in human adult and fetal lung and adult stomach, and quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction showed this channel to be present in the adult human lung and stomach at about one-half the level found in fetal lung. The findings of the present study suggest that the ClC-2G(2 alpha) Cl- channel may play an important role in Cl- transport in the fetal and adult human lung.

Ca2+-dependent modulation via calmodulin (CaM) has been documented for most high-voltage-activated Ca2+ channels, but whether the skeletal muscle L-type channel (Cav1.1) exhibits this property has been unknown. In this paper, whole-cell current and fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) recordings were obtained from cultured mouse myotubes to test for potential involvement of CaM in function of Cav1.1. When prolonged depolarization (800 ms) was used to evoke Cav1.1 currents in normal myotubes, the fraction of current remaining at the end of the pulse displayed classic signs of Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI), including U-shaped voltage dependence, maximal inactivation (approximately 30%) at potentials eliciting maximal inward current, and virtual elimination of inactivation when Ba2+ replaced external Ca2+ or when 10 mM BAPTA was included in the pipette solution. Furthermore, CDI was virtually eliminated (from 30 to 8%) in normal myotubes overexpressing mutant CaM (CaM1234) that does not bind Ca2+, whereas CDI was unaltered in myotubes overexpressing wild-type CaM (CaMwt). In addition, a significant FRET signal (E=4.06%) was detected between fluorescently tagged Cav1.1 and CaMwt coexpressed in dysgenic myotubes, demonstrating for the first time that these two proteins associate in vivo. These findings show that CaM associates with and modulates Cav1.1.

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