CFTR chloride channels are encoded by the gene mutated in patients with cystic fibrosis. These channels belong to the superfamily of ABC transporter ATPases. ATP-driven conformational changes, which in other ABC proteins fuel uphill substrate transport across cellular membranes, in CFTR open and close a gate to allow transmembrane flow of anions down their electrochemical gradient. New structural and biochemical information from prokaryotic ABC proteins and functional information from CFTR channels has led to a unifying mechanism explaining those ATP-driven conformational changes.

ABC (ATP-binding cassette) proteins constitute a large family of membrane proteins that actively transport a broad range of substrates. Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), the protein dysfunctional in cystic fibrosis, is unique among ABC proteins in that its transmembrane domains comprise an ion channel. Opening and closing of the pore have been linked to ATP binding and hydrolysis at CFTR's two nucleotide-binding domains, NBD1 and NBD2 (see, for example, refs 1, 2). Isolated NBDs of prokaryotic ABC proteins dimerize upon binding ATP, and hydrolysis of the ATP causes dimer dissociation. Here, using single-channel recording methods on intact CFTR molecules, we directly follow opening and closing of the channel gates, and relate these occurrences to ATP-mediated events in the NBDs. We find that energetic coupling between two CFTR residues, expected to lie on opposite sides of its predicted NBD1-NBD2 dimer interface, changes in concert with channel gating status. The two monitored side chains are independent of each other in closed channels but become coupled as the channels open. The results directly link ATP-driven tight dimerization of CFTR's cytoplasmic nucleotide-binding domains to opening of the ion channel in the transmembrane domains. This establishes a molecular mechanism, involving dynamic restructuring of the NBD dimer interface, that is probably common to all members of the ABC protein superfamily.

CFTR, the product of the gene mutated in cystic fibrosis, is an ATPase that functions as a Cl− channel in which bursts of openings separate relatively long interburst closed times (τib). Channel gating is controlled by phosphorylation and MgATP, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain controversial. To investigate them, we expressed CFTR channels in Xenopus oocytes and examined, in excised patches, how gating kinetics of phosphorylated channels were affected by changes in [MgATP], by alterations in the chemical structure of the activating nucleotide, and by mutations expected to impair nucleotide hydrolysis and/or diminish nucleotide binding affinity. The rate of opening to a burst (1/τib) was a saturable function of [MgATP], but apparent affinity was reduced by mutations in either of CFTR's nucleotide binding domains (NBDs): K464A in NBD1, and K1250A or D1370N in NBD2. Burst duration of neither wild-type nor mutant channels was much influenced by [MgATP]. Poorly hydrolyzable nucleotide analogs, MgAMPPNP, MgAMPPCP, and MgATPγS, could open CFTR channels, but only to a maximal rate of opening ∼20-fold lower than attained by MgATP acting on the same channels. NBD2 catalytic site mutations K1250A, D1370N, and E1371S were found to prolong open bursts. Corresponding NBD1 mutations did not affect timing of burst termination in normal, hydrolytic conditions. However, when hydrolysis at NBD2 was impaired, the NBD1 mutation K464A shortened the prolonged open bursts. In light of recent biochemical and structural data, the results suggest that: nucleotide binding to both NBDs precedes channel opening; at saturating nucleotide concentrations the rate of opening to a burst is influenced by the structure of the phosphate chain of the activating nucleotide; normal, rapid exit from bursts occurs after hydrolysis of the nucleotide at NBD2, without requiring a further nucleotide binding step; if hydrolysis at NBD2 is prevented, exit from bursts occurs through a slower pathway, the rate of which is modulated by the structure of the NBD1 catalytic site and its bound nucleotide. Based on these and other results, we propose a mechanism linking hydrolytic and gating cycles via ATP-driven dimerization of CFTR's NBDs.

CFTR, the ABC protein defective in cystic fibrosis, functions as an anion channel. Once phosphorylated by protein kinase A, a CFTR channel is opened and closed by events at its two cytosolic nucleotide binding domains (NBDs). Formation of a head-to-tail NBD1/NBD2 heterodimer, by ATP binding in two interfacial composite sites between conserved Walker A and B motifs of one NBD and the ABC-specific signature sequence of the other, has been proposed to trigger channel opening. ATP hydrolysis at the only catalytically competent interfacial site is suggested to then destabilize the NBD dimer and prompt channel closure. But this gating mechanism, and how tightly CFTR channel opening and closing are coupled to its catalytic cycle, remains controversial. Here we determine the distributions of open burst durations of individual CFTR channels, and use maximum likelihood to evaluate fits to equilibrium and nonequilibrium mechanisms and estimate the rate constants that govern channel closure. We examine partially and fully phosphorylated wild-type CFTR channels, and two mutant CFTR channels, each bearing a deleterious mutation in one or other composite ATP binding site. We show that the wild-type CFTR channel gating cycle is essentially irreversible and tightly coupled to the ATPase cycle, and that this coupling is completely destroyed by the NBD2 Walker B mutation D1370N but only partially disrupted by the NBD1 Walker A mutation K464A.ATPase cycle | maximum likelihood | nonequilibrium | phosphorylation | Walker motifsA TP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins bind and hydrolyze ATP, usually to power transport of substrates across membranes. Their common architecture comprises two transmembrane domains (TMDs) and two cytoplasmic nucleotide binding domains (NBDs) containing conserved sequences for interacting with ATP. Once ATP binds to the conserved Walker A and B motifs of each NBD, they dimerize in head-to-tail fashion, burying two ATP molecules in composite interfacial sites (1, 2). Cyclic formation and disruption of the dimer requires hydrolysis of at least one of the ATPs per cycle (3-6).The ion channel CFTR contains, in addition to canonical ABC protein domains (TMD1, NBD1, TMD2, NBD2), a unique regulatory (R) domain (7) with multiple cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) targets that must be phosphorylated for ATP to activate bursts of channel openings reviewed in ref. 8). But the mechanism of CFTR channel gating remains controversial. Early observations that the gating pattern violates microscopic reversibility suggested that the process underlying bursting operates far from thermodynamic equilibrium (9-11). Building on this, with functional evidence from mutants and nucleotide homologs (12-15) and with structural and biochemical data from prokaryotic NBDs (1-4), a CFTR channel open burst was proposed to be initiated by ATP-mediated formation of a stable NBD1-NBD2 heterodimer, and terminated by dimer dissociation after ATP hydrolysis (16). The ATP hydrolysis was posited to occur at the NBD2 composite site (between NBD2 Walke...

The human ATP-binding cassette (ABC) protein CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) is a chloride channel, whose dysfunction causes cystic fibrosis. To gain structural insight into the dynamic interaction between CFTR's nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) proposed to underlie channel gating, we introduced target cysteines into the NBDs, expressed the channels in Xenopus oocytes, and used in vivo sulfhydryl-specific crosslinking to directly examine the cysteines' proximity. We tested five cysteine pairs, each comprising one introduced cysteine in the NH 2 -terminal NBD1 and another in the COOH-terminal NBD2. Identification of crosslinked product was facilitated by co-expression of NH 2 -terminal and COOH-terminal CFTR half channels each containing one NBD. The COOH-terminal half channel lacked all native cysteines. None of CFTR's 18 native cysteines was found essential for wild type-like, phosphorylation-and ATP-dependent, channel gating. The observed crosslinks demonstrate that NBD1 and NBD2 interact in a head-to-tail configuration analogous to that in homodimeric crystal structures of nucleotide-bound prokaryotic NBDs. CFTR phosphorylation by PKA strongly promoted both crosslinking and opening of the split channels, firmly linking head-to-tail NBD1-NBD2 association to channel opening.