Characterization of a new photoaffinity derivative of ouabain: labeling of the large polypeptide and of a proteolipid component of the Na, K-ATPase.

We have synthesized 2-nitro-5-azidobenzoyl (NAB) derivatives of ouabain as photoaffinity labels of the cardiac glyocoside binding site of Na, K-ATPase. [3HzNAB-ouabain was found to bind to the same number of sites on Na, K-ATPase (purified from pig kidney outer medulla) as ouabain (1.9 nmol/mg), with approximately the same affinity (Kk(ouabain)/Kd(NAB-ouabain) congruent to 1.6), and ouabain was fully competitive uith NAB-ouabain at these sites. NAB-ouabain binding and inhibition were reversible in the dark, but on exposure to ultraviolet light (310-370 nm) 30-40% of the binding and ihibition became irreversible; this binding was shown to be covalent by stability to trichloroacetic acid, organic solvents, and heat denaturation. Covalent labeling was prevented by photolysis of NAB-ouabain prior to the experiment, or by prior incubation of the enzyme with ouabain. On sodium dodecyl suffate-polyacrylamide gels of labeled Na,K-ATPase, about half of the covalently bound [3H]NAB-ouabain migrated with the large polypeptide (molecular weight congruent to 95 000), and half migrated with a small polypeptide (molecular weight congruent to 12 000); noncovalently bound NAB-ouabain (60-70% of total label) ran with the tracking dye. A similar labeling pattern was obtained utilizing NaI microsomes prepared from pig kidney outer medulla. The small polypeptide was characterized as an acidic proteolipid by extractability into acid chloroform/methanol; labeling of this component by NAB-ouabain is the first demonstration that it is directly associated with the Na,K-ATPase. The results of our characterization of NAB-ouabain show that it has the required specificity, covalency, and efficiency of labeling for application in structural studies of Na,K-ATPase subunit interactions.