Tetrathiafulvalene crowns: redox-switchable ligands.

A series of redox-responsive ligands that associate the electroactive tetrathiafulvalene core with polyether subunits of various lengths has been synthesized. X-ray structures are provided for each of the free ligands. The requisite structural criteria for reaching switchable ligands are satisfied for the largest macrocycles, that is, planarity of the 1,1',3,3'-tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) pi system and correctly oriented coordinating atoms. The ability of these ligands to recognize various metal cations as a function of the cavity size has been investigated by various techniques (LSIMS, 1H NMR, and UV/Vis spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry). These systems exhibit an unprecedented high coordination ability among TTF crown ethers. Their switchable ligating properties have been confirmed by cyclic voltammetry, and metal-cation complexation has been illustrated by X-ray structures of three of the corresponding metal complexes (Pb2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+). Solid-state structures of these complexes display original packing modes with channel-like arrangements.

Association of kidney and parotid Na+, K(+)-ATPase microsomes with actin and analogs of spectrin and ankyrin.

Kidney Na+,K(+)-ATPase has been recently shown to bind erythroid ankyrin and to colocalize with ankyrin at the basolateral cell surface of kidney epithelial cells. These observations suggest that Na+,K(+)-ATPase is linked via ankyrin to the spectrin/actin-based membrane cytoskeleton. In the present study we show that Na+,K(+)-ATPase and analogs of spectrin, ankyrin and actin copurify from detergent extracts of pig kidney and parotid gland membranes. Actin, spectrin and ankyrin were extracted from purified Na+,K(+)-ATPase microsomes at virtually identical conditions as their counterparts from the erythrocyte membrane, i.e., 1 mM EDTA (spectrin, actin) and 1 M KCl (ankyrin). Visualization of the stripped proteins by rotary shadowing revealed numerous elongated spectrin-like dimers (100 nm) and tetramers (215 nm), a fraction of which (17%) was associated with globular (10 nm) ankyrin-like particles. Like erythrocyte ankyrin, kidney ankyrin was cleaved into a soluble 72 kDa fragment and a membrane-bound 90 kDa fragment. Consistent with our previous immunocytochemical findings on the pig kidney, Na+,K(+)-ATPase and ankyrin were found to be colocalized at the basolateral plasma membrane of striated ducts and acini of the pig parotid gland. The present findings confirm and extend the recently proposed concept that in polarized epithelial cells Na+,K(+)-ATPase may serve as major attachment site for the spectrin-based membrane cytoskeleton to the basolateral cell domain. Connections of integral membrane proteins to the cytoskeleton may help to place these proteins at specialized domains of the cell surface and to prevent them from endocytosis.