Affinity labeling of two nucleotide sites on Na,K-ATPase using 2'(3')-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)8-azidoadenosine 5'-[alpha-32P]diphosphate (TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP) as a photoactivatable probe. Label incorporation before and after blocking the high affinity ATP site with fluorescein isothiocyanate

ATP and its analogues act on the minimal functional unit of Na, K-ATPase, the alpha beta protomer, with high and low affinity effects. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) irreversibly blocks the high affinity, or catalytic, ATP site, and yet the surviving K+-phosphatase activity of soluble FITC-modified alphabeta protomers can be photoinactivated by 2'(3')-O-trinitrophenyl (TNP)-8N3-ADP (Ward, D. G., and Cavieres, J. D. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 14277-14284). We have now used TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP as a photoaffinity label for Na,K-ATPase. The native enzyme can be photolabeled at 5 microM TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP, and ATP or FITC treatment prevents labeling of the alpha chain. At 25 microM, however, TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP can be incorporated in the FITC-modified alpha chain, concurrently with the inactivation of the K+-phosphatase activity, to an extrapolated level of 0.5-1.2 mol of 32P-probe per mol of alpha chain. Photoinactivation and labeling are prevented by TNP-ADP, vanadate, or strophanthidin and are promoted by Na+ or Mg2+, but not K+. The cation effects suggest that the fluorescein-modified enzyme incorporates the TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP. Mg complex preferentially, and the free probe when in the E1 enzyme form and after occupation of a low-affinity Na+ site. Partial trypsinolysis reveals that the point of TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP attachment is on the C-terminal 58-kDa fragment of the FITC-modified alpha chain. The affinity labeling of the fluorescein enzyme by TNP-8N3-[alpha-32P]ADP endorses the view that two nucleotide sites can be occupied simultaneously in each alpha subunit of Na,K-ATPase.