Interactions of mouse glycophorin A with the dRTA-related mutant G719D of the mouse Cl–/HCO3– exchanger Ae1This paper is one of a selection of papers published in a Special Issue entitled CSBMCB 53rd Annual Meeting — Membrane Proteins in Health and Disease, and has undergone the Journal’s usual peer review process.

The AE1 mutation G701D, associated with recessive distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA), produces only minimal erythroid phenotype, reflecting erythroid-specific expression of stimulatory AE1 subunit glycophorin A (GPA). GPA transgene expression could theoretically treat recessive dRTA in patients and in mice expressing cognate Ae1 mutation G719D. However, human (h) GPA and mouse (m) Gpa amino acid sequences are widely divergent, and mGpa function in vitro has not been investigated. We therefore studied in Xenopus oocytes the effects of coexpressed mGpa and hGPA on anion transport by erythroid (e) and kidney (k) isoforms of wild-type mAe1 (meAe1, mkAe1) and of mAe1 mutant G719D. Coexpression of hGPA or mGpa enhanced the function of meAe1 and mkAe1 and rescued the nonfunctional meAe1 and mkAe1 G719D mutants through increased surface expression. Progressive N-terminal truncation studies revealed a role for meAe1 amino acids 22–28 in GPA-responsiveness of meAe1 G719D. MouseN-cyto/humanTMD and humanN-cyto/mous...