Direct binding of visual arrestin to a rhodopsin carboxyl terminal synthetic phosphopeptide

The phosphorylated carboxyl terminus of rhodopsin is required for the stable binding of visual arrestin to the full length rhodopsin molecule. Phosphorylation of the carboxyl terminus has been shown to induce conformational changes in arrestin, which promote its binding to the cytoplasmic loops of rhodopsin. However, it has not been determined whether phosphorylation is also responsible for the direct binding of the rhodopsin carboxyl terminus to arrestin. To further investigate the role of rhodopsin phosphorylation on arrestin binding, surface plasmon resonance was used to measure the interaction between a synthetic phosphopeptide corresponding to the carboxyl terminus of rhodopsin and visual arrestin in real time.

Synthetic peptides were generated that correspond to the phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated carboxyl terminus of bovine rhodopsin. These peptides were immobilized on a biosensor chip and their interaction with purified visual arrestin was monitored by surface plasmon resonance on a BIAcore 2000 or 3000.

A synthetic peptide phosphorylated on residues corresponding to Ser-338, Thr-340, Thr-342 and Ser-343 of bovine rhodopsin was sufficient for direct binding to visual arrestin. In contrast, a second phosphopeptide phosphorylated on Thr-340 and Thr-342 and a nonphosphorylated synthetic peptide were not able to bind arrestin. A peptide fully substituted at all serine and threonine residues with glutamic acid was unable to substitute for phosphorylation.

Surface plasmon resonance is a sensitive method for detecting small differences in affinity. We were successful in using this technique to detect differences in the affinity of phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated rhodopsin peptides for visual arrestin. The data suggest that these are low-affinity interactions and indicate that phosphorylation is responsible for the direct binding of the rhodopsin carboxyl terminus to visual arrestin. Four phosphorylated residues are sufficient for this interaction. Because the affinity of the synthetic phosphopeptide for arrestin is substantially lower than the full length rhodopsin molecule, the cytoplasmic loops and rhodopsin carboxyl terminus appear to interact in a cooperative manner to stably bind arrestin.