Phosphorylation sites in human erythrocyte band 3 protein

The human red cell anion-exchanger, band 3 protein, is one of the main phosphorylated proteins of the erythrocyte membrane. Previous studies from this laboratory have shown that ATP-depletion of the red blood cell decreased the anion-exchange rate, suggesting that band 3 protein phosphorylation could be involved in the regulation of anion transport function (Bursaux et al. (1984) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 777, 253-260). Phosphorylation occurs mainly on the cytoplasmic domain of the protein and the major site of phosphorylation was assigned to tyrosine-8 (Dekowski et al. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 2750-2753). This site being very far from the integral, anion-exchanger domain, the aim of the present study was to determine whether phosphorylation sites exist in the integral domain. The phosphorylation reaction was carried out on isolated membranes in the presence of [gamma-32P]ATP and phosphorylated band 3 protein was then isolated. Both the cytoplasmic and the membrane spanning domains were purified. The predominant phosphorylation sites were found on the cytoplasmic domain. RP-HPLC analyses of the tryptic peptides of whole band 3 protein, and of the isolated cytoplasmic and membrane-spanning domains allowed for the precise localization of the phosphorylated residues. 80% of the label was found in the N-terminal tryptic peptide (T-1), (residues 1-56). In this region, all the residues susceptible to phosphorylation were labeled but in varying proportion. Under our conditions, the most active membrane kinase was a tyrosine kinase, activated preferentially by Mn2+ but also by Mg2+. Tyrosine-8 was the main phosphate acceptor residue (50-70%) of the protein, tyrosine-21 and tyrosine-46 residues were also phosphorylated but to a much lesser extent. The main targets of membrane casein kinase, preferentially activated by Mg2+, were serine-29, serine-50, and threonine(s)-39, -42, -44, -48, -49, -54 residue(s) located in the T-1 peptide. A tyrosine phosphatase activity was copurified with whole band 3 protein which dephosphorylates specifically P-Tyr-8, indicating a highly exchangeable phosphate. The membrane-spanning fragment was only faintly labeled.