Palmitoylation of the V2 Vasopressin Receptor Carboxyl Tail Enhances β-Arrestin Recruitment Leading to Efficient Receptor Endocytosis and ERK1/ 2 Activation

Pascale G. Charest, Michel Bouvier

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

A large number of G protein-coupled receptors are palmitoylated on cysteine residues located in their carboxyl tail, but the general role of this post-translational modification remains poorly understood. Here we show that preventing palmitoylation of the V2 vasopressin receptor, by site-directed mutagenesis of cysteines 341 and 342, significantly delayed and decreased both agonist-promoted receptor endocytosis and mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. Pharmacological blockade of receptor endocytosis is without effect on the vasopressin-stimulated mitogen-activated protein kinase activity, excluding the possibility that the reduced kinase activation mediated by the palmitoylation-less mutant could result from altered receptor endocytosis. In contrast, two dominant negative mutants of β-arrestin which inhibit receptor endocytosis also attenuated vasopressin-stimulated mitogen-activated protein kinase activity, suggesting that the scaffolding protein, β-arrestin, represents the common link among receptor palmitoylation, endocytosis, and kinase activation. Co-immunoprecipitation and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer experiments confirmed that inhibiting receptor palmitoylation considerably reduced the vasopressin-stimulated recruitment of β-arrestin to the receptor. Interestingly, the changes in β-arrestin recruitment kinetics were similar to those observed for vasopressin-stimulated receptor endocytosis and mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. Taken together the results indicate that palmitoylation enhances the recruitment of β-arrestin to the activated V2 vasopressin receptor thus facilitating processes requiring the scaffolding action of β-arrestin.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)41541-41551
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Biological Chemistry
Volume278
Issue number42
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 17 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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