Background: Mutations in the aquaporin-2 (AQP2) gene cause nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), a renal disorder characterized by polyuria due to a lacking antidiuretic response to vasopressin. While most AQP2 mutants in recessive NDI are misfolded and retained in the endoplasmic reticulum, AQP2-P262L in NDI was impaired in its vasopressin-dependent translocation from vesicles to the plasma membrane.
Methods: Vasopressin-induced translocation of AQP2 coincides with AQP2 phosphorylation at S256, S264 and T269 and dephosphorylation at S261. Since P262 lies adjacent to S261, we tested whether a changed phosphorylation could underlie AQP-P262L missorting in NDI.
Results: In polarized cells, AQP2-P262L expressed as a double 29/30 kDa band, whereas wt-AQP2 expressed only as a 29 kDa band. Phosphatase treatment revealed that the 30 kDa AQP2-P262L band was due to changed phosphorylation. The use of newly developed phospho-specific antibodies showed that forskolin not only increased pS256 and pT269, but, in contrast to wt-AQP2, also pS261 in AQP2-P262L. The expression of AQP2-P262L proteins in which S261 phosphorylation was prevented (S261A), however, was still missorted to vesicles/basolateral membrane, despite the absence of the 30 kDa band.
Conclusions: Together, our data reveal that vasopressin induces instead of reduces the phosphorylation of S261 in AQP2-P262L, but it remains to be established whether the changed phosphorylation causes its missorting in NDI.