CALX-CBD1 Ca2+-Binding Cooperativity Studied by NMR Spectroscopy and ITC with Bayesian Statistics

The Na+/Ca2+ exchanger of Drosophila melanogaster, CALX, is the main Ca2+ -extrusion mechanism in olfactory sensory neurons and photoreceptor cells. Na+/Ca2+ exchangers have two Ca2+ sensor domains, CBD1 and CBD2. In contrast to the mammalian homologs, CALX is inhibited by Ca2+ binding to CALX-CBD1, whereas CALX-CBD2 does not bind Ca2+ at physiological concentrations. CALX-CBD1 consists of beta-sandwich and displays four Ca2+ -binding sites at the tip of the domain. In this study, we used NMR spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to investigate the cooperativity of Ca2+ binding to CALX-CBD1. We observed that this domain binds Ca2+ in the slow exchange regime at the NMR chemical shift timescale. Ca2+ binding restricts the dynamics in the Ca2+-binding region. Experiments of N-15 chemical exchange saturation transfer and N-15 R(2 )dispersion allowed the determination of Ca2+ dissociation rates (similar to 30 s(-1)). NMR titration curves of residues in the Ca2+ binding region were sigmoidal because of the contribution of chemical exchange to transverse magnetization relaxation rates, R-2. Hence, a novel, to our knowledge, approach to analyze NMR titration curves was proposed. Ca2+-binding cooperativity was examined assuming two different stoichiometric binding models and using a Bayesian approach for data analysis. Fittings of NMR and ITC binding curves to the Hill model yielded n(Hill )similar to 2.9, near maximal cooperativity (n(Hill) = 4). By assuming a step-wise model to interpret the ITC data, we found that the probability of binding from 2 up to 4 Ca2+ is approximately three orders of magnitude higher than that of binding a single Ca2+. Hence, four Ca2+ ions bind almost simultaneously to CALX-CBD1. Cooperative Ca2+ binding is key to enable this exchanger to efficiently respond to changes in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration in sensory neuronal cells. (AU)