Chloride is an allosteric effector of copper assembly for the yeast multicopper oxidase Fet3p: An unexpected role for intracellular chloride channels

GEF1 is a gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which encodes a putative voltage-regulated chloride channel. gef1 mutants have a defect in the high-affinity iron transport system, which relies on the cell surface multicopper oxidase Fet3p. The defect is due to an inability to transfer Cu+ to apoFet3p within the secretory apparatus. We demonstrate that the insertion of Cu into apoFet3p is dependent on the presence of Cl−. Cu-loading of apoFet3p is favored at acidic pH, but in the absence of Cl− there is very little Cu-loading at any pH. Cl− has a positive allosteric effect on Cu-loading of apoFet3p. Kinetic studies suggest that Cl− may also bind to Fet3p and that Cu+ has an allosteric effect on the binding of Cl− to the enzyme. Thus, Cl− may be required for the metal loading of proteins within the secretory apparatus. These results may have implications in mammalian physiology, as mutations in human intracellular chloride channels result in disease.

The Menkes/Wilson disease gene homologue in yeast provides copper to a ceruloplasmin-like oxidase required for iron uptake.

The CCC2 gene of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is homologous to the human genes defective in Wilson disease and Menkes disease. A biochemical hallmark of these diseases is a deficiency of copper in ceruloplasmin and other copper proteins found in extracytosolic compartments. Here we demonstrate that disruption of the yeast CCC2 gene results in defects in respiration and iron uptake. These defects could be reversed by supplementing cells with copper, suggesting that CCC2 mutant cells were copper deficient. However, cytosolic copper levels and copper uptake were normal. Instead, CCC2 mutant cells lacked a copper-dependent oxidase activity associated with the extracytosolic domain of the FET3-encoded protein, a ceruloplasmin homologue previously shown to be necessary for high-affinity iron uptake in yeast. Copper restored oxidase activity both in vitro and in vivo, paralleling the ability of copper to restore respiration and iron uptake. These results suggest that the CCC2-encoded protein is required for the export of copper from the cytosol into an extracytosolic compartment, supporting the proposal that intracellular copper transport is impaired in Wilson disease and Menkes disease.