Direct evidence for modulation of porter quaternary structure by transport site ligands.

The transport inhibitor DNDS (4,4'-dinitrostilbene-2,2'-disulfonate) changes the bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)suberate (BS3) crosslinking pattern of band 3 protein from a mixture of dimer-crosslinkable (DC) and tetramer-crosslinkable (TC) states to the TC-state as the exclusive crosslinked product for reactions occurring in membranes of intact human erythrocytes. Pretreatment of cells with DNDS followed by extensive washing restores the original DC to TC proportionality indicating that the two states are reversibly interconvertible. We suggest a model wherein band 3 transport site ligands allosterically modulate the global conformation of a tetrameric porter between two reversibly interconvertible quaternary structures. These transitions in quaternary structure may be important to transmembrane signaling of events between the exofacial ligand binding site and the sites on the porter extension which bind ankyrin and hemoglobin.