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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/1999//683 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 146, Number 3, , 1999 683-693

Original Article

Connexin-Occludin Chimeras Containing the Zo-Binding Domain of Occludin Localize at Mdck Tight Junctions and Nrk Cell Contacts



Laura L. Mitica, Eveline E. Schneebergerb, Alan S. Fanningc, and James Melvin Andersona,c

a Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
b Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
c Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 208002, New Haven, CT 06520-8002.(203) 785-7273(203) 785-4133

laura.mitic{at}yale.edu

Occludin is a transmembrane protein of the tight junction that functions in creating both an intercellular permeability barrier and an intramembrane diffusion barrier. Creation of the barrier requires the precise localization of occludin, and a distinct family of transmembrane proteins called claudins, into continuous linear fibrils visible by freeze-fracture microscopy. Conflicting evidence exists regarding the relative importance of the transmembrane and extracellular versus the cytoplasmic domains in localizing occludin in fibrils. To specifically address whether occludin's COOH-terminal cytoplasmic domain is sufficient to target it into tight junction fibrils, we created chimeras with the transmembrane portions of connexin 32. Despite the gap junction targeting information present in their transmembrane and extracellular domains, these connexin-occludin chimeras localized within fibrils when expressed in MDCK cells, as assessed by immunofluorescence and immunogold freeze-fracture imaging. Localization of chimeras at tight junctions depends on the COOH-terminal ZO-binding domain and not on the membrane proximal domain of occludin. Furthermore, neither endogenous occludin nor claudin is required for targeting to ZO-1–containing cell–cell contacts, since in normal rat kidney fibroblasts targeting of chimeras again required only the ZO-binding domain. These results suggest an important role for cytoplasmic proteins, presumably ZO-1, ZO-2, and ZO-3, in localizing occludin in tight junction fibrils. Such a scaffolding and cytoskeletal coupling function for ZO MAGUKs is analogous to that of other members of the MAGUK family.

Key Words: tight junction • occludin • connexin 32 • ZO-1 • MAGUK

© 1999 The Rockefeller University Press

1.used in this paper: cx32, rat connexin 32; DOC, distal COOH-terminal residues 373–522 of occludin; HOC, human occludin cDNA; MAGUK, membrane-associated guanylate kinase; NRK, normal rat kidney; P-face, protoplasmic face; POC, proximal residues 266–372 of the occludin cytoplasmic tail; VSV-G, vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein; ZO-1, zonula occludens-1


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