The evolutionary pressure to inactivate - A subclass of synaptotagmins with an amino acid substitution that abolishes Ca2+ binding

Synaptotagmin I is a Ca2+-binding protein of synaptic vesicles that serves as a Ca2+ sensor for neurotransmitter release and was the first member found of a large family of trafficking proteins. We have now identified a novel synaptotagmin, synaptotagmin XI, that is highly expressed in brain and at lower levels in other tissues. Like other synaptotagmins, synaptotagmin XI has a single transmembrane region and two cytoplasmic C-2-domains but is most closely related to synaptotagmin TV with which it forms a new subclass of synaptotagmins. The first C-2-domain of synaptotagmin I (the C(2)A-domain) binds phospholipids as a function of Ca2+ and contains a Ca2+-binding site, the C-2-motif, that binds at least two Ca2+ ions via five aspartate residues and is conserved in most C-2-domains (Shao, X., Davletov, B., Sutton, B., Sudhof, T. C., Rizo, J. R. (1996) Science 273, 248-253). In the C(2)A-domains of synaptotagmins IV and XI, however, one of the five Ca2+-binding aspartates in the C-2-motif is substituted for a serine, suggesting that these C-2-domains do not bind Ca2+. To test this, we produced recombinant C(2)A-domains from synaptotagmins IV and XI with either wild type serine or mutant aspartate in the C-2-motif. Circular dichroism showed that Ca2+ stabilizes both mutant but not wild type C-2-domains against temperature-induced denaturation, indicating that the mutations restore Ca2+-binding to the wild type C-2-domains. Furthermore, wild type C(2)A-domains of synaptotagmins IV and XI exhibited no Ca2+-dependent phospholipid binding, whereas mutant C(2)A-domains bound phospholipids as a function of Ca2+ similarly to wild type synaptotagmin I. These experiments suggest that a class of synaptotagmins was selected during evolution in which the Ca2+-binding site of the C(2)A-domain was inactivated by a single point mutation. Thus, synaptotagmins must have Ca2+-independent functions as well as Ca2+-dependent functions that are selectively maintained in distinct members of this gene family.