When expressed in epithelial cells, dopamine transporter (DAT) was detected predominantly in the apical plasma membrane, whereas norepinephrine transporter (NET) was found in the basolateral membrane, despite 67% overall amino acid sequence identity. To identify possible localization signals responsible for this difference, DAT-NET chimeras were expressed in MDCK cells and localized by immunocytochemistry and transport assays. The results suggested that localization of these transporters in MDCK cells depends on their highly divergent NH 2 -terminal regions. Deletion of the first 58 amino acids of DAT (preceding TM1) did not change its apical localization. However, the replacement of that region with corresponding sequence from NET resulted in localization of the chimeric protein to the basolateral membrane, suggesting that the NH 2 -terminus of NET, which contains two dileucine motifs, contains a basolateral localization signal. Mutation of these leucines to alanines in the context of a basolaterally localized NET/DAT chimera restored transporter localization to the apical membrane, indicating that the dileucine motifs are critical to the basolateral localization signal embodied within the NET NH 2 -terminal region. However, the same mutation in the context of wild-type NET did not disrupt basolateral localization, indicating the presence of additional signals in NET directing its basolateral localization within the plasma membrane.
INTRODUCTIONTransporters localized near sites of neurotransmitter release terminate the action of these transmitters by reuptake into neurons and glia (Uhl, 1992;Borowsky and Hoffman, 1995;Rudnick, 1997). The transporters for dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are high-affinity targets for drugs of abuse such as cocaine and amphetamines and for therapeutic drugs used to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other mental diseases (Ritz et al., 1987;Koe, 1990;Barr et al., 1992;Boyer and Feighner, 1992;Giros and Caron, 1993;Gu et al., 1994;Seeman and Madras, 1998;Smith et al., 1998). Successful cloning efforts have established a family of Na ϩ -and Cl Ϫ -dependent transporters for neurotransmitters, amino acids, and other substrates (Guastella et al., 1990;Pacholczyk et al., 1991;Amara and Kuhar, 1993;Rudnick and Clark, 1993;Nelson and Lill, 1994). Like other members of this family, the biogenic amine transporters, including dopamine transporter (DAT), norepinephrine transporter (NET), and serotonin transporter (SERT), were predicted from hydropathy analysis to contain 12 transmembrane domains with cytoplasmic NH 2 -and COOH-termini Giros et al., 1991;Hoffman et al., 1991;Kilty et al., 1991;Pacholczyk et al., 1991). This topological model has been experimentally verified (Chen et al., 1998). Although much effort has been focused on elucidating the structures and functions of these transporters, little is known about the determinants that allow them to be sorted to their proper domains within the plasma membranes of neurons and other cells. In addition to their neuro...