Intramolecular fusion of Na pump subunits assures exclusive assembly of the fused alpha and beta subunit domains into a functional enzyme in cells also expressing endogenous Na pump subunits.

Experiments designed to identify Na pump structural features which tag the molecule for asymmetric cell-surface localization are inherently complex because either subunit, or both, may contain targeting information and because the cells which recognize those targeting signals and maintain asymmetric plasma membrane domains also express their own Na pumps, the subunits of which can assemble into hybrid pump molecules with pump subunits expressed from transfected cDNA clones. Cotransfecting cDNA for both subunits only complicates matters further by resulting in expression of four distinct dimeric molecular species. To eliminate the potential for cross-assembly in these and other experiments we have constructed cDNA encoding a "single-subunit" Na pump (called "alpha-beta") in which the alpha and beta subunits are joined by a linker of 17 amino acids. By all criteria tested alpha-beta functioned as a normal heterodimeric Na pump. It was expressed in a variety of mammalian cell lines as a single, high molecular weight polypeptide located primarily on the surface membrane, with the beta subunit exposed to the extracellular medium. Binding of the conformation-sensitive monoclonal antibody 24 to the beta subunit indicated that the fusion protein was folded as a properly "assembled" sodium pump. Expression of alpha-beta in ouabain-resistant mouse L cells resulted in high affinity ouabain binding and ouabain-sensitive, sodium-dependent rubidium transport. The enzyme was properly targeted to the basolateral plasma membrane in polarized epithelial cells. The functional integrity of the fusion protein renders it suitable for site-directed mutagenesis studies of targeting and enzymology where control of subunit assembly is desired. These results also support topological models in which the carboxyl terminus of the alpha subunit is cytoplasmic.