The coated vesicle vacuolar (H+)-ATPase associates with and is phosphorylated by the 50-kDa polypeptide of the clathrin assembly protein AP-2.

We have previously noted a 50-kDa polypeptide (p50) co-purifying with preparations of the bovine brain clathrin-coated vesicle vacuolar (H+)-ATPase (V-ATPase) (Zhang, J., Myers, M., and Forgac, M. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 9773-9778). We show that p50 is also immunoprecipitated with the V-ATPase, further suggesting its specific association with the proton pump. To determine the identity of this 50-kDa polypeptide and the stoichiometry of its association with the V-ATPase, we performed N-terminal amino acid sequencing and quantitative amino acid analysis of the gel-purified protein. These results revealed the unknown polypeptide to be the 50-kDa subunit of the clathrin assembly protein AP-2 (AP50); we estimate the stoichiometry of association is one AP50 per V-ATPase complex. AP50 is an N-ethylmaleimide (NEM)-inhibitable autokinase and incubation of purified V-ATPase with [gamma-32P]ATP resulted in the NEM-sensitive phosphorylation of AP50 and the B subunit of the V-ATPase. The same phosphorylation pattern is seen if the labeling reaction is done with intact clathrin-coated vesicles and the V-ATPase subsequently immunoprecipitated from the solubilized vesicles. This represents the first report of phosphorylation of one of the V-ATPase subunits. The functional significance of this phosphorylation for regulation or targeting of the V-ATPase in vivo remains to be determined.