Greasing the wheels or a spanner in the works? Regulation of the cardiac sodium pump by palmitoylation

The ubiquitous sodium / potassium ATPase (Na pump) is the most abundant primary active transporter at the cell surface of multiple cell types, including ventricular myocytes in the heart. The activity of the Na pump establishes transmembrane ion gradients that control numerous events at the cell surface, positioning it as a key regulator of the contractile and metabolic state of the myocardium. Defects in Na pump activity and regulation elevate intracellular Na in cardiac muscle, playing a causal role in the development of cardiac hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction, arrhythmias and heart failure. Palmitoylation is the reversible conjugation of the fatty acid palmitate to specific protein cysteine residues; all subunits of the cardiac Na pump are palmitoylated. Palmitoylation of the pump’s accessory subunit phospholemman by the cell surface palmitoyl acyl transferase DHHC5 leads to pump inhibition, possibly by altering the relationship between the pump catalytic α subunit and specifically bound membrane lipids. In this review we discuss the functional impact of phospholemman palmitoylation on the cardiac Na pump and the molecular basis of recognition of phospholemman by its palmitoylating enzyme DHHC5, as well as effects of palmitoylation on Na pump cell surface abundance in the cardiac muscle. We also highlight the numerous unanswered questions regarding the cellular control of this fundamentally important regulatory process.