Tropomyosin from smooth and skeletal muscles initiates various conformational changes in skeletal F-actin

Changes in F-actin conformation in myosin-free single ghost fibers of rabbit skeletal muscle induced by the binding of skeletal and gizzard tropomyosin to F-actin were studied by measuring intrinsic tryptophan-polarized fluorescence of F-actin. It was found that skeletal and gizzard tropomyosin binding to F-actin initiate different conformational changes in actin filaments. Skeletal tropomyosin inhibits, while gizzard tropomyosin activates the Mg2+-ATPase activity of skeletal actomyosin. It is supposed that in muscle fibers tropomyosin modulates the ATPase activity of actomyosin via conformational changes in F-actin.     

Characterization of the carboxyl-terminal 10-kDa cyanogen bromide fragment of caldesmon as an actin-calmodulin-binding region

A pair of 10-kDa peptides, designated CB-a and CB-b, was isolated by calmodulin-Sepharose chromatography from a total CNBr digest of turkey gizzard caldesmon. CB-a encompasses the COOH-terminal segment of residues 659-756, according to the sequence of adult chicken gizzard caldesmon (Bryan, J., Imai, M., Lee, R., Moore, P., Cook, R.G., and Lin, W.G. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 13873-13879), whereas CB-b comprises the same structure but was a few amino acids shorter at its COOH terminus. Both peptides cosedimented with F-actin, and their binding was increased by smooth muscle tropomyosin. The Kd values were 1.3 and 0.5 microM, in the absence and presence of tropomyosin, respectively, with a maximum binding capacity of 6.9 actins/mol of peptides. The CB-a/CB-b fragments inhibited, in a tropomyosin-sensitive and Ca2(+)-calmodulin-dependent manner, the skeletal actomyosin subfragment 1 ATPase activity to a level close but not identical to that observed for the parent caldesmon. Ca2(+)-calmodulin was selectively cross-linked to either caldesmon or the CNBr peptides with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide producing 1:1 covalent complexes that were retained neither by phenyl-Sepharose nor by immobilized calmodulin. Moreover, the cross-linked caldesmon bound weakly to F-actin and did not inhibit the actomyosin subfragment 1 ATPase in the absence of Ca2+. The results suggest that the CB-a/CB-b peptide region contains major regulatory determinants of caldesmon.     

Effects of deletion of tropomyosin overlap on regulated actomyosin subfragment 1 ATPase.

The role of the overlap region at the ends of tropomyosin molecules in the properties of regulated thin filaments has been investigated by substituting nonpolymerizable tropomyosin for tropomyosin in a reconstituted troponin-tropomyosin-actomyosin subfragment 1 ATPase assay system. A previous study [Heeley, Golosinka & Smillie (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 9971-9978] has shown that at an ionic strength of 70 mM, troponin will induce full binding of nonpolymerizable tropomyosin to F-actin both in the presence and absence of calcium. At a myosin subfragment 1-to-actin ratio of 2:1 ([actin] = 4 microM) and an ionic strength of 50 mM, comparable levels of ATPase inhibition were observed with increasing levels of tropomyosin or the truncated derivative in the presence of troponin (-Ca2+). Large differences were noted, however, in the activation by Ca2+. Significantly lower ATPase activities were observed with nonpolymerizable tropomyosin and troponin (+Ca2+) over a range of subfragment 1-to-actin ratios from 0.25 to 2.5. The concentration of subfragment 1 required to generate ATPase activities exceeding those seen with actomyosin subfragment 1 alone under these conditions was 3-4-fold greater when nonpolymerizable tropomyosin was used. Similar effects were seen at the much lower ionic strength of 13 mM and are consistent with the reduced ATPase activity with nonpolymerizable tropomyosin observed previously [Walsh, Trueblood, Evans & Weber (1985) J. Mol. Biol. 182, 265-269] at low ionic strength and a subfragment 1-to-actin ratio of 1:100. Little cooperativity in activity as a function of subfragment 1 concentration with either intact tropomyosin or its truncated derivative was observed under the present conditions. Further studies are directed towards an understanding of these effects in terms of the two-state binding model for the attachment of myosin heads to regulated thin filaments.     

Fluorescence studies of the conformation of pyrene-labeled tropomyosin: effects of F-actin and myosin subfragment 1

The fluorescence of pyrene-TM [rabbit skeletal tropomyosin (TM) labeled at Cys with N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide] consists of monomer and excimer bands [Betcher-Lange, S., & Lehrer, S.S. (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 253, 3757-3760]; an increase in excimer fluorescence with temperature is due to a shift in equilibrium from a chain-closed state (N) to a chain-open state (X) associated with a helix pretransition [Graceffa, P., & Lehrer, S.S. (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255, 11296-11300]. In this study, we show that the presence of appreciable excimer fluorescence at temperatures below the N----X pretransition (initial excimer) is due to perturbation of the TM chain-chain interaction by the pyrenes at Cys-190. Fluorescence and ATPase titrations indicated that the label caused a decrease in TM binding to F-actin primarily due to reduced end to end TM interactions on the actin filament. Under conditions where pyrene-TM was bound to F-actin, however, the excimer fluorescence did not increase with temperature, indicating that F-actin stabilizes tropomyosin by inhibiting the N----X transition. The binding of myosin subfragment 1 (S1) to pyrene-TM-F-actin at low ratios to actin caused time-dependent changes in fluorescence. After equilibrium was reached, the initial excimer fluorescence was markedly reduced and remained constant over the pretransition temperature range. Further stabilization of tropomyosin conformation on F-actin is therefore associated with S1 binding. Effects of the binding of S1 to the F-actin-tropomyosin thin filament on the state of tropomyosin were studied by monitoring the monomer fluorescence of pyrene-TM.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Modulation of the actin-activated adenosinetriphosphatase activity of myosin by tropomyosin from vascular and gizzard smooth muscles

Tropomyosins from bovine aorta and pulmonary artery exhibit identical electrophoretic patterns in sodium dodecyl sulfate but differ from tropomyosins of either chicken gizzard or rabbit skeletal muscle. Each of the four tropomyosins binds readily to skeletal muscle F-actin as indicated by their sedimentation with actin and by their ability to maximally stimulate or inhibit actin-activated ATPase activity at a molar ratio of one tropomyosin per seven actin monomers. Smooth and skeletal muscle tropomyosins differ in their effects on activity of skeletal myosin or heavy meromyosin (HMM); the former can enhance activity under conditions in which the latter inhibits. Gizzard and arterial tropomyosins are usually equally effective in stimulating ATPase activity of skeletal acto-HMM, but at high concentrations of Mg2+ gizzard tropomyosin is more effective, a result that cannot be attributed to differences in the binding of the two tropomyosins to F-actin. The effects of tropomyosin also depend on the type of myosin; tropomyosin enhances activity of gizzard myosin under conditions in which it inhibits that of skeletal myosin. Increasing the pH or the Mg2+ concentration can reverse the effect of tropomyosin on actin-stimulated ATPase activity of skeletal HMM from activation to inhibition, but this reversal is not found with gizzard myosin. Activity in the absence of tropomyosin is independent of pH, and the loss of activation with increasing pH is not accompanied by loss of binding of tropomyosin to actin.     

Effect of muscle and non-muscle tropomyosins in reconstituted skeletal muscle actomyosin

Smooth and non-muscle tropomyosins were found to produce a 2-3-fold Ca-insensitive stimulation of the ATPase activity of reconstituted skeletal muscles actomyosin at normal MgATP concentrations and physiological ratios of myosin to actin. Under the same conditions skeletal muscles tropomyosin had no effect. Similar effects of these three tropomyosins were observed for the low myosin/F-actin ratios necessary for kinetic measurements. Since it could be established that this actomyosin system, with or without tropomyosin, obeyed Michaelian kinetics, the tropomyosin effects could be interpreted in terms of their influence on maximal turnover (V) or on the affinity of myosin for actin (Kapp). Accordingly, gizzard tropomyosin had practically no effect on the affinity and reduced only slightly the value of V, compared to pure actin. In contrast to gizzard tropomyosin, brain tropomyosin produced an approximately twofold increase in both Kapp and V; i.e. it increased the turnover rate but decreased the affinity. It is apparent from the data that brain tropomyosin acts as an uncompetitive activator with respect to pure actin, while having the same V as the actin plus gizzard tropomyosin complex. Further studies on these tropomyosins show that only skeletal and smooth muscle tropomyosin have similar functional properties with respect to troponin inhibition and the activation of the ATPase at low ATP concentrations. It is suggested that the noted increases in V by tropomyosin are caused by the acceleration of the dissociation of the myosin head from actin at the end point of the cross bridge movement.     

Isolation and characterization of a tropomyosin binding protein from human blood platelets

We have isolated a tropomyosin binding protein (TMBP) from human platelets using isoelectric fractionation, hydroxylapatite chromatography, and affinity chromatography on skeletal muscle tropomyosin-Affi-Gel 15. TMBP is a 67,000-Da monomeric protein that binds to muscle and nonmuscle tropomyosin affinity resins. Its affinity for platelet tropomyosin is greater than for rabbit skeletal or chicken gizzard tropomyosin, and greater than that of troponin for all tropomyosin affinity resins tested. TMBP forms a complex with platelet tropomyosin that can be isolated on G-150. The approximate molar stoichiometry is 1:1. Troponin and TMBP have distinct binding sites on skeletal tropomyosin since binding of TMBP to tropomyosin-Affi-Gel 15 is not affected by previous saturation of the column with troponin (or vice versa). The amino acid composition of TMBP is virtually identical with that of human serum albumin, and is similar to those of beta-actinin (Heizmann, C. W., Müller, G., Jenny, E., Wilson, K. J., Landon, F., and Olomucki, A. (1981) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 78, 74-77) and acumentin (Southwick, F. S., and Stossel, T. P. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 3030-3036). The protein we have isolated is the first nonmuscle protein other than actin that has been shown to bind to tropomyosin. Results in an accompanying paper show that this tropomyosin binding protein is identical with human serum albumin (Hitchcock-DeGregori, S. E., Gerhard, M. D., and Brown, W. E. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 3228-3231).     

Dependence on Ca2+ and tropomyosin of the actin-activated ATPase activity of phosphorylated gizzard myosin in the presence of low concentrations of Mg2+

Ca2+ and tropomyosin are required for activation of ATPase activity of phosphorylated gizzard myosin by gizzard actin at less than 1 mM Mg2+, relatively low Ca2+ concentrations (1 microM), producing half-maximal activation. At higher concentrations, Mg2+ will replace Ca2+, 4 mM Mg2+ increasing activity to the same extent as does Ca2+ and abolishing the Ca2+ dependence. Above about 1 mM Mg2+, tropomyosin is no longer required for activation by actin, activity being dependent on Ca2+ between 1 and 4 mM Mg2+, but independent of [Ca2+] above 4 mM Mg2+. Phosphorylation of the 20,000-Da light chain of gizzard myosin is required for activation of ATPase activity by actin from chicken gizzard or rabbit skeletal muscle at all concentrations of Mg2+ employed. The effect of adding or removing Ca2+ is fully reversible and cannot be attributed either to irreversible inactivation of actin or myosin or to dephosphorylation. After preincubating in the absence of Ca2+, activity is restored either by adding micromolar concentrations of this cation or by raising the concentration of Mg2+ to 8 mM. Similarly, the inhibition found in the absence of tropomyosin is fully reversed by subsequent addition of this protein. Replacing gizzard actin with skeletal actin alters the pattern of activation by Ca2+ at concentrations of Mg2+ less than 1 mM. Full activation is obtained with or without Ca2+ in the presence of tropomyosin, while in its absence Ca2+ is required but produces only partial activation. Without tropomyosin, the range of Mg2+ concentrations over which activity is Ca2+-dependent is restricted to lower values with skeletal than with gizzard actin. The activity of skeletal muscle myosin is activated by the gizzard actin-tropomyosin complex without Ca2+, although Ca2+ slightly increases activity. The Ca2+ sensitivity of reconstituted gizzard actomyosin is partially retained by hybrid actomyosin containing gizzard myosin and skeletal actin, but less Ca2+ dependence is retained in the hybrid containing skeletal myosin and gizzard actin.     

Kinetics of ATP and inorganic phosphate release during hydrolysis of ATP by rabbit skeletal actomyosin subfragment 1. Oxygen exchange between water and ATP or phosphate

We have used the technique of phosphate: water oxygen exchange to measure the rate of ATP and Pi release and Pi binding to myosin subfragment 1 and actomyosin subfragment 1 from rabbit skeletal muscle. The oxygen exchange distributions for ATP and Pi release fit a simple kinetic model with a single set of rate constants for each step. For actomyosin subfragment 1 (20 degrees C, pH 7.0, I = 50 mM), the rate constant governing ATP release is approximately 8 s-1, Pi release is at approximately 60 s-1 and Pi rebinds to an ADP state at greater than 120 M-1 s-1. These rate constants are similar to those that may occur for undistorted cross-bridges within glycerinated rabbit psoas fibers (Bowater, R., Webb, M. R., and Ferenczi, M. A. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 7193-7201.     

Fluorescence from pyrene-labeled native and reconstituted chicken gizzard tropomyosins

Sulfhydryl groups at Cys-36 on the beta chain and at Cys-190 on the gamma chain of chicken gizzard tropomyosin were reacted with the pyrene-containing sulfhydryl-specific reagents N-(1-pyrenyl)iodoacetamide and N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide. Tropomyosin prepared and labeled under nondenaturing conditions displayed significant pyrene monomer emission but low levels of pyrene excimer fluorescence. In contrast, tropomyosin subjected to denaturation and renaturation prior to labeling, or labeled in the denatured state prior to renaturation, displayed considerable excimer emission. Furthermore, labeling of isolated beta or gamma chains in denaturant, followed by reconstitution, gave separate samples of beta beta- and gamma gamma-tropomyosin that exhibited even greater pyrene excimer to monomer emission ratios. As pyrene excimers can form only when an excited pyrene is immediately adjacent to a ground state pyrene, i.e., when the labeled Cys residues on the two chains in a tropomyosin coiled coil share the same cross section, these results support conclusions based upon chemical crosslinking studies [C. Sanders, L. D. Burtnick, and L. B. Smillie (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 12774-12778] that native gizzard tropomyosin exists predominantly as a beta gamma-heterodimer. In addition, the low degree of labeling of native gizzard tropomyosin and the differences in degrees of labeling of beta beta- and gamma gamma-tropomyosins in the absence of denaturants reflect on the accessibilities of the sulfhydryl groups in these tropomyosin isoforms. Circular dichroism measurements indicate that the labeled proteins form stable coiled coil structures that have thermal stabilities comparable to that of the native protein.     

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer within the complex formed by actin and myosin subfragment 1. Comparison between weakly and strongly attached states

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer measurements have been made between Cys-374 on actin and Cys-177 on the alkali light chain of myosin subfragment 1 (S1) using several pairs of donor-acceptor chromophores. The labeled light chain was exchanged into subfragment 1 and the resulting fluorescently labeled subfragment 1 isolated by ion-exchange chromatography on SP-Trisacryl. The efficiency of energy transfer was measured by steady-state fluorescence in a strong binding complex of acto-S1 and found to represent a spatial separation between the two probes of 5.6-6.3 nm. The same measurements were then made with weak binding acto-S1 complexes generated in two ways. First, actin was complexed with p-phenylenedimaleimide-S1, a stable analogue of S1-adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), obtained by cross-linking the SH1 and SH2 heavy-chain thiols of subfragment 1 [Greene, L. E., Chalovich, J. M., & Eisenberg, E. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 704-709]. Large increases in transfer efficiency indicated that the two probes had moved closer together by some 3 nm. Second, weak binding complexes were formed between subfragment 1 and actin in the presence of the regulatory proteins troponin and tropomyosin, the absence of calcium, and the presence of ATP [Chalovich, J. M., & Eisenberg, E. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 2432-2437]. The measured efficiency of energy transfer again indicated that the distance between the two labeled sites had moved closer by about 3 nm. These data support the idea that there is a considerable difference in the structure of the acto-S1 complex between the weakly and strongly bound states.     

Fluorescence properties of acrylodan-labeled tropomyosin and tropomyosin-actin: evidence for myosin subfragment 1 induced changes in geometry between tropomyosin and actin

The Cys groups of rabbit skeletal tropomyosin (Tm) and rabbit skeletal alpha alpha Tm were specifically labeled with acrylodan (AC). The probe on Tm is quite immobile yet exposed to solvent as indicated by its limiting polarization (P0 = 0.38) and fluorescence emission spectrum (lambda max = 520 nm) and its accessibility to solute quenching. Changes in the shape of the excitation spectrum with temperature correlated with the helix thermal pretransition and main transition without much spectral change of the emission spectrum. The probe environment of ACTm did not significantly change on binding to F-actin, but fluorescence energy transfer between tryptophan in actin and AC on Tm was indicated by a 15-20% increase in AC fluorescence and a few percent decrease in tryptophan fluorescence. This energy transfer increased when myosin subfragment 1 (S1) was bound to the ACTm-actin filament, in quantitative agreement with the postulated shift in state of Tm associated with the cooperative binding of S1 to actin (Hill et al., 1980). The increase in energy transfer shows that there is a change in the spatial relationship between Tm and actin associated with the S1-induced change in state of Tm.     

Effects of Ca2+ and Mg2+ on the actomyosin adenosine-5'-triphosphatase of stably phosphorylated gizzard myosin

There are conflicting reports on the effect of Ca2+ on actin activation of myosin adenosine-triphosphatase (ATPase) once the light chain is fully phosphorylated by a calcium calmodulin dependent kinase. Using thiophosphorylated gizzard myosin, Sherry et al. [Sherry, J. M. F., Gorecka, A., Aksoy, M. O., Dabrowska, R., & Hartshorne, D. J. (1978) Biochemistry 17, 4417-4418] observed that the actin activation of ATPase was not inhibited by the removal of Ca2+. Hence, it was suggested that the regulation of actomyosin ATPase activity of gizzard myosin by calcium occurs only via phosphorylation. In the present study, phosphorylated and thiophosphorylated myosins were prepared free of kinase and phosphatase activity; hence, the ATPase activity could be measured at various concentrations of Ca2+ and Mg2+ without affecting the level of phosphorylation. The ATPase activity of myosin was activated either by skeletal muscle or by gizzard actin at various concentrations of Mg2+ and either at pCa 5 or at pCa 8. The activation was sensitive to Ca2+ at low Mg2+ concentrations with both actins. Tropomyosin potentiated the actin-activated ATPase activity at all Mg2+ and Ca2+ concentrations. The calcium sensitivity of phosphorylated and thiophosphorylated myosin reconstituted with actin and tropomyosin was most pronounced at a free Mg2+ concentration of about 3 mM. The binding of 125I-tropomyosin to actin showed that the calcium sensitivity of ATPase observed at low Mg2+ concentration is not due to a calcium-mediated binding of tropomyosin to F-actin. The actin activation of both myosins was insensitive to Ca2+ when the Mg2+ concentration was increased above 5 mM.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Native chicken gizzard tropomyosin is predominantly a beta gamma-heterodimer

Unmodified chicken gizzard tropomyosin (TM) has been fractionated into its two major isoforms beta and gamma, by chromatofocussing in the presence of 9 M urea and dithiothrieitol. Treatment of the native protein with several bifunctional N-hydroxysuccinimide esters gave the beta gamma-heterodimer as the major cross-linked product. A comparison of the thermal transition profiles of the two homodimers and of the native unfractionated TM also indicated the predominance of the beta gamma-heterodimer in the native protein. This conclusion is consistent with the absence of excimer fluorescence in pyrene-labeled gizzard TM and the relative resistance of the molecule to intramolecular disulfide formation (Lehrer, S.S., Betteridge, D.R., Graceffa, P., Wong, S., and Seidel, J. C. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 1591-1595) since the single cysteines on each of the two isoforms are widely separated. We conclude that further experimental evidence is required to assess the possibility that the gizzard TM is more rigid in its conformation than are those of the skeletal and cardiac proteins.     

Fluorescence probe studies of the state of tropomyosin in reconstituted muscle thin filaments

The monomer fluorescence of N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide-labeled tropomyosin bound to F-actin (PTm-actin) increases when myosin subfragment 1 (S1) binds to actin and is half complete when only approximately 1 S1 is bound to 7 actin subunits [Ishii, Y., & Lehrer, S. S. (1985) Biochemistry 24, 6631-6638]. Similar studies of the binding of S1 and S1-ADP to fully reconstituted thin filaments [PTm-actin-troponin (Tn)] are now reported. The pyrene monomer fluorescence change was half complete when approximately 0.5 S1/7 actin subunits and approximately 1.5 S1/7 actin subunits were bound in the presence and absence of Ca2+, respectively. In the presence of Mg2+-ADP, when S1 binding is weakened, the S1 binding profiles and fluorescence changes were sigmoidal, with the cooperative transitions occurring at lower [S1] in the presence of Ca2+ as first shown by Greene and Eisenberg for S1 binding [Greene, L., & Eisenberg, E. (1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77, 2616-2620]. It was possible to fit both the binding and fluorescence data with the same parameters of a two-state (weak and strong S1 binding) cooperative binding model [Hill, T., Eisenberg, E., & Greene, L. (1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77, 3186-3190] for each Ca2+ situation if the fluorescence change is interpreted as the fraction of tropomyosin (Tm) units in the strong S1 binding state. These data indicate that the fluorescence change is a direct measure of the S1-induced change of state of Tm in the fully reconstituted thin filament.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Activation of smooth muscle myosin Mg2+-ATPase by native thin filaments and actin/tropomyosin

Application of the myosin competition test (Lehman, W., and Szent-Gy?rgyi, A. G. (1975) J. Gen. Physiol. 66, 1-30) to chicken gizzard actomyosin indicated that this smooth muscle contains a thin filament-linked regulatory mechanism. Chicken gizzard thin filaments, isolated as described previously (Marston, S. B., and Lehman, W. (1985) Biochem. J. 231, 517-522), consisted almost exclusively of actin, tropomyosin, caldesmon, and an unidentified 32-kilodalton polypeptide in molar ratios of 1:1/6:1/26:1/17, respectively. When reconstituted with phosphorylated gizzard myosin, these thin filaments conferred Ca2+ sensitivity (67.8 +/- 2.1%; n = 5) on the myosin Mg2+-ATPase. On the other hand, no Ca2+ sensitivity of the myosin Mg2+-ATPase was observed when purified gizzard actin or actin plus tropomyosin was reconstituted with phosphorylated gizzard myosin. Native thin filaments were rendered essentially free of caldesmon and the 32-kilodalton polypeptide by extraction with 25 mM MgCl2. When reconstituted with phosphorylated gizzard myosin, caldesmon-free thin filaments and native thin filaments exhibited approximately the same Ca2+ sensitivity (45.1 and 42.7%, respectively). The observed Ca2+ sensitivity appears, therefore, not to be due to caldesmon. Only trace amounts of two Ca2+-binding proteins could be detected in native thin filaments. These were identified as calmodulin (present at a molar ratio to actin of 1:733) and the 20-kilodalton light chain of myosin (present at a molar ratio to actin of 1:270). The Ca2+ sensitivity observed in an in vitro system reconstituted from gizzard thin filaments and either skeletal myosin or phosphorylated gizzard myosin is due, therefore, to calmodulin and/or an unidentified minor protein component of the thin filaments which may be an actin-binding protein involved in regulating actin filament structure in a Ca2+-dependent manner.     

Amino acid sequence of chicken gizzard beta-tropomyosin. Comparison of the chicken gizzard, rabbit skeletal, and equine platelet tropomyosins

Chicken gizzard beta-tropomyosin has the same chain length (284 residues) as other muscle tropomyosins, and is most closely related to the beta component of rabbit skeletal muscle. The majority of the amino acid substitutions are restricted to two regions of the structure, residues 185-216 and 258-284. The altered sequences at the COOH-terminal ends (residue 258-284) of the two gizzard components are very similar to each other and to those in platelet tropomyosin and can be correlated with the reduced affinity of interaction of all three tropomyosins with skeletal troponin T and its T1 fragment. The virtually identical NH2-terminal sequences of all four muscle tropomyosin chains indicates that the gizzard proteins' greater ability to polymerize head-to-tail is due to the sequence changes at its COOH terminus. On the other hand, the weaker head-to-tail aggregation of the platelet protein must be due to its NH2-terminal sequence alterations. Examination of the distribution of amino acids and the frequency of their substitution in the a to g positions of the repeating pseudoheptapeptide for all five tropomyosin sequences (four muscle and one platelet) emphasizes the importance of Glu residues at position e. Examination of those features of the muscle sequences implicated in the stabilization of their coiled-coil structures and in their interactions with F-actin suggest only marginal differences among them, with the possible exception of the chicken gizzard gamma component.     

Comparison of effects of smooth and skeletal muscle tropomyosins on interactions of actin and myosin subfragment 1

The ATPase activity of acto-myosin subfragment 1 (S-1) was measured in the presence of smooth and skeletal muscle tropomyosins over a wide range of ionic strengths (20-120 mM). In contrast to the 60% inhibitory effect caused by skeletal muscle tropomyosin at all ionic strengths, the effect of smooth muscle tropomyosin was found to be dependent on ionic strength. At low ionic strength (20 mM), smooth muscle tropomyosin inhibits the ATPase activity by 60%, while at high ionic strength (120 mM), it potentiates the ATPase activity 3-fold. All of these ATPase activities were measured at very low ratios of S-1 to actin, under conditions at which a 4-fold increase in S-1 concentration did not change the specific activity of the tropomyosin-acto.S-1 ATPase. Therefore, the potentiation of the ATPase activity by smooth muscle tropomyosin at high ionic strength cannot be explained by bound S-1 heads cooperatively turning on the tropomyosin-actin complex. To determine whether the fully potentiated rates are different in the presence of smooth muscle and skeletal muscle tropomyosins, S-1 which was extensively modified by N-ethylmaleimide was added to the ATPase assay to attain high ratios of S-1 to actin. The results showed that, under all conditions, the fully potentiated rates are the same for both tropomyosins.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Tetrahymena actin: copolymerization with skeletal muscle actin and interactions with muscle actin-binding proteins

We have previously shown that actin from Tetrahymena pyriformis has a very divergent primary structure (Hirono, M., Endoh, H., Okada, N., Numata, O., & Watanabe, Y. (1987) J. Mol. Biol. 194, 181-192) and that though it shares essential properties with skeletal muscle actin, it does not interact at all with phalloidin or DNase I (Hirono, M., Kumagai, Y., Numata, O., & Watanabe, Y. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 86, 75-79). In this study, we investigated the copolymerization of this actin with skeletal muscle actin by direct observation of the heteropolymers formed from the two actins by means of electron microscopy. We also examined the binding of actin-binding proteins from skeletal muscle or smooth muscle to Tetrahymena actin by means of a cosedimentation assay. The results show that (i) Tetrahymena actin copolymerizes with skeletal muscle actin and that (ii) muscle myosin subfragment 1 binds to it in the absence of ATP, like skeletal muscle actin. However, it was also shown that (iii) muscle alpha-actinin hardly binds to Tetrahymena actin and that (iv) muscle tropomyosin does not bind to it at all. The results show that Tetrahymena actin has both properties similar and dissimilar to those of skeletal muscle actin.     

The binding of caldesmon to actin and its effect on the ATPase activity of soluble myosin subfragments in the presence and absence of tropomyosin

The binding of 125I- and 14C-caldesmon to actin and actin-tropomyosin was studied using a cosedimentation technique and was analyzed by the method of McGhee and von Hippel [1974) J. Mol. Biol. 86, 469-489) for the binding of large ligands to a homogeneous lattice. The binding was adequately described by a single class of binding sites with a stoichiometry between 1:7 and 1:10. The binding exhibited a small degree of positive cooperativity (omega = 5-6) which was the same in the presence and absence of tropomyosin. The association constant for the binding of caldesmon to an isolated binding site was enhanced, from about 6 X 10(5) to about 1.4 X 10(6) M-1, by the presence of smooth muscle tropomyosin. Caldesmon inhibited the actin-activated ATPase activity of skeletal myosin subfragment 1 in both the absence and presence of tropomyosin. Maximum inhibition of ATPase activity occurred when one caldesmon molecule bound to seven actin monomers. A greater degree of inhibition was observed in the presence of tropomyosin than in the absence. This greater inhibition cannot be explained totally by the increased strength of binding of caldesmon to actin in the presence of tropomyosin. Finally, Ca2+-calmodulin completely reversed the binding of caldesmon to actin.