| Abstract: | Knowledge of the functional properties of the protein in oriented multilayers, in addition to vesicular dispersions, of membranes such as the isolated sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), extends the variety of techniques that can be effectively used in studies of the membrane protein's structure or structural changes associated with its function. One technique requiring the use of oriented multilayers to provide more direct time-averaged and time-resolved structural investigations of the SR membrane is x-ray diffraction. Therefore, the kinetics of ATP-induced calcium uptake by isolated SR vesicles in dispersions and hydrated, oriented multilayers were compared. Ca2+ uptake was necessarily initiated by the addition of ATP through flash photolysis of caged ATP, P3-1-(2-nitro)phenylethyl adenosine 5'-triphosphate, with either a frequency-doubled ruby laser or a 200 W Hg arc lamp, and measured with two different detector systems that followed the absorbance changes of the metallochromic indicator arsenazo III, which is sensitive to changes in the extravesicular [Ca2+]. The temperature range investigated was -2 degrees to 26 degrees C. The Ca2+ uptake kinetics of SR membranes in both the vesicular dispersions and oriented multilayers consist of at least two phases, an initial fast phase and a subsequent slow phase. The fast phase, generally believed to be associated with the formation of the phosphorylated enzyme, E approximately P, is kinetically comparable in both SR dispersions and multilayers. The slow phase mathematically follows first-order kinetics with specific rate constants of approximately 0.6 s-1 and approximately 1.2 s-1 for the dispersions at 26 degrees C and multilayers at 21 degrees C, respectively, with the given experimental conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) |
