Time-resolved X-ray diffraction studies of cross-bridge movement and their interpretation

Proteolysis rates of a myosin heavy chain site with papain. Evidence for a combined LC2-filament-mediated mechanism

In striated muscle myosin, a proteolysis site at the 25-50 kDa junction, susceptible in the filament and efficiently protected by nucleotides, is similarly protected when myosin is monomeric. Kinetic studies at low ionic strength show a close relationship between LC2 cleavage or degradation rate and cleavage of the 25-50 kDa heavy chain site. The myosin-[(T)-LC2'] species forms normal reconstituted filaments but its 25-50 kDa site susceptibility is closer to that of monomeric myosin, thus becoming practically ionic strength-independent. In this species the absence of the LC2 N-terminal segment induces a significantly greater susceptibility of the papain-sensitive site in LC1. In an LC2-depleted myosin the 25-50 kDa site susceptibility also becomes ionic strength-independent, however, the cleavage rates are then closer to that of filaments. Susceptibility in HMM and S1 is also much less dependent on ionic strength with rates intermediary between those of filament and monomer. These observations show that the maximum susceptibility to papain of the 25-50 kDa site requires both the integrity of the LC2 light chain and the filament structure and furthermore provide evidence that: (i) the LC2 N-terminus interacts specifically with some part of the filament; (ii) this interaction induces a specific transconformation in a region close to the ATPase active site; (iii) there is an interrelationship between LC1 and LC2 light chain N-terminal extremities, at least in the filament structure.

The effect of the ATP analogue AMPPNP on the structure of crossbridges in vertebrate skeletal muscles: X-ray diffraction and mechanical studies

Adenylylimidodiphosphate (AMPPNP), a nonhydrolysable analogue of ATP, has been used to arrest the crossbridge cycle of muscular contraction in one of its hypothetical intermediate states. Whole frog sartorius muscles were chemically demembranated, and it was found possible to cycle such skinned muscles reversibly between the relaxed and rigor states. The effect of binding of AMPPNP on the structure and spatial arrangement of the crossbridges of such muscles was studied using low-angle X-ray diffraction, with simultaneous recording of the mechanical effects, starting from the rigor state. Saturating concentrations of MgAMPPNP produce a characteristic decrease of about 50% in the original rigor isometric tension with a concomitant increase in muscle length by 0.13%. The equatorial X-ray diffraction pattern is modified in the following way: the lattice dimensions and the intensity of the (10) equatorial reflection do not change, while the intensity of the (11) equatorial reflection increases slightly. These observations of very small equatorial changes could be explained by assuming that in these muscles (as distinct from others such as rabbit psoas) the analogue does not produce a significant degree of detachment of crossbridges; that is, there are only AMPPNP-modified attached ones. The changes in the meridional X-ray diffraction pattern are more pronounced: the meridional reflection at 14.5 nm decreases in intensity, and the meridional reflection at 7.2 nm increases considerably: the intensity of all the actin-based off-meridional layer-lines decreases. There are no signs of the characteristic relaxed layer-lines, and the changes in the layer-line intensities are probably due to there being a single population of AMPPNP-modified attached crossbridges, rather than a mixture of attached and detached crossbridges. Thus the AMPPNP X-ray pattern, both equatorially and meridionally, is somewhat similar to the rigor one, indicating that most of the crossbridges remain attached. On the other hand, the fact that there are some changes in the layer-line intensities of the AMPPNP frog pattern, without the appearance of any signs of a relaxed equatorial pattern, indicates that the attached crossbridges are in a structural state that is different from rigor, one is not seeing, apparently, simply a mixture of rigor and relaxed states. Our tentative interpretation of this result is that there may be a structural change in the crossbridge near to the junction with S2, with less significant changes occurring in the parts of the crossbridge close to actin.