Studies on calcium ion-induced conformation changes in the actin-tropomyosin-troponin system by fluorimetry. I. Conformation changes around the fluorescence-labeled sulfhydryl group of actin

Identification of amino acid substitutions differentiating actin isoforms in their interaction with myosin

Various aspects of actin--myosin interaction were studied with actin preparations from two types of smooth muscle: bovine aorta and chicken gizzard, and from two types of sarcomeric muscle: bovine cardiac and rabbit skeletal. All four preparations activated the Mg2+-ATPase activity of skeletal muscle myosin to the same Vmax, but the Kapp for the smooth muscle preparations was higher. At low KCl, pH 8.0 and millimolar substrate concentrations the Kapp values differed by a factor of 2.5. This differential behaviour of the four actin preparations correlates with amino acid substitutions at positions 17 and 89 of actin polypeptide chain, differentiating the smooth-muscle-specific gamma and alpha isomers from cardiac and skeletal-muscle-specific alpha isomers. This correlation provides evidence for involvement of the NH2-terminal portion of the actin polypeptide chain in the interaction with myosin. The differences in the activation of myosin ATPase by various actins were sensitive to changes in the substrate and KCl concentration and pH of the assay medium. Addition of myosin subfragment-1 or heavy meromyosin in the absence of nucleotide produced similar changes in the fluorescence of a fluorescent reagent N-(1-pyrenyl)-iodoacetamide, attached at Cys-374, or 1,N6-ethenoadenosine 5'-diphosphate substituted for the bound ADP in actin protomers in gizzard and skeletal muscle F-actin. The results are consistent with an influence of the amino acid substitutions on ionic interactions leading to complex formation between actin and myosin intermediates in the ATPase cycle but not on the associated states.

The conformation of the C-terminal region of actin: a site-specific photocrosslinking study using benzophenone-4-maleimide

The site-specific photocrosslinker, benzophenone-4-maleimide, was used to label G-actin specifically at Cys-374, the penultimate residue from the C terminus. The resultant BP-G-actin was polymerized to form BP-F-actin, and both forms of actin were irradiated to activate the benzophenone moiety. We found that for BP-F-actin both intersubunit and intrasubunit photocrosslinks were formed. For BP-G-actin only a small amount of an internally photocrosslinked species was formed. These findings suggest that in the F-actin polymer, the C-terminal peptide is localized in a region between neighboring subunits. In contrast, in the G-actin monomer, the C-terminal peptide is relatively distant from the surface of the molecule.

Fluorescence energy-transfer studies on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex isolated from Azotobacter vinelandii

Fluorescence energy transfer has been employed to estimate the minimum distance between each of the active sites of the 4 component enzymes of the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex from Azotobacter vinelandii. No energy transfer was seen between thiochrome diphosphate, bound to the pyruvate decarboxylase active site, and the FAD of the lipoamide dehydrogenase active site. Likewise, several fluorescent sulfhydryl labels, which were specifically bound to the lipoyl moiety of lipoyl transacetylase, showed no energy transfer to either the flavin or thiochrome diphosphate. These observations suggest that all the active centers of the complex are quite far apart (greater than or equal to 40 nm), at least during some stages of catalysis. These results do not preclude the possibility that the distances change during catalysis. Several of the fluorescent probes used possessed multiple fluorescent lifetimes, as shown by determination of lifetime averages by both phase and modulation measurements on a phase fluorimeter. These lifetimes are shown to result from multiple factors, not necessarily related to multiple protein conformations.