A possible mechanism for the Ca-ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum

Life depends upon two kinds of water

Background

Many well-documented biochemical processes lack a molecular mechanism. Examples are: how ATP hydrolysis and an enzyme contrive to perform work, such as active transport; how peptides are formed from amino acids and DNA from nucleotides; how proteases cleave peptide bonds, how bone mineralises; how enzymes distinguish between sodium and potassium; how chirality of biopolymers was established prebiotically.

Methodology/Principal Findings

It is shown that involvement of water in all these processes is mandatory, but the water must be of the simplified configuration in which there are only two strengths of water-water hydrogen bonds, and in which these two types of water coexist as microdomains throughout the liquid temperature range. Since they have different strengths of hydrogen bonds, the microdomains differ in all their physical and chemical properties. Solutes partition asymmetrically, generating osmotic pressure gradients which must be compensated for or abolished. Displacement of the equilibrium between high and low density waters incurs a thermodynamic cost which limits solubility, depresses ionisation of water, drives protein folding and prevents high density water from boiling at its intrinsic boiling point which appears to be below 0°C. Active processes in biochemistry take place in sequential partial reactions, most of which release small amounts of free energy as heat. This ensures that the system is never far from equilibrium so that efficiency is extremely high. Energy transduction is neither possible and nor necessary. Chirality was probably established in prebiotic clays which must have carried stable populations of high density and low density water domains. Bioactive enantiomorphs partition into low density water in which they polymerise spontaneously.

Conclusions/Significance

The simplified model of water has great explanatory power.

Analysis of enzyme reactions in situ

Estimations of metabolic rates in cells and tissues and their regulation on the basis of kinetic properties of enzymes in diluted solutions may not be applicable to intact living cells or tissues. Enzymes often behave differently in living cells because of the high cellular protein content that can lead to homologous and heterologous associations of protein molecules. These associations often change the kinetics of enzymes as part of post-translational regulation mechanisms. An overview is given of these interactions between enzyme molecules or between enzyme molecules and structural elements in the cell, such as the cytoskeleton. Biochemical and histochemical methods are discussed that have been developed for in vivo and in situ analyses of enzyme reactions, particularly for the study of effects of molecular interactions. Quantitative (histochemical) analysis of local enzyme reactions or fluxes of metabolites has become increasingly important. At present, it is possible to calculate local concentrations of substrates in cells or tissue compartments and to express local kinetic parameters in units that are directly comparable with those obtained by biochemical assays of enzymes in suspensions. In situ analysis of the activities of a number of enzymes have revealed variations in their kinetic properties (Km and Vmax) in different tissue compartments. This stresses the importance of in vivo or in situ analyses of cellular metabolism. Finally, histochemical determinations of enzyme activity in parallel with immunohistochemistry for the detection of the total number of enzyme molecules and in situ hybridization of its messenger RNA allow the analysis of regulation mechanisms at all levels between transcription of the gene and post-translational activity modulation.

Role of water in some biological processes

The state of intracellular water has been a matter of controversy for a long time for two reasons. First, experiments have often given conflicting results. Second, hitherto, there have been no plausible grounds for assuming that intracellular water should be significantly different from bulk water. A collective behavior of water molecules is suggested here as a thermodynamically inevitable mechanism for generation of appreciable zones of abnormal water. At a highly charged surface, water molecules move together, generating a zone of water perhaps 6 nm thick, which is weakly hydrogen bonded, fluid, and reactive and selectively accumulates small cations, multivalent anions, and hydrophobic solutes. At a hydrophobic surface, molecules move apart and local water becomes strongly bonded, inert, and viscous and accumulates large cations, univalent anions, and compatible solutes. Proteins and many other biopolymers have patchy surfaces which therefore induce, by the two mechanisms described, patchy interfacial water structures, which extended appreciable distances from the surface. The reason for many conflicting experimental results now becomes apparent. Average values of properties of water measured in gels, cells, or solutions of proteins are often not very different from the same properties of normal water, giving no indication that they are averages of extreme values. To detect the operation of this phenomenon, it is necessary to probe selectively a single abnormal population. Examples of such experiments are given. It is shown that this collective behavior of water molecules amounts to a considerable biological force, which can be equivalent to a pressure of 1,000 atm (1.013 x 10(5) kPa). It is suggested that cells selectively accumulate K+ ions and compatible solutes to avoid extremes of water structure in their aqueous compartments, but that cation pumps and other enzymes exploit the different solvent properties and reactivities of water to perform work of transport or synthesis.

Ethanol may stimulate or inhibit (Na+ + K+)-ATPase, depending upon Na+ and K+ concentrations

The influence of varying the ratios of [Na+]/[K+] on the effects of alcohol (500 mg/dl) on brain (Na+ + K+)-ATPase, using a commercial porcine enzyme preparation, showed that, generally, activity was stimulated by ethanol when [Na+] less than [K+], but inhibited when [Na+] greater than [K+] (with sum kept constant at 150 mM). In addition, when [Na+]/[K+] was 15/90 mM, representative of normal intracellular levels, ethanol (500 mg/dl) stimulated the porcine enzyme, but inhibited it when [Na+]/[K+] was 144/6 mM, representative of normal extracellular levels. Similarly, in freshly prepared enzyme from highly purified rat brain synaptic membranes, ethanol (100, 300, and 450 mg/dl) stimulated when [Na+]/[K+] was 15/88 mM (representing intracellular levels), but inhibited when [Na+]/[K+] was 142/4 mM (extracellular levels).

Effects of extracellular calcium on calcium transport during hyperthermia of tumor cells

The effects of different concentrations of extracellular ion calcium on the transport of calcium by tumor cells have been studied by means of the uptake of radiocalcium. Tumor cells incubated at 45 degrees C take up 4-10 times the amount of radioactivity incorporated by cells incubated at 37 degrees C. The difference is still greater (up to 100 times) for the intracellular incorporation as assessed by elimination of the membrane-bound calcium by EGTA treatment. The possible mechanisms involved in this differential behavior are discussed.

Unidirectional calcium and nucleotide fluxes in sarcoplasmic reticulum. I. Interpretation of flux ratios for different reaction schemes

The relation between unidirectional calcium and nucleotide fluxes was examined for different ATPase reaction schemes of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The schemes considered differed in the order of sorption and desorption of calcium, ATP, and ADP. The results suggest that the theoretical relation between calcium and nucleotide fluxes depends on the reaction scheme and that experimental measurements can distinguish among them. The results obtained are generally valid and do not depend on assumptions of equilibrium or pseudoequilibrium between intermediate states of the pump.