A novel 36,000-dalton actin-binding protein purified from microfilaments in Physarum plasmodia which aggregates actin filaments and blocks actin-myosin interaction

Characterization of a novel 550-kDa protein in skeletal muscle of chick embryo

Some characteristics of a novel 550-kDa protein which is abundant in skeletal muscle tissues at an early stage of the chick embryo, and localized in the peripheries of adult muscle fibers and at the Z-disks of isolated myofibrils, was investigated. A cosedimentation experiment and solid phase immunoabsorbent assay showed that the 550-kDa protein binds directly to F-actin. Therefore, it is concluded that the 550-kDa protein is a novel actin-binding protein. The 550-kDa protein was also interacted with alpha-actinin, laminin, fibronectin and Type IV collagen. Reactions with several kinds of lectin revealed that the 550-kDa protein is a glycoprotein containing oligosaccharides. Electron microscopic observation of negatively stained 550-kDa protein showed that native 550-kDa protein molecules are particles with an average diameter of 26.5 nm, but those particles treated with ethanol/ether are filamentous structures. These results suggest that the 550-kDa protein in the cytoplasma of unorganized skeletal muscle tissues exists as lipid-protein complex. Consequently, the 550-kDa protein may play an important role in the binding of myofibrils to the basal lamina by interaction with F-actin, alpha-actinin, laminin, fibronectin or Type IV collagen.

Mechanisms of cell shape change: the cytomechanics of cellular response to chemical environment and mechanical loading

Processes such as cell locomotion and morphogenesis depend on both the generation of force by cytoskeletal elements and the response of the cell to the resulting mechanical loads. Many widely accepted theoretical models of processes involving cell shape change are based on untested hypotheses about the interaction of these two components of cell shape change. I have quantified the mechanical responses of cytoplasm to various chemical environments and mechanical loading regimes to understand better the mechanisms of cell shape change and to address the validity of these models. Measurements of cell mechanical properties were made with strands of cytoplasm submerged in media containing detergent to permeabilize the plasma membrane, thus allowing control over intracellular milieu. Experiments were performed with equipment that generated sinusoidally varying length changes of isolated strands of cytoplasm from Physarum polycephalum. Results indicate that stiffness, elasticity, and viscosity of cytoplasm all increase with increasing concentration of Ca2+, Mg2+, and ATP, and decrease with increasing magnitude and rate of deformation. These results specifically challenge assumptions underlying mathematical models of morphogenetic events such as epithelial folding and cell division, and further suggest that gelation may depend on both actin cross-linking and actin polymerization.

Dynamic aspects of the contractile system in Physarum plasmodium. III. Cyclic contraction-relaxation of the plasmodial fragment in accordance with the generation-degeneration of cytoplasmic actomyosin fibrils

Plasmodial fragments of Physarum polycephalum, excised from anterior regions of a thin-spread plasmodium, contracted-relaxed cyclicly with a period of 3-5 min. The area of the fragments decreased approximately 10% during contraction. In most cases, there was little endoplasmic streaming which indicates that contractions were synchronized throughout the fragment. By both polarized light and fluorescence microscopy, the organization and distribution of the cytoplasmic actomyosin fibrils in the fragments changed in synchrony with the contraction cycle. The fibrils formed during the contraction phase, and finally became a highly organized framework consisting of a three-dimensional network of numerous fibrils with many converging points (the nodes). During relaxation, the fibrils degenerated and disappeared almost completely, though some very weak fibrils remained near the nodes and the periphery. The results obtained by fluorometry of the fragments, stained with rhodamine-phalloidin, suggested that the G-F transformation of actin is not the main underlying process of the fibrillar formation.

Rheological properties of living cytoplasm: endoplasm of Physarum plasmodium

Magnetic sphere viscoelastometry, video microscopy, and the Kamiya double chamber method (Kamiya, N., 1940, Science [Wash. DC], 92:462-463.) have been combined in an optical and rheological investigation of the living endoplasm of Physarum polycephalum. The rheological properties examined were yield stress, viscosity (as a function of shear), and elasticity. These parameters were evaluated in directions perpendicular; (X) and parallel (Y) to the plasmodial vein. Known magnetic forces were used for measurements in the X direction, while the falling ball technique was used in the Y direction (Cygan, D.A., and B. Caswell, 1971, Trans. Soc. Rheol. 15:663-683; MacLean-Fletcher, S.D., and T.D. Pollard, 1980, J. Cell Biol., 85:414-428). Approximate yield stresses were calculated in the X and Y directions of 0.58 and 1.05 dyn/cm2, respectively. Apparent viscosities measured in the two directions (eta x and eta y) were found to fluctuate with time. The fluctuations in eta x and eta y were shown, statistically, to occur independently of each other. Frequency correlation with dynamoplasmograms indicated that these fluctuations probably occur independently of the streaming cycle. Viscosity was found to be a complex function of shear, indicating that the endoplasm is non-Newtonian. Plots of shear stress vs. rate of shear both parallel and perpendicular to the vein, showed that endoplasm is not a shear thinning material. These experiments have shown that living endoplasm of Physarum is an anisotropic viscoelastic fluid with a yield stress. The endoplasm appears not to be a homogeneous material, but to be composed of heterogeneous domains.

A 72,000-mol-wt protein from tomato inhibits rabbit acto-S-1 ATPase activity

Tomato activation inhibiting protein (AIP) is a molecule of an apparent molecular weight of 72,000 that co-purifies with tomato actin. In an assay system containing rabbit skeletal muscle F-actin and rabbit skeletal muscle myosin subfragment-1 (myosin S-1), tomato AIP dissociated the acto-S-1 complex in the absence of Mg+2ATP and inhibited the ability of F-actin to activate the low ionic strength Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1. At a molar ratio of 5 actin to 1 AIP, a 50% inhibition of the actin-activated Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1 was observed. The inhibition can be reversed by raising the calcium ion concentration to 1 X 10(-5) M. The AIP had no effect on the basal low ionic strength Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1 in the absence of actin. The protein did not bind directly to actin nor did it cause depolymerization or aggregation of F-actin but appeared, instead, to interact with the actin binding site on myosin S-1. Since AIP is a potent, reversible inhibitor of the rabbit acto-S-1 ATPase activity, it is postulated that it may be responsible for the low levels of actin activation exhibited by tomato F-actin fractions containing the AIP.