Truncation of vertebrate striated muscle myosin light chains disturbs calcium-induced structural transitions in synthetic myosin filaments.

Electron microscopy and negative staining techniques have been used to show that the proteolytic removal of 13 amino acids from the N-terminus of essential light chain 1 and 19 amino acids from the N-terminus of the regulatory light chain of rabbit skeletal and cardiac muscle myosins destroys Ca(2+)-induced reversible movement of subfragment-2 (S2) with heads (S1) away from the backbone of synthetic myosin filaments observed for control assemblies of the myosin under near physiological conditions. This is the direct demonstration of the contribution of the S2 movement to the Ca(2+)-sensitive structural behavior of rabbit cardiac and skeletal myosin filaments and of the necessity of intact light chains for this movement. In muscle, such a mobility might play an important role in proper functioning of the myosin filaments. The impairment of the Ca(2+)-dependent structural behavior of S2 with S1 on the surface of the synthetic myosin filaments observed by us may be of direct relevance to some cardiomyopathies, which are accompanied by proteolytic breakdown or dissociation of myosin light chains.

Calcium-induced structural changes in synthetic myosin filaments of vertebrate striated muscles.

Using negative staining, freeze-drying, and shadowing techniques in electron microscopy we have for the first time demonstrated Ca-induced reversible structural transitions in the synthetic filaments of dephosphorylated column-purified rabbit skeletal and cardiac muscle myosins formed by dialysis against solutions containing 120 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl(2), 10 mM imidazole-HCl buffer (pH 7.0), and either 0.1 mM CaCl(2) or 1 mM EGTA. It has been revealed that the compact ordered structure of the filaments with myosin heads and subfragments-2 (S2) disposed close to the filament backbone with an axial periodicity of about 14.5 nm in the absence of Ca(2+) transforms into a spread disordered structure due to the movement of the heads and S2 away from the filament surface in the presence of Ca(2+). Increasing the pH from neutrality to pH 7.8 leads to a spread, disordered structure while decreasing the pH value to 6.5 returns the filaments to their compact, rather ordered state independent of the Ca(2+) concentrations used. The fact that the reversible structural transitions in synthetic filaments of myosin are observed in the absence of actin and actin- and myosin-associated proteins suggests that Ca(2+)-induced S2 movement is an intrinsic property of myosin itself. Ca(2+)-induced S2 mobility may reflect the existence of functionally significant communications between the myosin head domains and the tails of myosin molecules in thick filaments, and its disappearance can be an indicator of the impairment of these communications, for example, in acute ischemia and myocardial infarction.

The possible role of myosin A1 light chain in the weakening of actin-myosin interaction.

The effects resulting from the removal of the N-terminus of myosin A1 by limited papain cleavage are investigated. The myosin and heavy meromyosin K+-ATPase and Ca2+-ATPase activities, and actin-activated ATPase activity of heavy meromyosin (HMM) and subfragment-1, are studied. Myosin and HMM preparations devoid of the A1 N-terminus exhibits lower Ca2+-ATPase activities at low ionic strength whereas no differences in K+- or Ca2+-ATPase activities are observed at high ionic strength. Direct binding of actin to monomeric myosin under K+-activated ATPase conditions is much more effective for myosin containing a shortened A1 light chain. The kinetic constants K(app) for actin and V(max) are calculated from actin-activation curves for HMM and subfragment-1. The kinetic constants for HMM are determined under conditions assuring saturation of regulatory light chains (RLC) either with Mg2+ or Ca2+. The removal of the A1 N-terminus influences the actin-myosin interaction in a Ca2+- and phosphorylation-dependent manner; in most cases, this leads to an increase in affinity. In the case of subfragment-1, the removal of the N-terminus of A1 led to a decrease in affinity. It is reasonable to assume that the intact A1 light chain may cause weakening of the actin-myosin interaction under certain conditions. This weakening may be regulated by RLC phosphorylation and RLC-bound calcium-for-magnesium exchange. Such an effect requires a structural minimum that is present in HMM but not in subfragment-1. Implications of such a role for the A1 N-terminus in the myosin-actin interaction are discussed.

The influence of regulatory light chains on structural organization of cardiac myosin heads interacting with actin and ATP.

The susceptibility of papain cleavage sites on the cardiac myosin essential light chain (LC1) was studied at low and high Ca2+ concentration in cardiac myosin filaments alone and complexed with pure skeletal actin or cardiac regulated actin in the absence or presence of ATP. Enzymatic properties of cardiac myosin containing papain cleaved LC1 were compared to those of intact myosin. It was found that the kind of divalent cations (Mg2+, Ca2+) saturating the regulatory light chains influences the susceptibility of essential light chains to papain cleavage. The cardiac myosin having shortened essential light chains showed increased affinity for skeletal pure actin and a significant decrease of Ca2+ sensitivity of Mg2+ activated ATPase activity. This was observed both in the case of cardiac myosin complexed with cardiac regulated actin and skeletal actin complexed with cardiac regulated proteins.

Contractile proteins in globally "stunned" rabbit myocardium.

The isolated working rabbit heart preparation was used to study whether the "contractile machinery" remains unchanged in globally stunned myocardium. The function of the heart has been measured in nonischemic and postischemic conditions. The effect of isoprenaline or calcium chloride administration in both conditions was also studied. Myocardial contractile function was significantly depressed after 20-min global ischemia and returned to normal after CaCl2 and supranormal values after isoprenaline administration. From hearts used in experiments myofibrils were prepared and their ATPase activity was determined. It was observed that myofibrils prepared from "stunned" myocardium showed about 50% increase in ATPase activity in the presence of CaCl2. Subjection of the heart to ischemia caused a decrease in calcium sensitivity of the myofibrillar ATPase. Myofibrils obtained from ischemic hearts but subjected to isoprenaline or CaCl2 administration exhibited increased calcium sensitivity over that of control heart. These effects were accompanied by changes in the extent of phosphorylation of troponin I (TNI) and myosin light chains. The modification of contractile apparatus in the postischemic period described in this paper may contribute to the overall mechanism of myocardial stunning.