Primary structure of the calcium ion-transporting adenosine triphosphatase from rabbit skeletal sarcoplasmic reticulum. Some peptic, thermolytic, tryptic and staphylococcal-proteinase peptides.

The soluble peptides from the peptic digest of the reduced S-carboxymethylated 3-carboxypropionylated adenosine triphosphatase protein have been isolated and most of their structures have been determined. About 397 residues of the protein were represented in these peptides. The reduced S-carboxymethylated protein was digested with thermolysin, and peptides containing arginine or carboxymethylcysteine were isolated and characterized. Some peptides isolated from tryptic and staphylococcal-proteinase digests of the protein are described. The information contained within the structures of these peptides has been used to reconstruct long stretches of the sequence of the ATPase protein that constitute most of the protein structure external to the lipid bilayer (Allen, Trinnaman and Green (1980) Biochem. J. 187, 591-616). The details of some of the chromatographic steps used in the isolation of the peptides and the properties of the peptides are contained in Supplementary Publication SUP 50104 (45 pages), which has been deposited with the British Library Lending Division, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ, U.K., from whom copies can be obtained on the terms indicated in Biochem. J. (1978) 169, 5.

A new method of quantitative affinity chromatography and its application to the study of myosin.

A new method of quantifying the interactions between two or three components of an interacting system, one of which is insoluble, is described. The method differs from those previously applied to affinity chromatography systems in that it does not require that elution volumes be measured, but is instead dependent on measurements of the quantity of affinity-bound material. Theoretical expressions are derived for systems in which the acceptor is immobilized. Examples presented to illustrate the validity of the theory are of the latter type and are from studies on the myosin-adenosine nucleotide-PPi system. With Sepharose-myosin columns (myosin covalently coupled to CNBr-activated Sepharose) a dissociation constant of 1.8 muM for ATP4- was found. Data were also obtained under conditions that closely approximate to those found in vivo, i.e. on columns packed with a slurry of Sephadex G-50 and precipitated myosin filaments formed at low ionic strength. The binding of MgATP2-, MgADP-, ATP4- and MgPPi2- to "filamentous" myosin in both two- (myosin and nucleotide) and three- (myosin, nucleotide and PPi) component systems at different temperatures was studied and the dissociation constants obtained agreed well with previously published values. Except for the binding of ATP4- to filamentous myosin at 4 degrees when 85% of the protein was interacting with the nucleotide, much lower values for the number of available sites occupied by the nucleotides were as a routine found in this system. Although this apparent discrepancy is difficult to explain, it is not an anomaly of the theoretical approach and may reflect the present state of understanding of the myosin system.

Affinity chromatography of immobilized actin and myosin.

Actin and myosin were immobilized by coupling them to agarose matrices. Both immobilized G-actin and immobilized myosin retain most of the properties of the proteins in free solution and are reliable over long periods of time. Sepharose-F-actin, under the conditions used in this study, has proved unstable and variable in its properties. Sepharose-G-actin columns were used to bind heavy meromyosin and myosin subfragment 1 specifically and reversibly. The interaction involved is sensitive to variation in ionic strength, such that myosin itself is not retained by the columns at the high salt concentration required for its complete solubilization. Myosin, rendered soluble at low ionic strength by polyalanylation, will interact successfully with the immobilized actin. The latter can distinguish between active and inactive fractions of the proteolytic and polyalanyl myosin derivatives, and was used in the preparation of these molecules. The complexes formed between the myosin derivatives and Sepharose-G-actin can be dissociated by low concentrations of ATP, ADP and pyrophosphate in both the presence and the absence of Mg2+. The G-actin columns were used to evaluate the results of chemical modifications of myosin subfragments on their interactions with actin. F-Actin in free solution is bound specifically and reversibly to columns of insolubilized myosin. Thus, with elution by either ATP or pyrophosphate, actin has been purified in one step from extracts of acetone-dried muscle powder.

Preparation of adenosine nucleotide derivatives suitable for affinity chromatography.

Methods of synthesizing a series of chemically-defined AMP, ADP, ATP, adenylyl imidodiphosphate and pyrophosphate derivatives suitable for affinity chromatography are extensively described. Each derivative has a single primary amino group at the end of a hexamethylene ;spacer' chain for attachment to CNBr-activated agarose. The synthesis of the derivative where the ;spacer' arm is attached directly to the 8 position of the adenine ring to produce 8-(6-aminohexyl)amino-AMP involves the direct bromination of AMP in the 8 position followed by displacement of the halogen by 1,6-diaminohexane. This monophosphate derivative can then be converted into the corresponding di- or triphosphate forms by direct phosphate condensation with carbonyl di-imidazole. A second series of adenosine phosphate derivatives with the phosphate moieties unsubstituted has been similarly prepared from N(6)-(6-aminohexyl)-AMP (Guilford et al., 1972). A third type of ligand has been synthesized by condensing the phosphoryl imidazolide of AMP with 6-aminohex-1-yl phosphate. This compound, P(1)-(6-aminohex-1-yl) P(2)-(5'-adenosyl) pyrophosphate, has an unsubstituted adenine ring. The synthesis of a fourth type of ligand, 6-aminohex-1-yl pyrophosphate, was done by heating 6-aminohexan-1-ol with crystalline pyrophosphoric acid under reduced pressure. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by chemical, electrophoretic and chromatographic methods and by u.v. spectrometry. The general applicability of the synthetic methods used is discussed in relation to the preparation of other affinity adsorbents. Examples are given where these derivatives have been successful in reversibly binding dehydrogenases, kinases and myosin and its proteolytic subfragments. The partial purification of rat liver glucokinase on an ADP derivative is shown.