Binding and regulatory properties of expressed functional domains of chicken gizzard smooth muscle caldesmon

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

We expressed the following fragments of chicken gizzard caldesmon in the pMW 172/BL21 (DE3) system at 0.4-2.2 mg of pure protein/liter of culture: full-length smooth muscle caldesmon (CDh) (amino acids 1-756), nonmuscle caldesmon (CDl), amino acids 1-128 (N128), 1-578 (N578), 230-419, 606-756 (606C), and 658-756 (658C). CDh bound tropomyosin with a Kd of 1.5 microM; N578, 230-419, and 606C bound with affinities at least 2-5 fold lower; N128 bound weakly; and 658C did not bind. Only N128 and N578 bound to smooth muscle myosin, both about 10-fold weaker than CDh and CDl. Only 606C and 658C bound to actin-tropomyosin with affinities CDh = 606C > 658C. The binding to actin-tropomyosin was biphasic, whereas the binding to actin was monophasic, corresponding to the weak binding component found in the presence of tropomyosin. Calmodulin bound only to the C-terminal fragments with the same affinity as CDh. CDh, 606C, and 658C inhibited actin-tropomyosin-activated myosin ATPase, with maximal inhibition correlated with 1 caldesmon bound/14 actins, and inhibition was reversed by Ca(2+)-calmodulin. Thus, the actomyosin ATPase regulatory function, calmodulin binding, and most actin binding is located within the C-terminal 99 amino acids, whereas tropomyosin binding is distributed throughout the rest of the molecule.