Cooperative interactions between the contractile proteins of cardiac and skeletal muscle

Abstract

The calcium activation of the ATPase (ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3) activity of cardiac actomyosin reconstituted from bovine cardiac myosin and a complex of actin-tropomyosin-troponin extracted from bovine cardiac muscle at 37°C was studied and compared with similar proteins from rabbit fast skeletal muscle. The proteins of the actin complex were identified by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate. Half-maximal activation of the cardiac actomyosin was seen at a calcium concentration of 1.2 ± 0.002 (S.E. of mean) μM. A hybridized reconstituted actomyosin made with cardiac myosin and the actin-tropomyosin-troponin complex extracted from rabbit skeletal muscle was also activated by calcium but the half-maximal value was shifted to 0.65 ± 0.02 (S.E. of mean) μM Ca 2+. Homologous rabbit skeletal actomyosin showed half-maximal activation at 0.90 ± 0.01 (S.E. of mean) μM Ca 2+ and the value for a hybridized actomyosin made with rabbit skeletal myosin and the actin-complex from cardiac muscle was found at 1.4 ± 0.03 (S.E. of mean) μM Ca 2+ concentration. Kinetic analysis of the Ca 2+-activated ATPase activity of reconstituted bovine cardiac actomyosin indicated some degree of cooperativity with respect to calcium. Double reciprocal plots of reconstituted actomyosins made with bovine cardiac actin complex were curvilinear and significantly different than those of reconstituted actomyosins made with the rabbit fast skeletal actin complex. The Ca 2+-dependent cooperativity was of a mixed type as determined from Hill plots for homologous reconstituted bovine cardiac and rabbit fast skeletal actomyosin. The results show that cooperative interactions in reconstituted actomyosins were greater when the actin-tropomyosin-troponin complex was derived from cardiac than skeletal muscle.