Chemomechanical Cycle Research Articles

Binding of ncd to microtubules induces a conformational change near the junction of the motor domain with the neck.

We have covalently attached an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spin probe to Cys-670 of the motor domain of ncd (nonclaret disjunctional protein) in order to investigate conformational changes associated with the chemomechanical cycle. Spin-labeling is highly specific and does not affect ncd function as monitored by either the binding affinity to microtubules or the rate of ATP hydrolysis. The EPR spectra can be deconvoluted into two components, one that is highly mobile with respect to the protein and one that is strongly immobilized. In the absence of microtubules, the relative proportions of these two components varied with temperature, showing that the transition between them involves a large change in enthalpy (DeltaH degrees = -75 kJ/mol). This result implies that the two populations represent very different protein conformations. Binding to microtubules results in virtually all probes shifting into the immobilized component, independent of the nucleotide bound. Superposition of the structures of ncd and myosin subfragment 1 reveals that the labeled cysteine is very close to the region which is homologous to the helix containing the two reactive sulfhydryls in myosin and is approximately 10 A from the junction of the motor domain with the remainder of the molecule. We conclude that the binding of ncd to microtubules results in a conformational change in this region which may be involved in the working power stroke.

Role of highly conserved lysine 130 of myosin motor domain. In vivo and in vitro characterization of site specifically mutated myosin.

We have created a mutant Dictyostelium myosin II heavy chain gene in which a highly conserved lysine residue (Lys-130) is changed to leucine. Lys-130 is a residue that is known to be trimethylated in skeletal muscle myosin and had been thought to play an integral role in the interaction of myosin with ATP during the actomyosin chemomechanical cycle. We report here the first in vivo and in vitro characterization of an engineered missense mutation in the motor domain of myosin. Expression of the K130L myosin in a Dictyostelium strain that lacks the myosin II heavy chain gene is sufficient to restore the ability of that cell line to undergo cytokinesis and multicellular development, processes that require functional myosin. The K130L myosin purified from these cells displays maximal actin-activated ATPase activities and promotes maximal sliding velocities of actin filaments in an in vitro motility assay that are comparable with those of wild-type myosin. These results demonstrate that this lysine residue is not required for the enzymatic or motile activities of myosin. However, the mutant protein exhibits a 4-fold increase in Km for ATP over wild-type myosin, indicating that this residue participates in the interaction of myosin with its nucleotide substrate.