Contractile proteins from the tomato

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryanne Vahey ◽  
Stylianos P. Scordilis

Proteins exhibiting all of the basic structural and biochemical characteristics of actin and myosin have been isolated from the parenchymal cells of the fruit of the tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum. Crude cytoplasmic extracts of these cells contain filaments that can be decorated by rabbit skeletal muscle myosin subfragment-1 (S-1). Polymerized tomato actin activates the Mg2+–ATPase of both skeletal and tomato myosin at physiological ionic strength. Tomato actin comigrates with skeletal actin on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels (SDS-PAGE) indicating an apparent molecular weight of 45 000. High ionic strength extracts of tomato contain a myosin whose ATPase activity in 0.5 M KCl is maximal in the presence of K+-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (K+-EDTA) and is inhibited by Mg2+. Tomato myosin interacts with skeletal F-actin to form an actomyosin complex that can be dissociated by ATP. At low ionic strength the Mg2+–ATPase of the myosin can be activated by actin.

1975 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
R C Bottomley ◽  
I P Trayer

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.


1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 905-915
Author(s):  
M. Egídia Carvalho ◽  
M. Helena Gonçalves ◽  
M. T. Silva

The lytic effect of lysozyme on Streptococcus faecalis ATCC 9790 was studied by spectrophotometry and electron microscopy and it was found to be highly dependent on the ionic strength of the suspending media and on the ratio lysozyme to bacterial cell mass. When 7.2 × 108 bacteria/mL are exposed to 0.4 mg/mL of lysozyme in media with low ionic strength, the enzyme is bound in great amounts, as deduced from protein determinations and sodium dodecyl sulfate – polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE); the binding prevents bacteriolysis in spite of the removal of the cell wall. Extensive lysis of S. faecalis could be obtained by reducing the ratio of lysozyme to bacterial cell mass. Stabilization of S. faecalis by lysozyme was also observed when exponential phase cells incubated under conditions that promote spontaneous autolysis (incubation in 0.05 M tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane buffer, pH 8.0, ionic strength = 0.01675) do not lyse and do not leak material which absorbs at 260 nm when lysozyme was present at the highest concentration.


1989 ◽  
Vol 258 (3) ◽  
pp. 831-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
D H Heeley ◽  
L B Smillie ◽  
E M Lohmeier-Vogel

The role of the overlap region at the ends of tropomyosin molecules in the properties of regulated thin filaments has been investigated by substituting nonpolymerizable tropomyosin for tropomyosin in a reconstituted troponin-tropomyosin-actomyosin subfragment 1 ATPase assay system. A previous study [Heeley, Golosinka & Smillie (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 9971-9978] has shown that at an ionic strength of 70 mM, troponin will induce full binding of nonpolymerizable tropomyosin to F-actin both in the presence and absence of calcium. At a myosin subfragment 1-to-actin ratio of 2:1 ([actin] = 4 microM) and an ionic strength of 50 mM, comparable levels of ATPase inhibition were observed with increasing levels of tropomyosin or the truncated derivative in the presence of troponin (-Ca2+). Large differences were noted, however, in the activation by Ca2+. Significantly lower ATPase activities were observed with nonpolymerizable tropomyosin and troponin (+Ca2+) over a range of subfragment 1-to-actin ratios from 0.25 to 2.5. The concentration of subfragment 1 required to generate ATPase activities exceeding those seen with actomyosin subfragment 1 alone under these conditions was 3-4-fold greater when nonpolymerizable tropomyosin was used. Similar effects were seen at the much lower ionic strength of 13 mM and are consistent with the reduced ATPase activity with nonpolymerizable tropomyosin observed previously [Walsh, Trueblood, Evans & Weber (1985) J. Mol. Biol. 182, 265-269] at low ionic strength and a subfragment 1-to-actin ratio of 1:100. Little cooperativity in activity as a function of subfragment 1 concentration with either intact tropomyosin or its truncated derivative was observed under the present conditions. Further studies are directed towards an understanding of these effects in terms of the two-state binding model for the attachment of myosin heads to regulated thin filaments.


1997 ◽  
Vol 321 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawel T. SZYMANSKI ◽  
Zenon GRABAREK ◽  
Terence TAO

Calponin is a thin-filament-associated protein that has been implicated in the regulation of smooth-muscle contractility. It binds to F-actin and inhibits the MgATPase activity of actomyosin. In the present work we have examined the effect of recombinant chicken gizzard α-calponin (RαCaP) on the binding of rabbit skeletal-muscle myosin subfragment 1 (S1) to F-actin and on the inhibition of its actin-activated MgATPase. We have found that binding of one RαCaP molecule to every three to four actin monomers is sufficient for maximal inhibition of actoŐS1 ATPase. At this RαCaP/actin ratio RαCaP does not interfere with S1 binding to F-actin. At higher concentrations, RαCaP displaces S1 from F-actin and a 1:1 RαCaPŐactin monomer complex is formed. RαCaP is also able to displace troponin I from its complex with F-actin which may reflect the amino acid sequence similarity between RαCaP and troponin I in their actin-binding regions.


1983 ◽  
Vol 96 (6) ◽  
pp. 1761-1765 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Vahey

Tomato activation inhibiting protein (AIP) is a molecule of an apparent molecular weight of 72,000 that co-purifies with tomato actin. In an assay system containing rabbit skeletal muscle F-actin and rabbit skeletal muscle myosin subfragment-1 (myosin S-1), tomato AIP dissociated the acto-S-1 complex in the absence of Mg+2ATP and inhibited the ability of F-actin to activate the low ionic strength Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1. At a molar ratio of 5 actin to 1 AIP, a 50% inhibition of the actin-activated Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1 was observed. The inhibition can be reversed by raising the calcium ion concentration to 1 X 10(-5) M. The AIP had no effect on the basal low ionic strength Mg+2ATPase activity of myosin S-1 in the absence of actin. The protein did not bind directly to actin nor did it cause depolymerization or aggregation of F-actin but appeared, instead, to interact with the actin binding site on myosin S-1. Since AIP is a potent, reversible inhibitor of the rabbit acto-S-1 ATPase activity, it is postulated that it may be responsible for the low levels of actin activation exhibited by tomato F-actin fractions containing the AIP.


Biochemistry ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (21) ◽  
pp. 4885-4889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Chalovich ◽  
Leonard A. Stein ◽  
Lois E. Greene ◽  
Evan Eisenberg

1985 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-117
Author(s):  
H. Harris ◽  
S.E. Zalik

Embryos of the frog Xenopus laevis at cleavage, blastula, gastrula and neurula stages contain a galactose-specific lectin. Extracts of gastrula embryos show the highest specific activity for this lectin compared to the other stages. Haemagglutinating activity of crude extracts is inhibited by lactose, alpha-galactose, beta-galactose, alpha Gal(1----4) beta Gal, beta Gal(1----3) alpha GalNAc, beta Gal(1----3) beta GlcNAc, beta Gal (1----4) beta GlcNAc, and most effectively by the disaccharide alpha Gal(1----3) beta Gal. Lectin from all stages was purified by absorption to galactose-linked immunoadsorbent or by affinity chromatography on a column of p-aminophenyl-beta-D-lactoside coupled to Sepharose 4B. In order to identify a single lectin band under reducing conditions in sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide electrophoresis SDS/PAGE, it was necessary to treat aqueous suspensions of the purified lectin with chloroform/methanol (2:1, v/v). The lectin remained in the aqueous layer and gave rise on SDS/PAGE to a distinct band of 65 500 +/− 2780 molecular weight. Aqueous suspensions of the purified lectin that were not subjected to extraction with chloroform/methanol gave rise to several bands. Isoelectric focussing of the purified lectin resulted in two bands that separated at pI 4.3 and 4.5. In aqueous solution in the presence of lactose the chloroform/methanol-treated lectin appears to be an aggregate of apparent molecular weight of 375 000; the non-treated lectin under the same conditions has an apparent molecular weight of 490 000.


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