Direct visualization of myosin-binding protein C bridging myosin and actin filaments in intact muscle

Self Cite

148

207

Significance Myosin-binding protein C (MyBP-C) is a component of myosin filaments, one of the two sets of contractile elements whose relative sliding is the basis of muscle contraction. In the heart, MyBP-C modulates contractility in response to cardiac stimulation; mutations in MyBP-C lead to cardiac disease. The mechanism by which MyBP-C modulates cardiac contraction is not understood. Using electron microscopy and a light microscopic assay for filament sliding, we demonstrate that MyBP-C binds to the other set of filaments, containing actin and the regulatory component, tropomyosin. In so doing, it displaces tropomyosin from its inhibitory position to activate actin filament interaction with myosin, promoting filament sliding. These findings provide insights into the molecular basis of heart function.

supporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myosin-binding protein C displaces tropomyosin to activate cardiac thin filaments and governs their speed by an independent mechanism

Mun

Previs

et al. 2014

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148

207

“…The first-order myosin meridional reflection, M1, has the contribution of the MyBP-C, which is present in the C zone of the thick filament with an ∼43-nm periodicity (3,23). The second (M2), fourth (M4), and fifth orders (M5) are the so-called forbidden reflections associated with the perturbations of the helical symmetry of the myosin motors in the C-zone of the thick filament (24,25).…”

Section: Sl-tension Relationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myosin filament activation in the heart is tuned to the mechanical task

Reconditi

Caremani

Pinzauti

et al. 2017

130

147

The mammalian heart pumps blood through the vessels, maintaining the dynamic equilibrium in a circulatory system driven by two pumps in series. This vital function is based on the fine-tuning of cardiac performance by the Frank-Starling mechanism that relates the pressure exerted by the contracting ventricle (end systolic pressure) to its volume (end systolic volume). At the level of the sarcomere, the structural unit of the cardiac myocytes, the Frank-Starling mechanism consists of the increase in active force with the increase of sarcomere length (length-dependent activation). We combine sarcomere mechanics and micrometer-nanometer-scale X-ray diffraction from synchrotron light in intact ventricular trabeculae from the rat to measure the axial movement of the myosin motors during the diastole-systole cycle under sarcomere length control. We find that the number of myosin motors leaving the off, ATP hydrolysis-unavailable state characteristic of the diastole is adjusted to the sarcomere length-dependent systolic force. This mechanosensing-based regulation of the thick filament makes the energetic cost of the systole rapidly tuned to the mechanical task, revealing a prime aspect of the Frank-Starling mechanism. The regulation is putatively impaired by cardiomyopathycausing mutations that affect the intramolecular and intermolecular interactions controlling the off state of the motors. myosin filament mechanosensing | heart regulation | small-angle X-ray diffraction | cardiac muscle | Frank-Starling mechanism I n each sarcomere, the structural unit of the skeletal and cardiac muscles, myosin motors arranged in antiparallel arrays in the two halves of the thick myosin-containing filament work cooperatively, generating force and shortening by cyclic ATPdriven interactions with the interdigitating thin actin-containing filaments. The textbook model for the activation of contraction indicates that the binding to actin of myosin motors from the neighboring thick filament is controlled by a calcium-dependent structural change in the thin filament. However, in these muscles at rest, most of the myosin motors are in the off state and packed into helical tracks with 43-nm periodicity on the surface of the thick filaments (1-4), making them unavailable for binding to the thin filament and ATP hydrolysis (5, 6). Recent X-ray diffraction experiments on single fibers from skeletal muscle showed that, in addition to the canonical thin filament activation system, a thick filament mechanosensing mechanism provides a way for selective unlocking of myosin motors during high load contraction (7). This thick filament-based regulation has not yet been shown in cardiac muscle, in which several regulatory systems are significant. In contrast to skeletal muscle, during heart contraction, the internal concentration of Ca 2+ ([Ca 2+ ] i ) may not reach the full activation level, and thus, the mechanical response depends on both [Ca 2+ ] i and the sensitivity of the filaments to Ca 2+ (8, 9). For a given [Ca 2+ ] i , the maximal force i...

“…1A) (4,5). The C-terminal domain (C10) is tightly bound to the thick filament backbone, and the N-terminal domains extend radially from the thick filament (6,7). Thus cMyBP-C's N-terminal domains are positioned to bind to neighboring actin filaments and/or the myosin S2 domain to modulate actomyosin activity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphorylation and calcium antagonistically tune myosin-binding protein C’s structure and function

Previs

Mun

Michalek

et al. 2016

Self Cite

106

During each heartbeat, cardiac contractility results from calcium-activated sliding of actin thin filaments toward the centers of myosin thick filaments to shorten cellular length. Cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBP-C) is a component of the thick filament that appears to tune these mechanochemical interactions by its N-terminal domains transiently interacting with actin and/or the myosin S2 domain, sensitizing thin filaments to calcium and governing maximal sliding velocity. Both functional mechanisms are potentially further tunable by phosphorylation of an intrinsically disordered, extensible region of cMyBP-C’s N terminus, the M-domain. Using atomic force spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and mutant protein expression, we demonstrate that phosphorylation reduced the M-domain’s extensibility and shifted the conformation of the N-terminal domain from an extended structure to a compact configuration. In combination with motility assay data, these structural effects of M-domain phosphorylation suggest a mechanism for diminishing the functional potency of individual cMyBP-C molecules. Interestingly, we found that calcium levels necessary to maximally activate the thin filament mitigated the structural effects of phosphorylation by increasing M-domain extensibility and shifting the phosphorylated N-terminal fragments back to the extended state, as if unphosphorylated. Functionally, the addition of calcium to the motility assays ablated the impact of phosphorylation on maximal sliding velocities, fully restoring cMyBP-C’s inhibitory capacity. We conclude that M-domain phosphorylation may have its greatest effect on tuning cMyBP-C’s calcium-sensitization of thin filaments at the low calcium levels between contractions. Importantly, calcium levels at the peak of contraction would allow cMyBP-C to remain a potent contractile modulator, regardless of cMyBP-C’s phosphorylation state.