Experiments on the Modification of Myosin Nucleosidetriphosphatase^*

Abstract

In the sense that they activate the 25" Ca*+-adenosine-5'-triphosphatase, inhibit the 25" Ca*+inosine-5'-triphosphatase, and inhibit the 0' activity of both nucleosidetriphosphatases, dioxane and hydrogen peroxide are true "modifiers" of myosin nucleosidetriphosphatase. Modification by peroxide, as by p-mercuribenzoate, clearly involves reaction of certain myosin sulfhydryl groups, but no compelling evidence for sulfhydryl involvement was found in modification by dioxane, and there was found some direct evidence against sulfhydryl involvement in modification by 2,Cdinitrophenol. On the other hand, the groups on the myosin molecule directly responsible for either activating or inhibiting phases of "modification" are probably the same for all modifiers. This hypothesis, expressed quantitatively in a stochastic model, was afbmatively tested in the case of p-mercuribenzoate and 2,4-dinitrophenol. It was found incidentally that histidine protects against modification which involves oxidation because histidine itself is easily oxidized in a reaction involving its amino group.We are concerned in this paper with interpreting experiments in which the nucleosidetriphosphatase activity of CaZ+-myosin is modified by various reagents. Such an objective presumes that the activity of unmodified enzyme is understood, and this is not really the case. However, as a result of the work of many laboratories, there is a hypothesis about unmodified and modified myosin catalysis into which many observations seem to fit, and it is useful to state this hypothesis at the outset and in some degree to justify it a posteriori.A Hypothesis about Myosin Nucleosidetriphosphatase. -In most experiments with substrate-saturated and Ca*+-saturated myosin, the substrate is ATP, the temperature is ea. 25', and the p H is near neutral. These conditions have come to define the "normal" or reference behavior of the enzyme, and one can discuss consequences of changing conditions; for example, at 25" a partial titration of the sulfhydryl content activates ATPase and inhibits ITPase,' but at 0" the same titration inhibits both. We (see Gilmour, 1960;Morales and Hotta, 1960) have felt it helpful to focus on more general properties of the enzyme and of the reagents which affect it. In our terms, the crucial properties of myosin catalysis are as follows (see also Figs. 1 and 2).

Effect of lysine methylation and other ATPase modulators on the active site of myosin subfragment 1.

“…White and Rayment (3) have reported that such methylation markedly increases the Mg2+-ATPase activity of S-1, in a manner kinetically similar to that produced by attaching a bulky group to Cys-707 (4,5). Do the seemingly disparate modulations such as those induced by generalized lysine methylation, modification of Cys-707, transition from pH 7.5 to 9.2, and many other agencies (6, 7) share a common feature with one another and perhaps with F-actin binding? Here we have studied three intentionally disparate modulations-methylation, alkylation of Cys-707, and the pH transition.…”

Some Physical Studies of the Contractile Mechanism in Muscle

“…What actually happens in modification? Several authors (166)(167)(168) found that modification of Ca 2 + ATPase can also be produced by moderate con centrations of organic solvents. It was found (169, 170) that modification could be sensed by an accompanying increase in fluorescence intensity of ANS bound to myosin, or by a decrease in energy transferred to ANS by a vicinal Trp.…”

Tryptic digestion as a probe of myosin S-1 conformation.

“…Because the binding ofactin, ATP, and other polyphosphates to the myosin head is known to produce conformational changes at identifiable sites (6-10) and because conformational changes induced elsewhere by putting bulky substitutes at SH1 (11) or by organic solvents (12,13) produce changes at the ATPase site, we decided to study whether these conformational changes extend to the newly described 2500-Dal hinge region. In this paper we present evidence that ATP and its derivatives and various reaction conditions affect the conformation ofthe 2500-Dal hinge region.…”