Metal cation controls myosin and actomyosin kinetics.

We have perturbed myosin nucleotide binding site with magnesium-, manganese-, or calcium-nucleotide complexes, using metal cation as a probe to examine the pathways of myosin ATPase in the presence of actin. We have used transient time-resolved FRET, myosin intrinsic fluorescence, fluorescence of pyrene labeled actin, combined with the steady state myosin ATPase activity measurements of previously characterized D.discoideum myosin construct A639C:K498C. We found that actin activation of myosin ATPase does not depend on metal cation, regardless of the cation-specific kinetics of nucleotide binding and dissociation. The rate limiting step of myosin ATPase depends on the metal cation. The rate of the recovery stroke and the reverse recovery stroke is directly proportional to the ionic radius of the cation. The rate of nucleotide release from myosin and actomyosin, and ATP binding to actomyosin depends on the cation coordination number.

Structural kinetics of myosin by transient time-resolved FRET.

For many proteins, especially for molecular motors and other enzymes, the functional mechanisms remain unsolved due to a gap between static structural data and kinetics. We have filled this gap by detecting structure and kinetics simultaneously. This structural kinetics experiment is made possible by a new technique, (TR)(2)FRET (transient time-resolved FRET), which resolves protein structural states on the submillisecond timescale during the transient phase of a biochemical reaction. (TR)(2)FRET is accomplished with a fluorescence instrument that uses a pulsed laser and direct waveform recording to acquire an accurate subnanosecond time-resolved fluorescence decay every 0.1 ms after stopped flow. To apply this method to myosin, we labeled the force-generating region site specifically with two probes, mixed rapidly with ATP to initiate the recovery stroke, and measured the interprobe distance by (TR)(2)FRET with high resolution in both space and time. We found that the relay helix bends during the recovery stroke, most of which occurs before ATP is hydrolyzed, and two structural states (relay helix straight and bent) are resolved in each nucleotide-bound biochemical state. Thus the structural transition of the force-generating region of myosin is only loosely coupled to the ATPase reaction, with conformational selection driving the motor mechanism.

Structural dynamics of the myosin relay helix by time-resolved EPR and FRET.

We have used two complementary time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, dipolar electron-electron resonance and fluorescence resonance energy transfer to determine conformational changes in a single structural element of the myosin motor domain, the relay helix, before and after the recovery stroke. Two double-Cys mutants were labeled with optical probes or spin labels, and interprobe distances were determined. Both methods resolved two distinct structural states of myosin, corresponding to straight and bent conformations of the relay helix. The bent state was occupied only upon nucleotide addition, indicating that relay helix, like the entire myosin head, bends in the recovery stroke. However, saturation of myosin with nucleotide, producing a single biochemical state, did not produce a single structural state. Both straight and bent structural states of the relay helix were occupied when either ATP (ADP.BeF(x)) or ADP.P(i) (ADP.AlF(4)) analogs were bound at the active site. A greater population was found in the bent structural state when the posthydrolysis analog ADP.AlF(4) was bound. We conclude that the bending of the relay helix in the recovery stroke does not require ATP hydrolysis but is favored by it. A narrower interprobe distance distribution shows ordering of the relay helix, despite its bending, during the recovery stroke, providing further insight into the dynamics of this energy-transducing structural transition.

SERCA structural dynamics induced by ATP and calcium.

We have used time-resolved phosphorescence anisotropy (TPA) to probe rotational dynamics of the rabbit skeletal sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase (SERCA), to test the hypothesis, generated from X-ray crystallography, that large-scale structural changes are induced by Ca in this system. Previous TPA studies on SERCA used primarily erythrosin 5'-isothiocyanate (ErITC), which binds to the nucleotide-binding domain and inactivates the enzyme. To investigate rotational dynamics of the active enzyme, we labeled SERCA with erythrosin 5'-iodoacetamide, which binds to the phosphorylation domain and has a minimal effect on the calcium-dependent ATPase activity. In the absence of nucleotide and the presence of calcium, TPA results were similar to those observed previously with ErITC, consistent with the global uniaxial rotation of SERCA monomers and oligomers and small amplitude internal protein dynamics. The removal of Ca had only a slight effect, while the addition of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) increased the amplitude of internal dynamics and changed the probe's orientation, corresponding to tilting of the phosphorylation domain by at least 20 degrees . Ca partially reversed the ATP effects. A nonhydrolyzable ATP analogue had the same effects as ATP, showing that the observed changes were not dependent on active ion transport. Computational analysis indicates that these ligands affect primarily the internal dynamics of the enzyme, with negligible effects on global dynamics and enzyme association. Melittin, which has been shown to aggregate and inhibit SERCA, eliminated the nucleotide-induced internal dynamics and increased the final anisotropy. We propose that (i) the large Ca-dependent structural changes suggested by SERCA crystallography are more dependent on ATP than on Ca and (ii) aggregation-induced inhibition of SERCA is due to the functional coupling between global and internal protein dynamics.

Direct detection of phospholamban and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase interaction in membranes using fluorescence resonance energy transfer.

We used fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to detect and quantitate the interaction of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase (SERCA) with phospholamban (PLB) in membranes. PLB inhibits SERCA only at submicromolar Ca. It has been proposed that relief of inhibition at micromolar Ca is due to dissociation of the inhibitory complex. To test this hypothesis, we co-reconstituted donor-labeled SERCA and acceptor-labeled I40A-PLB (superinhibitory, monomeric PLB mutant) in membranes of defined lipid and protein composition, with full retention of Ca-dependent ATPase activity and inhibitory regulation by PLB. FRET from SERCA to PLB was measured as a function of membrane concentrations of PLB and SERCA, and functional activity was measured on the same samples. The data revealed clearly that the stoichiometry of binding is one PLB per SERCA, and that binding is a strict function of the ratio of total PLB to SERCA in the membrane. We conclude that the dissociation constant of PLB binding to SERCA is far less than physiological PLB membrane concentrations. Binding at low Ca (pCa 6.5), where I40A-PLB inhibits SERCA, was virtually identical to that at high Ca (pCa 5.0), where no inhibition was observed. However, the limiting energy transfer at saturating PLB was less at high Ca, indicating a greater donor-acceptor distance. We conclude that (a) the affinity of PLB for SERCA is so great that PLB is essentially a SERCA subunit under physiological conditions and (b) relief of inhibition at micromolar Ca is due to a structural rearrangement within the SERCA-PLB complex, rather than dissociation.