Transcript document
Lecture 2
Muscle, myosin
Outline:
Brief overview of a long history
Sarcomere structure and function
Myosin
Regulation of contraction
Paper: A large protein required for sarcomere
stability in flight muscle
A brief history
1660
muscle dissected into fibers
1682
striations seen in skeletal muscle fibers
1700-1900
metabolism – lactic acid, heat production
1864
1st muscle prep – actomyosin – salt extraction of tissue
1939
ATPase activity of actomyosin demonstrated
1943
actin and myosin separated
– different viscosity properties
1950s
EM, X-ray diffraction structural studies
1954
sliding filament model proposed (H. Huxley)
striated muscle
multinucleate
cells
10-100 mm thick
up to 40 mm long
light micrograph
EM:
Sarcomere = contractile unit
banding pattern due to partial overlap of two types of filaments
thick filaments = myosin
thin filaments = actin
EM cross section:
hexagonal lattice
of thin filaments
surrounding
thick filaments
Question: How does muscle contract?
Sliding Filament Model:
thick and thin filaments slide past one another
Evidence:
1) EM of sarcomeres at different stages during contractile process
shows decreased width of banding pattern
2) both filament systems maintain constant length, region of
overlap increases
relaxed
contracted
How does sliding of filaments occur?
1960s Higher resolution EM - cross bridges, individual filaments
myosin thick filaments: bipolar
actin thin filaments: uniform polarity
barbed (+) ends
barbed (+) ends
pointed (-) ends
model by ~1970
molecular details still controversial
1980s-present reductionist approach
in vitro reconstitutions: simplifed motility assays
X-ray crystallography and EM reconstructions
single molecule measurements
primitive contractility assay
superprecipitation: combine actomyosin with ATP in
beaker, see what happens
modern motility assay
1) Adsorb myosin molecules on glass coverslip in chamber
2) Perfuse in rhodamine-labeled actin filaments and ATP
3) Observe by fluorescence video microscopy
-
+
+
muscle myosin ~4.5 mm/sec
Myosin - the most studied of all proteins (!?)
large family of myosin-related proteins ~14 in human
common features:
one or two heavy chains and several light chains
heavy chain:
1) large globular head:
contains actin-binding and ATPase domains
2) a-helical neck region - binds light chains
3) tail domain - for oligomerization or cargo binding
light chains:
1) calcium-binding proteins, sometimes calmodulin
2) regulate myosin activity
myosin II
vesicles,
organelles
muscle,
stress
fibers
vesicles,
organelles
Myosin II mechanism
ATPase activity stimulated by actin:
from 4/hour to 20/second
ATP binding, hydrolysis and dissociation of ADP-Pi
produce a series of allosteric changes in myosin conformation
Energy release is coupled to movement
cross bridge
cycle
Myosin II crystal structure (S1 fragment)
neck domain = lever arm
superimpose
structures in
two different
nucleotide
states
catalytic
head
Other evidence for lever arm model
Spudich lab (1996):
replace endogenous Dicteostelium myosin II gene with
neck domain mutants - longer or shorter
purify and measure velocity in motility assay
velocity = step size/time bound to actin
light chain
binding sites
WT (2)
1
0
3
motility assay
4
velocity 3
mm/sec
2
1
0
1
2
# of light chains
3
Current Issues/Questions
How is the large conformational change of lever arm generated
during phosphate release?
How many steps are taken per ATP hydrolyzed?
What is the step size?
Approaches: single molecule assays, optical traps and
high resolution fluorescence analyses
Regulation of muscle contraction
motor nerve action potential
muscle cell plasma membrane depolarized
T-tubules (invaginations) carry signal throughout myofibril
sarcoplasmic reticulum releases calcium
contraction occurs
calcium pumped back in
over in 30 milliseconds
Striated muscle: Calcium regulation of contraction
occurs through thin filament
accessory proteins: tropomyosin and troponin
when calcium binds troponin, tropomyosin shifts to allow
actin-myosin interaction
Variations:
Smooth muscle
gut - slower, sustained contractions
less ordered myofibrils - no striations
less extensive sarcoplasmic reticulum
regulation through thin filament dependent on caldesmon
regulation also through myosin, still calcium dependent:
change in light chain conformation
phosphorylation of light chain by MLCK
Maintenance of sarcomere structure
Why are thick and thin filaments of fixed length?
actin capping proteins: Tropomodulin, Cap Z
What gives muscle its elasticity?
stretch muscle beyond overlap of thick and thin filaments
and it resumes resting length when released
Giant Muscle Proteins
Titin: 3rd most abundant muscle protein
M.W. 2,700,000! 25k amino acids.
extends from Z-disk to M-line
Ig and fibronectin-like domains
“super repeats” - myosin binding sites
PEVK domains - elastic?
Nebulin: M.W. 800,000
helical, wrapped around thin filament
repeats that bind actin
nebulin length correlates with thin filament length
Titin and Nebulin are thought to provide compliance to muscle,
and may serve as sarcomere “rulers” determining the length of
thick and thin filaments
Dystrophin:
M.W. 400,000
largest gene - 2 megabases
links actin to p. membrane
mutation muscular dystrophy