Effect of Three Amino Acid Residues at the Carboxyl Terminus in Unacetylated ${\alpha}$-Tropomyosin on Actin Affinity

In order to determine the role of the carboxyl terminal amino acid residues of unacetylated ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin in actin affinity two mutant tropomyosins were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis. TM16 was identical to the striated tropomyosin except that three amino acids in the carboxyl terminal end were altered to $^{282}TNM^{284}$ while in TM17 $^{282}TSI^{284}$ of the striated was replaced with$^{282}NSM^{284}$. TM16 and TM17 were overproduced in Escherichia coli and analyzed for actin affinity by comparing actin affinities of the striated and TM11 $^{282}NNM^{284}$). The apparent binding constants (Kapp) of unacetylated tropomyosins to actin were $5.1{\times}10^4M^{-1}$ for the striated, $1.1{\times}10^5M^{-1}$ for TM11, $1.09{\times}10^5M^{-1}$ for TM16, and $1.03{\times}10^5M^{-1}$ for TM17, respectively. Since the actin affinities of TM11, TM16, and TM17 were very similar, this result suggested that amino acid residues 282 and 283 were insignificant for acting affinity of unacetylated $\alpha$-tropomyosin. However, they all exhibited higher actin affinities than that of the striated, suggesting that Met residue at the carboxyl terminus of unacetylated smooth tropomyosin was rather important for actin affinity, presumably due to the nucleophilic nature of sulfur atom in Met residue.