• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.531-536
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• 2000

Tropomyosin (TM) is an important actin binding protein involved in regulation of muscle contraction. Unacetylated striated tropomyosin failed to bind to actin whereas unacetylated smooth tropomyosin bound well to actin. It has been demonstrated that high actin affinity of unacetylated ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$ was ascribed to the carboxyl terminal amino acid residues. In order to define the role of the carboxyl terminal residues of tropomyosin molecule on actin binding, two mutant tropomyosins were constructed. TM11 is identical to the striated tropomyosin except that the carboxyl terminal last three amino acids was replaced with $^{282}NNM^{284}$ whereas in TM14 $^{276}HA^{277}$ was substituted with smooth specific $^{276}QT^{277}$. TM11 and TM14 were overproduced in Escherichia coli and analyzed for actin affinity. The apparent binding constants (Kapp) of unacetylated tropomyosins were $2.2{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for sm9, $1.03{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for TM14, $0.19{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for TM11, $>0.1{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for striated, respectively. This result indicated that higher actin affinity of the unacetylated smooth tropomyosin was primarily attributed to the presence of QT residues in the smooth sequence. In case of the Ala-Ser (AS) dipeptide extension of the amino terminus of tropomyosin, Kapp were $21.1{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-sm9, $8.0{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-11, $4.7{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-14, $3.8{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-striated. AS-TM11 showed considerably higher actin affinity than AS-TM14, implying that interaction of Ala-Ser of the amino terminus with the carboxyl terminal residues. Since Kapp of AS-TM11 was significantly lower than that of AS-sm9, the presence of QT might be required for restoration of high actin affinity of the smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$. These results suggested that the carboxyl terminal amino acid residues Glutamine275-Threonine276 are important for actin affinity of the recombinant smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$, particularly of unacetylated smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.8
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• pp.73-73
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• 2004

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.2 s.82
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• pp.204-210
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• 2007

Previous reports indicated that the carboxyl terminal residues, glutamine276-threonine277 in particular, were important for actin affinity of the unacetylated smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$. To determine the role of the glutamine and threonine residues in C-terminal region in actin binding, we constructed mutant striated muscle ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$ (TMs), in which these two residues were individually substituted. These mutant tropomyosins, designated TM18 (HT) and TM19 (QA), were overexpressed in E. coli as an either unacetylated form or Ala-Ser. (AS) dipeptide fusion form, and were analyzed F-actin affinity by cosedimentation. Unacetylated TM19 (QA) bound to actin approximately three times stronger than TM18 (HT) and much stronger than ST (HA). AS/TM19 (QA) showed four times stronger, in actin affinity than AS/ST (HA) while AS/TM14 (QT) bound to actin stronger to some extent than AS/TM18 (HT). These results suggested that the presence of Gln residue at 276 be primarily attributed to higher actin affinity of smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.770-777
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• 2004

It has been previously reported that unacetylated a-tropomyosin(TM) produced in E. coli failed to bind to actin while acetylated muscle TM and Ala-Ser dipeptide fusion TM (AS-TM) bound well to actin. In order to determine the structural requirement of the amino terminus for high actin affinity, a recombinant tropomyosin (Ala-TM) that a single Ala residue was added to the amino terminus of Ala-TM was constructed, overexpressed, and purified from E. coli. Actin affinity of Ala-TM was 2.3$\times$$10^{6}$$M^{-1}$, whereas that of unacetylated TM was considerably lower than 0.1$\times$$10^{-6}$$M^{-1}$ indicating that addition of a single Ala residue to the amino terminus drastically increased, at least twenty times, actin affinity of TM. Ala-TM, however, bound to actin about three times weaker than acetylated TM and AS- TM, implying that the addition of an Ala residue was insufficient for complete restoration of high actin affinity. While Ala-TM, AS-TM, and muscle TM showed inhibition and activation of actomyosin Sl ATPase activity depending on myosin Sl concentration, the degree of inhibition and activation was different from each other. AS-TM exhibited the greatest inhibition of the ATPase at low Sl concentration, whereas the greatest activation of the ATPase was observed with muscle TM. These results, together with previous findings, strongly suggested that local structure of the amino terminus is the crucial functional determinant of TM.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.573-580
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• 2009

It has been previously reported that the carboxyl terminal residues 276 and 277 of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin are important for actin affinity. In order to investigate actin affinities of these two residues of skeletal (HA) and smooth (QT) muscle ${\alpha}$-tropomyosins, a series of mutant tropomyosins were constructed in which residues at either 276 or 277 were individually replaced with a cysteine residue for chemical modification. These mutants were overexpressed in E. coli as unacetylated and Ala-Ser (AS) dipeptide fusion forms. While actin affinities of unacetylated tropomyosins were considerably low, those of AS/TMs were remarkably higher than those of corresponding unacetylated tropomyosins. However, actin affinities of AS/TM24 (QC) and AS/TM29 (HC) were dramatically lower than those of other AS/TMs and were close to those of unacetylated tropomyosins. In addition, actin affinities of unacetylated TM24 (QC) and TM29 (HC) failed to be restored in the presence of troponin, unlike unacetylated TM10 (HA) and TM23 (CA). These results indicated that the presence of a cysteine residue at 277 caused a drastic decrease in actin affinity, and also that the residue 277 is important for actin affinity of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin. Since TM23 (CA) showed high actin affinity, it may serve as a valuable tool for chemical modification studies for investigating the interaction of the carboxyl terminal residues of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin with actin and/or troponin.