Dataset Information

Myosin and tropomyosin stabilize the conformation of formin-nucleated actin filaments.

ABSTRACT: The conformational elasticity of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for its versatile biological functions. Increasing evidence supports that the interplay between the structural and functional properties of actin filaments is finely regulated by actin-binding proteins; however, the underlying mechanisms and biological consequences are not completely understood. Previous studies showed that the binding of formins to the barbed end induces conformational transitions in actin filaments by making them more flexible through long range allosteric interactions. These conformational changes are accompanied by altered functional properties of the filaments. To get insight into the conformational regulation of formin-nucleated actin structures, in the present work we investigated in detail how binding partners of formin-generated actin structures, myosin and tropomyosin, affect the conformation of the formin-nucleated actin filaments using fluorescence spectroscopic approaches. Time-dependent fluorescence anisotropy and temperature-dependent Förster-type resonance energy transfer measurements revealed that heavy meromyosin, similarly to tropomyosin, restores the formin-induced effects and stabilizes the conformation of actin filaments. The stabilizing effect of heavy meromyosin is cooperative. The kinetic analysis revealed that despite the qualitatively similar effects of heavy meromyosin and tropomyosin on the conformational dynamics of actin filaments the mechanisms of the conformational transition are different for the two proteins. Heavy meromyosin stabilizes the formin-nucleated actin filaments in an apparently single step reaction upon binding, whereas the stabilization by tropomyosin occurs after complex formation. These observations support the idea that actin-binding proteins are key elements of the molecular mechanisms that regulate the conformational and functional diversity of actin filaments in living cells.

SUBMITTER: Ujfalusi Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3442522 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Myosin and tropomyosin stabilize the conformation of formin-nucleated actin filaments.

Ujfalusi Zoltán Z Kovács Mihály M Nagy Nikolett T NT Barkó Szilvia S Hild Gábor G Lukács András A Nyitrai Miklós M Bugyi Beáta B

The Journal of biological chemistry 20120629 38

The conformational elasticity of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for its versatile biological functions. Increasing evidence supports that the interplay between the structural and functional properties of actin filaments is finely regulated by actin-binding proteins; however, the underlying mechanisms and biological consequences are not completely understood. Previous studies showed that the binding of formins to the barbed end induces conformational transitions in actin filaments by making ...[more]

PMID: 22753415

Similar Datasets

Project description:The motor protein myosin drives muscle and nonmuscle motility by binding to and moving along actin of thin filaments. Myosin binding to actin also modulates interactions of the regulatory protein, tropomyosin, on thin filaments, and conversely tropomyosin affects myosin binding to actin. Insight into this reciprocity will facilitate a molecular level elucidation of tropomyosin regulation of myosin interaction with actin in muscle contraction, and in turn, promote better understanding of nonmuscle cell motility. Indeed, experimental approaches such as fiber diffraction, cryoelectron microscopy, and three-dimensional reconstruction have long been used to define regulatory interaction of tropomyosin and myosin on actin at a structural level. However, their limited resolution has not proven sufficient to determine tropomyosin and myosin contacts at an atomic-level and thus to fully substantiate possible functional contributions. To overcome this deficiency, we have followed a hybrid approach by performing new cryogenic electron microscopy reconstruction of myosin-S1-decorated F-actin-tropomyosin together with atomic scale protein-protein docking of tropomyosin to the EM models. Here, cryo-EM data were derived from filaments reconstituted with α1-actin, cardiac αα-tropomyosin, and masseter muscle β-myosin complexes; masseter myosin, which shares sequence identity with β-cardiac myosin-heavy chain, was used because of its stability in vitro. The data were used to build an atomic model of the tropomyosin cable that fits onto the actin filament between the tip of the myosin head and a cleft on the innermost edge of actin subunits. The docking and atomic scale fitting showed multiple discrete interactions of myosin loop 4 and acidic residues on successive 39-42 residue-long tropomyosin pseudorepeats. The contacts between S1 and tropomyosin on actin appear to compete with and displace ones normally found between actin and tropomyosin on myosin-free thin filaments in relaxed muscle, thus restructuring the filament during myosin-induced activation.

Dataset Information

Myosin and tropomyosin stabilize the conformation of formin-nucleated actin filaments.

Publications

Myosin and tropomyosin stabilize the conformation of formin-nucleated actin filaments.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets