Dataset Information

Macromolecular Crowding Modulates Actomyosin Kinetics.

ABSTRACT: Actomyosin kinetics is usually studied in dilute solutions, which do not reflect conditions in the cytoplasm. In cells, myosin and actin work in a dense macromolecular environment. High concentrations of macromolecules dramatically reduce the amount of free space available for all solutes, which results in an effective increase of the solutes' chemical potential and protein stabilization. Moreover, in a crowded solution, the chemical potential depends on the size of the solute, with larger molecules experiencing a larger excluded volume than smaller ones. Therefore, since myosin interacts with two ligands of different sizes (actin and ATP), macromolecular crowding can modulate the kinetics of individual steps of the actomyosin ATPase cycle. To emulate the effect of crowding in cells, we studied actomyosin cycle reactions in the presence of a high-molecular-weight polymer, Ficoll70. We observed an increase in the maximum velocity of the actomyosin ATPase cycle, and our transient-kinetics experiments showed that virtually all individual steps of the actomyosin cycle were affected by the addition of Ficoll70. The observed effects of macromolecular crowding on the myosin-ligand interaction cannot be explained by the increase of a solute's chemical potential. A time-resolved Förster resonance energy transfer experiment confirmed that the myosin head assumes a more compact conformation in the presence of Ficoll70 than in a dilute solution. We conclude that the crowding-induced myosin conformational change plays a major role in the changed kinetics of actomyosin ATPase.

SUBMITTER: Ge J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4944659 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Macromolecular Crowding Modulates Actomyosin Kinetics.

Ge Jinghua J Bouriyaphone Sherry D SD Serebrennikova Tamara A TA Astashkin Andrei V AV Nesmelov Yuri E YE

Biophysical journal 20160701 1

Actomyosin kinetics is usually studied in dilute solutions, which do not reflect conditions in the cytoplasm. In cells, myosin and actin work in a dense macromolecular environment. High concentrations of macromolecules dramatically reduce the amount of free space available for all solutes, which results in an effective increase of the solutes' chemical potential and protein stabilization. Moreover, in a crowded solution, the chemical potential depends on the size of the solute, with larger molec ...[more]

PMID: 27410745

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Project description:Many protein functions can be directly linked to conformational changes. Inside cells, the equilibria and transition rates between different conformations may be affected by macromolecular crowding. We have recently developed a new approach for modeling crowding effects, which enables an atomistic representation of "test" proteins. Here this approach is applied to study how crowding affects the equilibria and transition rates between open and closed conformations of seven proteins: yeast protein disulfide isomerase (yPDI), adenylate kinase (AdK), orotidine phosphate decarboxylase (ODCase), Trp repressor (TrpR), hemoglobin, DNA beta-glucosyltransferase, and Ap(4)A hydrolase. For each protein, molecular dynamics simulations of the open and closed states are separately run. Representative open and closed conformations are then used to calculate the crowding-induced changes in chemical potential for the two states. The difference in chemical-potential change between the two states finally predicts the effects of crowding on the population ratio of the two states. Crowding is found to reduce the open population to various extents. In the presence of crowders with a 15 A radius and occupying 35% of volume, the open-to-closed population ratios of yPDI, AdK, ODCase and TrpR are reduced by 79%, 78%, 62% and 55%, respectively. The reductions for the remaining three proteins are 20-44%. As expected, the four proteins experiencing the stronger crowding effects are those with larger conformational changes between open and closed states (e.g., as measured by the change in radius of gyration). Larger proteins also tend to experience stronger crowding effects than smaller ones [e.g., comparing yPDI (480 residues) and TrpR (98 residues)]. The potentials of mean force along the open-closed reaction coordinate of apo and ligand-bound ODCase are altered by crowding, suggesting that transition rates are also affected. These quantitative results and qualitative trends will serve as valuable guides for expected crowding effects on protein conformation changes inside cells.

Dataset Information

Macromolecular Crowding Modulates Actomyosin Kinetics.

Publications

Macromolecular Crowding Modulates Actomyosin Kinetics.

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