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Comparative analysis of widely used methods to remove nonfunctional myosin heads for the in vitro motility assay.

ABSTRACT: The in vitro motility assay allows studies of muscle contraction through observation of actin filament propulsion by surface-adsorbed myosin motors or motor fragments isolated from muscle. A possible problem is that motility may be compromised by nonfunctional, "dead", motors, obtained in the isolation process. Here we investigate the effects on motile function of two approaches designed to eliminate the effects of these dead motors. We first tested the removal of heavy meromyosin (HMM) molecules with ATP-insensitive "dead" heads by pelleting them with actin filaments, using ultracentrifugation in the presence of 1 mM MgATP ("affinity purification"). Alternatively we incubated motility assay flow cells, after HMM surface adsorption, with non-fluorescent "blocking actin" (1 µM) to block the dead heads. Both affinity purification and use of blocking actin increased the fraction of motile filaments compared to control conditions. However, affinity purification significantly reduced the actin sliding speed in five out of seven experiments on silanized surfaces and in one out of four experiments on nitrocellulose surfaces. Similar effects on velocity were not observed with the use of blocking actin. However, a reduced speed was also seen (without affinity purification) if HMM or myosin subfragment 1 was mixed with 1 mM MgATP before and during surface adsorption. We conclude that affinity purification can produce unexpected effects that may complicate the interpretation of in vitro motility assays and other experiments with surface adsorbed HMM, e.g. single molecule mechanics experiments. The presence of MgATP during incubation with myosin motor fragments is critical for the complicating effects.

SUBMITTER: Rahman MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6494787 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Comparative analysis of widely used methods to remove nonfunctional myosin heads for the in vitro motility assay.

Rahman Mohammad A MA Salhotra Aseem A Månsson Alf A

Journal of muscle research and cell motility 20181201 5-6

The in vitro motility assay allows studies of muscle contraction through observation of actin filament propulsion by surface-adsorbed myosin motors or motor fragments isolated from muscle. A possible problem is that motility may be compromised by nonfunctional, "dead", motors, obtained in the isolation process. Here we investigate the effects on motile function of two approaches designed to eliminate the effects of these dead motors. We first tested the removal of heavy meromyosin (HMM) molecule ...[more]

PMID: 30850933

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Project description:Cells require mechanical forces for their physiological functions. The forces are generated mainly from molecular interactions between actin filaments, cross-linking proteins, and myosin motors in the actin cytoskeleton. To better understand the molecular interactions, many studies employed myosin motility assays with actin filaments propelled by myosin heads fixed on a surface. Various interesting behaviors of actin filaments have been observed in the motility assay experiments. Despite the popularity of the motility assays, there were only a few computational models designed for simulating the motility assay systems. Most of the previous models have limitations which precluded full understanding of molecular origins for behaviors of actin filaments. In this study, we used an agent-based computational model based on Brownian dynamics for simulating the motility assay system. Our model rigorously describes the mechanics, dynamics, and interactions of actin filaments, cross-linking proteins, and molecular motors. Using the model, we first investigated how properties of actin filaments and motors affect gliding motions of actin filaments without volume-exclusion effects as a base study. We found that actin filaments can continuously glide at relative fast speed only when they are sufficiently longer than the average spacing between neighboring motors and that the gliding speed of F-actins shows a biphasic dependence on processivity of motors. Then, we showed that volume-exclusion effects between actin filaments can induce diverse collective movements and alignment of actin filaments, thus creating thick bundles and ring-like structures in the absence of cross-linking proteins. Lastly, we demonstrated that cross-linking proteins can lead to distinct contractile behaviors of actin networks depending on the density and kinetics of the cross-linking proteins. Results from our study show the ability of our model to simulate the motility assay system under various conditions and provide insights into understanding of different behaviors of actin filaments.

Dataset Information

Comparative analysis of widely used methods to remove nonfunctional myosin heads for the in vitro motility assay.

Publications

Comparative analysis of widely used methods to remove nonfunctional myosin heads for the in vitro motility assay.

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