Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of a light chain of the chicken gizzard myosin molecule.

Chicken gizzard myosin was incubated with ATP and/or "native" tropomyosin (NTM) of gizzard muscle in the presence or absence of calcium ions. One of the two light chains of the myosin molecule was phosphorylated in the presence of Ca, but not in its absence. The phosphorylated gizzard myosin was dephosphorylated by a crude preparation of myosin light-chain phosphatase obtained from gizzard muscle. In a superprecipitation test in the presence of EGTA, actomyosin reconstituted from dephosphorylated gizzard myosin did not superprecipitate, whereas actomyosin reconstituted from phosphorylated gizzard myosin showed superprecipitation activity which was inhibited by skeletal NTM and reactivated by Ca.